Afghan Taliban may be anything but they are not ideological followers of Chairman Mao, though they seem to be committed believers of his famous quote 'fight fight, talk talk'. As they fight they want to talk also. No wonder then the principal upshot from their meeting at Doha last month amply suggested that they are prepared for reconciliation talks with the Kabul government. But that does not mean they were giving up their armed struggle against their government and its allies anytime soon. In fact, they stepped up their fight, as any rebel group fighting a sitting government would like to do before coming to the negotiating table; and they predicated their offer of joining the peace talks by certain preconditions, which appear to be unacceptable to the other side. But there is no reason why those should cause disruption in the Quadrilateral Co-ordination Group's peace process. Their preconditions include withdrawal of American troops, recognition of their official address, removal of Taliban from blacklists of the United Nations and release of their prisoners. There is nothing new about peace talks and peace process between the contenders being held side by side. Given that the latest Doha meeting, unlike before when it didn't have the participation of top Taliban leaders, had full blessings of Afghan Taliban's chief Mulla Akhtar Mansoor. Were it not so, there was little reason for the Quadrilateral Co-ordination Group to fix next date, February 23, of its meeting in Kabul, to which they have invited the Taliban groups for 'direct talks' with the Afghan government. Taliban haven't responded yet, but they haven't rejected also. The roadmap the QCG is said to have firmed up remains confidential. But the very fact that the statement issued by the group after its meeting in Islamabad talks of adoption of a 'roadmap stipulating the stages and steps in the (peace and reconciliation) process' tends to convey the signal that it enjoys the support of at least some important factions of Taliban and other insurgent groups.
But like all nascent peace initiatives it is in danger of disruption, as much by the Daesh as by some of its own movers, particularly the United States. It is beyond one's comprehension that as the US representative to the Quadrilateral Group is for the Afghan peace process to succeed, its outgoing American military commander in Afghanistan, General John Campbell, however, underscores the need for a long-term military presence in the country. He told the US House Armed Services Committee, "If we talk in terms of a long-term commitment, it does a lot of things. It gives confidence to the Afghan government ... to Afghan people and Afghan security forces". And if the present strength of 9,000 is reduced to 5,500, as announced by President Obama, "it would also reduce their (US forces) capacity to support forces." How come if more than 150,000 troops could not defeat Taliban some 9,000 would do? Here, one would like to agree with a widely-held impression that, come what may, the American generals wouldn't like to return home carrying the stigma of defeat at the hands of ragtag Afghan Taliban. And imagine how weirdly some Congressmen think of Pakistan that is still paying through its nose for its once-upon-a-time bonhomie with Washington. Congressman Dough Lamborn asked General Campbell about the possibility of hot pursuit into Pakistan. "Would you like more flexibility when it comes to pursuing people who have committed terrorist or other violent acts and are melting back into Pakistan, to be able to strike them?" Here the general was a bit circumspect - because he knew first hand, how courageously his Pakistani counterpart, General Raheel Sharif, had fought against terrorists. If some of them had fled the Operation Zarb-e-Azb and slipped into Afghanistan it was the responsibility of Afghan forces and their American supporters to interdict them. By returning to Afghanistan, the Americans would be subverting the Afghan peace process, of which they are a partner. Equally disturbing are reports from within Kabul that the Unity Government is riddled with a triangular fight joined by supporters of President Ashraf Ghani, Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah and Intelligence agency whose boss was recently removed by the president. For Pakistan and its colleagues in the peace process such an infighting in Kabul is not good news, but not for the Afghan Taliban. Yet the Afghan peace process is on track and as it enjoys substantial international and regional support it has bright prospects.
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