Dubai/Kabul: Taliban representatives will begin meeting in Qatar on Saturday with people close to the Afghan government, an encounter that comes as momentum grows for the start of a formal peace process between the two warring parties.
Members of the Taliban’s political office based in the Qatari capital Doha will participate in a two-day series of talks organized by the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, an international group that works on conflict resolution.
The event offers a rare opportunity for senior Taliban officials to exchange views on a possible peace process with civil-society activists, Afghan lawmakers and others associated with the government.
Pugwash organized a similar event near Doha in May.
An Afghan government delegation met Taliban representatives for a first, botched attempt to start formal talks in July at a Pakistan-brokered meeting near Islamabad.
The Taliban said in a statement Friday that members of its political office would attend and said it would use the conference to “relay the legal demands of our nation and our just policy to the world directly.”
The Afghan government said it opposes the meetings and that people attending from Kabul will participate in a strictly personal capacity. “The Afghan government believes there is no need for such conferences at the moment,” said Javid Faisal, a government spokesman.
President Ashraf Ghani’s administration opposes the Pugwash event because it sees it as a distraction from parallel efforts aimed at starting formal negotiations. It also believes the Taliban’s participation in international forums gives the insurgent group undue legitimacy.
“It gives the Taliban a chance to repair their image globally,” said a senior Afghan official. “Why would the Afghan government help the Taliban repair their image by talking on international platforms and acting like it is a legitimate power?”
Afghan, Pakistani, U.S. and Chinese officials are in the midst of a series of meetings to lay the groundwork for a reconciliation process aimed at ending the 14-year conflict. They are scheduled to meet for the third time in Islamabad on Feb. 6.
The Taliban’s leadership is based in Pakistan, which Afghanistan has long accused of covertly backing the militant group. Islamabad says it has some influence over the Taliban, but denies that it supports the movement.
The U.S. and China are helping broker discussions between the two South Asian neighbors in hopes that Pakistan will bring senior Taliban officials to the negotiating table.
An official from Pugwash said that it respects the Afghan government’s views and that the organization hopes its Qatar meetings will facilitate peace in Afghanistan.
As momentum for talks builds, a string of recent Taliban attacks across the country, including high-profile foreign targets in Kabul, shows no signs of abating. On Wednesday, a Taliban car bomb targeted a bus carrying staff of one of Afghanistan’s largest television networks, Tolo News Channel, killing seven people including members of its staff. http://www.wsj.com/articles/qatar-meeting-comes-amid-momentum-for-afghan-peace-talks-1453487616
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