A senior Taliban commander has reportedly released a letter proposing a new strategy for the movement that includes negotiating with the Afghan government, the United States and other Western governments.
Al Jazeera reported this week that Mullah Qayyum Zakir reportedly said in a statement to top Taliban members, the leadership of the movement must embrace new internal and external policies.
Zakir’s 12-point proposal reportedly includes negotiating with the Afghan government along with foreign governments on the implementation of Islamic law, and improving military strategy and coordination within the group.
However, Al Jazeera quoted Zabihullah Mujahid – the Taliban spokesman and a close aide of its leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor – as having said Zakir’s proposal had not been received.
“We don’t know anything about the new strategy, but I will keep saying that we are not going to negotiate with foreign governments and will only focus on bringing back Sharia [Islamic] law,” Mujahid told Al Jazeera.
Meanwhile, Zakir was long seen as a rival to the new Taliban leader Mansoor. After his appointment Zakir reportedly refused to pledge allegiance to him until last month.
Rifts among the Taliban reportedly led to the deadlock in the peace process.
“I believe that Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir, who has recently pledged allegiance to the Taliban’s leader, has asked the U.S not to try to create differences among the Taliban, because rifts among the Taliban is dangerous for peace and if there is coordination among the Taliban, it would facilitate peace talks. He has asked the U.S to unite the Taliban, so that it can enter into peace talks with western countries and he said that they are ready for talks,” said Hassan Haqyar, who served as deputy minister of mines during the Taliban’s regime.
Sources close to the Taliban have urged government to ensure it has an accurate strategy for peace talks. They said that the Afghan government and its allies lack a peace strategy.
“I don’t think that the United States, which itself is a hurdle before peace and is the main reason for war, would be able to bring peace or that the country’s secretary of state [John Kerry] during his trip to Kabul will have no plan for peace. Peace has its requirements and we don’t see any strategy for peace,” said Sayed Akbar Agha, a former Taliban leader in Kandahar.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sallahuddin Rabbani, in a meeting with his U.S counterpart, said that Kabul will continue its peace efforts and if the Taliban does not come to the negotiation tables then these efforts will not yield any results.
Speaker of the Wolesi Jirga (Lower House of Parliament), Abdul Rauf Ebrahimi, meanwhile, welcomed this move by the Taliban. “We welcome every move that results in peace in Afghanistan. The peace talks should ensure national interests of Afghanistan,” he said.
The first round of peace talks were held in Pakistan last year but derailed after the July announcement of the Taliban leader Mullah Omar’s death two years earlier.
Since then, Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the U.S have held a series of meetings to pave the way for the resumption of face-to-face talks between Kabul and the Taliban.
It was hoped the insurgent group would meet with Afghan officials in early March but the militant group refused to join the negotiations. http://www.tolonews.com/en/afghanistan/24667-taliban-commander-proposes-us-talks
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