Intra-Afghan peace talks in Doha on January 5: 'Blaming Pakistan for failure may widen mistrust at crucial stage'

ISLAMABAD: Senior Afghan officials continue to blame Pakistan for the Afghan government's failure to handle its internal security, which may widen the mistrust at a crucial stage as the next round of intra-Afghan peace talks are set to resume in Doha on January 5, 2021, officials and analysts warned.

Informed sources told Business Recorder Afghan side had been asked to avoid public blame game and instead use the already established mechanism between the two countries to resolve all concerns, particularly those related to security and Pakistan's role in the peace process.

They said Afghan side was unambiguously conveyed at the highest level that public blame game would not be beneficial for the Afghan peace process at a time when Kabul and Afghan Taliban have agreed to resume the next round of intra-Afghan negotiations in Doha on the 5th of next month.

Many Afghan officials, including the first Afghan vice president and former NDS chief Amrullah Saleh questioned the reason behind the recent visit to Pakistan by a delegation of Taliban Political Commission (TPC) headed by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar from 16-18 December 2020.

This was after Prime Minister Imran Khan had taken Afghan President Ashraf Ghani into confidence on the visit that took place in line with Pakistan's efforts to persuade all sides to engage in the peace process last week.

Saleh took to twitter on December 24 to criticize the Taliban delegation led by Mullah Baradar to Karachi: "Mullah Baradar did three things in Karachi. He visited the wounded Taliban terrorists at a government hospital who are there without any visa, went to a training facility to inspire the terror cadets & thanked the government of Pakistan for generous support to the Taliban to this point."

To respond officially to the negative statements coming from Kabul, Foreign Office issued a formal statement on Sunday to remind Pakistan's critics of its important role not only in US-Taliban peace agreement of February 29, but also in commencement of intra-Afghan negotiations on September 12 and agreement between Afghan parties on the rules and procedures on December 2, 2020.

"While Pakistan's efforts are acknowledged and appreciated by the Afghan society and the international community, we are concerned about some negative comments which continue to emanate from certain official as well as unofficial Afghan circles," the statement noted.

It added: "We wish to highlight that public blame game is detrimental to the Afghan peace process as well as to our shared efforts for enhancing bilateral cooperation."

"It is important to underline the need for Afghan government to take pro-active measures to fulfill its responsibility for internal security, law and order and protection of Afghan lives," it asserted, adding Pakistan stood ready to extend all possible cooperation in the area of security and effective border management through effective institutional collaboration, it added.

Talking to Business Recorder senior analyst and expert on Afghan Affairs Rahimullah Yusufzai said that negative statements, particularly from the top Afghan official circles were not only detrimental to recent progress in bilateral relations, but also to the Afghan peace process, which had entered a crucial stage.

"Amrullah Saleh, who is the second in command in Afghanistan after President Ashraf Ghani, is deliberately giving anti-Pakistan statements...is Ghani out of the loop," he asked, adding the Afghan government first welcomed Taliban delegation's visit to Pakistan, but later started criticizing it.

With regard to US troops' withdrawal from Afghanistan, Yusufzai said the outgoing President Donald Trump wanted to reduce US troops in Afghanistan from around 4,500 to 2,500 by this Christmas, which could not take place because of his election defeat and other ground situation in Afghanistan.

"But, I understand that President-elect Joe Biden is also not against troops withdrawal from Afghanistan, as he has on many occasions indicated the need to reduce US forces in Afghanistan," he added.

Biden is much more experienced than Trump with regard to his understanding of Afghanistan, Yousafzai said, adding that he might make a decision on troops' withdrawal after thorough deliberations both within his administration and with the Pentagon.

"However, given the ground situations in Afghanistan with active armed activities by other militant organizations such as Daesh, a complete US withdrawal from Afghanistan seems highly unlikely and a certain number of American forces will continue to remain in Afghanistan for counterterrorism operations against groups other than Taliban, even if a final peace accord is reached and a future set up agreed upon," he concluded.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020