Peace talks between the Afghan government and Taliban that was scheduled to take place this weekend, has been postponed indefinitely due to the lack of consensus over who should attend.
The Afghan government planned to send 250 delegates to attend the peace talk, including government officials. Taliban expressed its disapproval over the number of delegates Afghan government was preparing to send by calling the conference "not an invitation to some wedding or other party at a hotel in Kabul. Taliban had already made it clear that they were willing only hold talks with the President Ashraf Ghani’s government in a “personal capacity”.
Qatar’s Centre for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies (CHS), which was to host the talk on behalf of the Qatari government tried last-minute diplomatic talks which proved to be futile. Sultan Barakat, Director of CHS tweeted "this is unfortunately necessary to further build consensus as to who should participate in the conference" referring to the breakdown of the peace talk.
The changes made to the list containing Afghan delegation by Qatari government was deemed unacceptable by the Afghan officials, while Taliban continued refusing to meet the originally decided group.
The international community was looked forward the Doha summit to take place amidst the bloodshed Taliban was causing in Afghanistan after it announced its annual spring offensive two weeks ago.
The talk hoped to provide a platform for the Afghan government and Taliban to negotiate directly on ways to end the Afghan war and reach at a consensus on how power was to be divided between the two.
Michael Kugelman, Deputy Director and Senior Associate for South Asia, Wilson Centre commented on the event — "mess and its dysfunction amplifies just how much of a long, hard slog a reconciliation process will be," he said.
The 17 years long war in Afghanistan, with Taliban ceaselessly fighting on one side has ravaged the country. President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw 14,000 US troops stationed in Afghanistan was the starting point peace talks between US and Taliban since October 2018. The appointment of Zalmay Khalilzad as the Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation at the US Department of state also had a significant role in bringing Taliban to hold peace talks with US.
Even at that juncture, Taliban refused to meet with Ghani’s government calling them puppets of US. In the five rounds of talks between US and Taliban, Ghani administration had been carefully avoided.
It was as a result of continued pressure from Khalilzad and the Qatari government Taliban agreed to meet with the Afghan officials. Khalilzad expressed his disappointment over the postponement of the summit, at the same time encouraging all the parties to remain “committed to the dialogue”.
The significance of Doha summit was paramount as a direct talk between the Afghan officials and Taliban would have provided scope for peace and settlement to the ongoing war within the country.
