Taliban restart secret talks with Afghanistan in Qatar: report

[Devil Soul]

Taliban restart secret talks with Afghanistan in Qatar: report
Home / World / Taliban restart secret talks with Afghanistan in Qatar: report
By REUTERS
October 18, 2016
Latest : World

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DOHA: The Taliban and the Afghan government restarted secret peace talks in September and have held two rounds of discussions in Qatar, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported on Tuesday, citing anonymous sources.

Citing a Taliban official, the Guardian said a senior American diplomat was present at the meetings in Qatar, where the Islamist group has a diplomatic office.

The newspaper said the talks were attended also by Mullah Abdul Manan, the brother of Afghan Taliban founder, Mullah Mohammad Omar, who died in 2013.

Officials in Kabul could not be immediately reached for comment.

Previous Pakistan-brokered peace talks yielded little progress and ground to a complete halt when the United States killed former Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour in a drone strike in Pakistan in May.

Under new Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada fighting has raged across Afghanistan during the summer months, with the Taliban attacking the northern city of Kunduz and threatening Helmand's provincial capital Lashkar Gah.

No Pakistani official took part in the latest talks, according to the Guardian.

Relations between the governments in Kabul and Islamabad have deteriorated over the past year, with Afghanistan and the United States alleging Pakistan harbors the Taliban and was not doing enough to bring the group to the negotiating table.

Pakistan denies providing the Taliban a safe haven.

The Taliban have gathered strength over the past two years, carrying out major attacks in Kabul and taking over swaths of territory for the first time since being ousted during the 2001 U.S.-led military intervention.

The United States has continued to provide air power and other military support to Kabul, preventing the Taliban from making more ground.

 

[!eon]

@A-Team I think REUTERS lying.

 

[Kambojaric]

Good if they can come to terms so their country and the wider region can enjoy some peace. The Taliban will insist on foreign troops and planes leaving though, and the government is unlikely to survive militarily without foreign support if things get violent again. So remains to be seen how this issue will be resolved.

 

[A-Team]

Taliban restart secret talks with Afghanistan in Qatar: report
Home / World / Taliban restart secret talks with Afghanistan in Qatar: report
By REUTERS
October 18, 2016
Latest : World

• 0
• 0

DOHA: The Taliban and the Afghan government restarted secret peace talks in September and have held two rounds of discussions in Qatar, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported on Tuesday, citing anonymous sources.

Citing a Taliban official, the Guardian said a senior American diplomat was present at the meetings in Qatar, where the Islamist group has a diplomatic office.

The newspaper said the talks were attended also by Mullah Abdul Manan, the brother of Afghan Taliban founder, Mullah Mohammad Omar, who died in 2013.

Officials in Kabul could not be immediately reached for comment.

Previous Pakistan-brokered peace talks yielded little progress and ground to a complete halt when the United States killed former Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour in a drone strike in Pakistan in May.

Under new Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada fighting has raged across Afghanistan during the summer months, with the Taliban attacking the northern city of Kunduz and threatening Helmand's provincial capital Lashkar Gah.

No Pakistani official took part in the latest talks, according to the Guardian.

Relations between the governments in Kabul and Islamabad have deteriorated over the past year, with Afghanistan and the United States alleging Pakistan harbors the Taliban and was not doing enough to bring the group to the negotiating table.

Pakistan denies providing the Taliban a safe haven.

The Taliban have gathered strength over the past two years, carrying out major attacks in Kabul and taking over swaths of territory for the first time since being ousted during the 2001 U.S.-led military intervention.

The United States has continued to provide air power and other military support to Kabul, preventing the Taliban from making more ground.

Just a waste of time while the Burka offensive is ongoing, now they realize they are being beaten on the battlefield thus engaging in useless talks.

 

[Rasengan]

Just a waste of time while the Burka offensive is ongoing, now they realize they are being beaten on the battlefield thus engaging in useless talks.

Newsflash A-Team, the Taliban are winning the war

 

[pakistani342]

Yes, no condemnation by the Afghans for meeting with the Mollahs this time either. I wonder why there is no condemnation of Qatar at allowing these Mollahs to travel unrestricted and stay in 5 star hotels?

 

[Khan_21]

Yes, no condemnation by the Afghans for meeting with the Mollahs this time either. I wonder why there is no condemnation of Qatar at allowing these Mollahs to travel unrestricted and stay in 5 star hotels?

What is your analysis on peace in Afghanistan ? I don't foresee any stop to fighting in 10-15 years .

 

[pakistani342]

What is your analysis on peace in Afghanistan ? I don't foresee any stop to fighting in 10-15 years .

Urfortunately that is what might happen

Having said that: Afghanistan is highly unpredictable -- peace could break out tomorrow -- who knows

The other important question is: will it be a durable peace? will it change the condition of the ordinary Afghan? what will Afghanistan's relationship be with its neighbors (principally Pakistan)

I think the answers to all those questions are anybody's guess.

 

[Shapur]

Yes, no condemnation by the Afghans for meeting with the Mollahs this time either. I wonder why there is no condemnation of Qatar at allowing these Mollahs to travel unrestricted and stay in 5 star hotels?

You can't compare the two. Qatar is just hosting the talks for the purposes of bringing peace while Pakistan is allegedly the semi permanent abode of Talis where their leadership lives, gets funds, recruits and all sorts of help to enable them to keep fighting. If it was called Qatar Shura instead of Quetta or Peshawar Shura then you might have a case.

 

[pakistani342]

You can't compare the two. Qatar is just hosting the talks for the purposes of bringing peace while Pakistan is allegedly the semi permanent abode of Talis where their leadership lives, gets funds, recruits and all sorts of help to enable them to keep fighting. If it was called Qatar Shura instead of Quetta or Peshawar Shura then you might have a case.

Well these are Terrorists according to Afghanistan (now you know the US does not recognize the Taliban as terrorists strangely): so they should be arrested and handed over to Afghanistan right?

Why can Taliban travel feely to Iran, Dubai and Qatar -- OK Pakistan is Bad Bad Bad but how is it that Mollah Mansoor's family lives in Iran freely and there are no demands by Afghanistan on Iran to expel them.

Why is no noise raised by Afghanistan to arrest these guys when they visit the Gulf on fund raising trips or "dirty-pleasure-trips"?

I also wonder how many Afghans KSA, Qatar, Dubai have sheltered as refugees.

I have a hypothesis: there is inherent hared for Pakistanis in the Afghan psyche and hence the shrill cries.

 

[nangyale]

Taliban and Afghanistan restart secret talks in Qatar
Exclusive: Senior sources say US diplomat was present for first known negotiations since Pakistan-brokered process broke down in 2013



Smoke rises from a building where Taliban insurgents hide during a fire fight with Afghan security forces, in Helmand province, Afghanistan. Photograph: AP
Sami Yousafzai, Jon Boone in Islamabad and Sune Engel Rasmussen in Kabul

Tuesday 18 October 2016

The Taliban and representatives of the Afghan government have restarted secret talks in the Gulf state of Qatar, senior sources within the insurgency and the Kabul government have told the Guardian.

Among those present at the meetings held in September and October was Mullah Abdul Manan Akhund, brother of Mullah Omar, the former Taliban chief who led the movement from its earliest days until his death in 2013.

The two rounds of talks are the first known negotiations to have taken place since a Pakistan-brokered process entirely broke down following the death in a US drone strike of Omar’s successor, Mullah Akhtar Mansoor.

Doha has been a centre for Taliban diplomacy since the movement was granted permission to set up an office in the Qatari capital in 2013, although that initiative became one of the many attempts to start a peace process that ultimately came to nothing following complaints from the Afghan government.

Mullah Omar’s son, Mohammad Yaqoob, is expected to soon join the Doha group, a Taliban source said, in a move that would further bolster the authority of the office.

No Pakistani official took part in either the October or September meetings, according to a member of the Taliban’s leadership council, the Quetta Shura. He said Islamabad has lost much of its traditional influence over a movement it has been associated with since it rose to power in Afghanistan in the mid-1990s.

But according to the Taliban official, a senior US diplomat was present in the Qatar meetings. The US embassy in Afghanistan declined to comment on the claim.


The Taliban official said the first meeting in early September “went positively and was held in a trouble-free atmosphere” in which Akhund sat face to face with Mohammed Masoom Stanekzai, Afghanistan’s intelligence chief.

A second meeting took place in early October, despite continued fighting between government and insurgent forces.

Recent weeks have seen the Taliban overrun Kunduz, a provincial capital, for the second time and threaten Lashkar Gah in Helmand.

Despite the unremitting violence, Kabul remains committed to trying to finding a political solution to the conflict. Late last month it finalised a peace deal with Islamist warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who had fought against the US-backed regime for more than a decade.

Although an Afghan government official confirmed Stanekzai had made at least one recent trip to Doha, both Ashraf Ghani’s spokesman and, Ismail Qasemiyar, a senior member of the High Peace Council charged with overseeing peace talks, denied any knowledge of the meetings.


The Quetta Shura member said the presence of a US official helped make the meeting possible given the Taliban’s longstanding reluctance to meet directly with the Afghan government, which it publicly lambasts as a “puppet regime”.

“Taliban believes the Afghan issue is a dispute with both the US and Afghan governments,” he said. “If these three sides can hold preliminary meetings it could create a strong base for further positive developments.”

He said Mullah Akhund was “specially dispatched by the Taliban leadership council” to Doha to underline the importance it attaches to the talks.

“His presence made the talks more notable and shows that both the military and political Taliban are on the same page,” he said.

The Taliban movement has long been divided on the wisdom of peace talks between hawkish commanders fighting in Afghanistan and some members of its leadership based in Pakistan who have favoured negotiations.

Previous attempt to find a political end to the conflict have all failed. A western security official said the recent onslaught against provincial capitals was a “strong indication that the insurgents want to pursue a military strategy regardless of the politics”.

“But we keep hearing hints and indications that various figures in the Taliban leadership want to talk as well,” he said.

The last known meeting between the two sides took place in the Pakistani hill resort of Murree in July 2015, where US and Pakistani officials were also present.

But Pakistan has been unable to orchestrate any further meetings following the death of Mansoor. A Pakistan-led “quadrilateral” process, involving Afghanistan, the US and China that was intended to presage fresh talks has also petered out.

A close aide of the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, said both the Taliban and the Kabul government have become deeply disillusioned with Pakistan.

“Pakistan was double dealing and insincere with the Afghan government,” he said. “We no longer think we need Pakistan and the Taliban think the same thing.”

Ghani had courted Islamabad in the hope it would use its influence to both force the Taliban to join peace talks and curtail its attacks, but violence only increased.

A western official in Kabul said a spate of arrests by Pakistani security forces of senior Taliban officials suggests Pakistan’s intelligence agencies are trying to “re-establish control over the process”.

The arrests have targeted officials chaffing under the leadership of the movement’s latest chief, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, who was appointed leader in May.

Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzadah inherits a divided movement after a US drone strike killed Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, while governments hope he is open to talks. The most recent arrest came on 8 October when Mullah Ahmadullah Nani was seized in Quetta, a city in south-west Pakistan.

A Quetta Shura member, Nani had special responsibility for the movement’s finances.

“Mullah Nani was on his way to the mosque near his house when masked men wearing security force uniforms arrested him and took him away,” said a senior Taliban leader.

Like many other Taliban leaders Nani lived openly in a suburb of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, a large province bordering southern Afghanistan.

In late August Mullah Sammad Sani, a member of the Taliban’s finance and fundraising committee, was seized at a religious seminary he runs in Quetta, which a Taliban source said was sealed in front of some two hundred of his Afghan students.

During the Taliban government in the 1990s Sani served as police chief of Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second city.

“The Taliban leaders recently arrested are primarily supporters of Mullah Mansoor,” said the close aide of President Ghani. “They suspect Pakistan had a hand in Mansoor’s killing and therefore distrust it.

“The logical response is to put them away and make them less consequential, supporting instead those who are more directly under its command.”

A Pakistani intelligence official said he was unable to comment on the recent arrests.

 

[Kambojaric]

Urfortunately that is what might happen

Having said that: Afghanistan is highly unpredictable -- peace could break out tomorrow -- who knows

The other important question is: will it be a durable peace? will it change the condition of the ordinary Afghan? what will Afghanistan's relationship be with its neighbors (principally Pakistan)

I think the answers to all those questions are anybody's guess.

I for one am not optimistic at all, since there exist forces in the Afghan establishment that would never want to see peace with the Taliban (such as Dostum and his militia, and probably Abdullah as well). Ghani can try his best but other forces will try to derail peace talks at any given opportunity. Its a real uphill task to say the least.

 

[Shapur]

Well these are Terrorists according to Afghanistan (now you know the US does not recognize the Taliban as terrorists strangely): so they should be arrested and handed over to Afghanistan right?

Why can Taliban travel feely to Iran, Dubai and Qatar -- OK Pakistan is Bad Bad Bad but how is it that Mollah Mansoor's family lives in Iran freely and there are no demands by Afghanistan on Iran to expel them.

Why is no noise raised by Afghanistan to arrest these guys when they visit the Gulf on fund raising trips or "dirty-pleasure-trips"?

When the Prophet (pbuh) conqured Makka,he forgave all his enemies even though they had hurt him in many ways. Sometimes its necessary to forgive and move in for the greater good. A single gesture can change the past.

Taliban were also the best buddies of Pakistan but when things got tough and Uncle Sam told Musharaff that Pakistan will be bombed to stone age, Pakistan joined the war on terror. Its a funny world isn't it?

Iranian regime is also criticized and there have been many rallies and demos against Iran in Afghanistan and the media does criticize Iran for its policies. Interestingly Pashto media is slightly harder on Iran than Farsi media. Go figure

I also wonder how many Afghans KSA, Qatar, Dubai have sheltered as refugees.

Just because Pakistan did something good which btw also served Pakistani interests doesn't mean Pakistan can do whatever it pleases and silence Afghans when its in the wrong. That's like giving charity and then mentioning it in every gathering, how pious and virtuous you are. It defeats the purpose.

Pashtun Afghans don't even consider themselves as refugess because they don't recognize the Durand Line and consider KPK and Pashtun areas of Balochistan as their second home. We won't get into the rights and wrongs of it but thats how some people think.

I have a hypothesis: there is inherent hared for Pakistanis in the Afghan psyche and hence the shrill cries.

I am sorry to hear that's how you feel and I can understand why you would say that. I have to admit there is some animosity especially when Afghans come across nationlistic Pakistanis who defend their army, ISI etc no matter what. Tajiks, Uzbeks and northern alliance folks might hate Pakistan because Pakistan didn't support them and instead supported Taliban. Before the Soviet war, most non Pashtuns had nothing to do with Pakistan and had no reason to hate Pakistan. Infact many non Pashtuns would support the Pakistani state because that means 2/3 pashtuns are living there and that means Afghanistan doesn't become overwhelming Pashtun majority state.

Hating Pakistani institutions and corrupt government is not the same as hating common Pakistani people. Common Pakistani people are as much a victim of these same people as much as Afghans.

In the case of Pashtuns of Afghanistan, you have to understand where they are coming from, Durand Line etc. Afghan Pashtuns usually don't count Baloch and Pashtuns among Pakistanis or when they insult Pakistanis. They usually mean Punjabis or whomever they perceive to be the elites of Pakistani state from whatever ethnicity. To them Pashtuns are just Afghans who are victims of historical mistakes on our part and The British empire.

Sometimes it is also easy to blame Pakistan for the Afghans which means they can avoid the hard questions and just find a bogeyman whom they can blame for all their woes similar to what Pakistan does with India.

 

[Khan_21]

I am sorry to hear that's how you feel and I can understand why you would say that. I have to admit there is some animosity especially when Afghans come across nationlistic Pakistanis who defend their army, ISI etc no matter what. Tajiks, Uzbeks and northern alliance folks might hate Pakistan because Pakistan didn't support them and instead supported Taliban. Before the Soviet war, most non Pashtuns had nothing to do with Pakistan and had no reason to hate Pakistan. Infact many non Pashtuns would support the Pakistani state because that means 2/3 pashtuns are living there and that means Afghanistan doesn't become overwhelming Pashtun majority state.

Hating Pakistani institutions and corrupt government is not the same as hating common Pakistani people. Common Pakistani people are as much a victim of these same people as much as Afghans.

In the case of Pashtuns of Afghanistan, you have to understand where they are coming from, Durand Line etc. Afghan Pashtuns usually don't count Baloch and Pashtuns among Pakistanis or when they insult Pakistanis. They usually mean Punjabis or whomever they perceive to be the elites of Pakistani state from whatever ethnicity. To them Pashtuns are just Afghans who are victims of historical mistakes on our part and The British empire.

Sometimes it is also easy to blame Pakistan for the Afghans which means they can avoid the hard questions and just find a bogeyman whom they can blame for all their woes similar to what Pakistan does with India.

From my personal experience afghan pashtun resent us because pashtuns on our side have a relatively easier and stable life . They are well integrated and are the second biggest represented ethnicity in all walks of life . Afghans cant get over the fact while pashtuns on our side continue to prosper , the people on their side continue to suffer since 40 years . You can tell the difference between a PK and AFG pashtoon because the difference in thinking and everyday life between the two is widely different . pashtoons on your side are still stuck in their ways and don't want to change , while on our side they have prospered went on to do great things in sports , music , politics and so much more . The sooner people on your side forget about durand line the better . Its only doing you guys harm . These days it doesnt matter anyway because we are fencing the border , build checkposts and introduced passport and visa .

As for us blaming India . Its a two way street . I would say they blame us more , you need to see their media to understand it . They are paranoid enough to catch 200 pigeons and call them Pakistani spies .

 

[Shapur]

From my personal experience afghan pashtun resent us because pashtuns on our side have a relatively easier and stable life . They are well integrated and are the second biggest represented ethnicity in all walks of life . Afghans cant get over the fact while pashtuns on our side continue to prosper , the people on their side continue to suffer since 40 years . You can tell the difference between a PK and AFG pashtoon because the difference in thinking and everyday life between the two is widely different . pashtoons on your side are still stuck in their ways and don't want to change , while on our side they have prospered went on to do great things in sports , music , politics and so much more . The sooner people on your side forget about durand line the better . Its only doing you guys harm . These days it doesnt matter anyway because we are fencing the border , build checkposts and introduced passport and visa .

As for us blaming India . Its a two way street . I would say they blame us more , you need to see their media to understand it . They are paranoid enough to catch 200 pigeons and call Pakistani spies .

If that's your experience and how you view things, its fine we all have our own views. When your best friend doesn't give you money to buy drugs, it doesn't mean he is stingy (kanjoos) but he is just looking out for you because he knows you will harm yourself even though at the time we might see it as being a bad friend. Its all a matter of perspective.

I can't deny that there might be a sense of jealousy or better known in Pashto as "Turburwali". Jealousy is a destructive trait and negative energy which is bad for you but wanting to be as good as your brother in good things in life is healthy. Islam encourages competition in good deeds. If Pashtuns in Pakistan prosper due to more stability or whatever other reason, it should serve as motivation for Afghan pashtuns to better themselves. We can learn from each other.

I don't think there is much difference between an Urban pashtun from Afghanistan and Pakistan except a Pakistani Pashtun might use more urdu/english words and an Afghan Pashtun use more farsi/english words. Some differences are bound to appear due to living in different states and going through different schools systems and different sense of nationhood. A rural and uneducated pashtun from KPK will have much more in common with a rural and uneducated Pashtun from Afghanistan than with a fellow Urban Pakistani Pashtun. On the surface they might say Zindabad Afghanistan or Pakistan but their world view will be quite similar. The same goes for a religious Pashtun.

Durand LIne is all but accepted in name because as you say Afghans and Pakistanis will need visas to travel now and also Afghanistan is too weak to do anything about it. I think there should be a referrendum in Pashtun areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan and let's see what majority of Pashtuns have to say about it. I am certain Pakistani Pashtuns would vote to recognise Durand Line and the Afghan government should respect their wishes. It will also mean Afghanistan can't be blamed in the future by Pashtuns in Pakistan for accepting Durand if its done with their consent and free will.