The Taliban and Afghanistan government will hold peace talks at Qatar from Saturday onwards. The hurdle towards holding the long-awaited talks seem to have been resolved with the release of six Taliban prisoners, who were released on Thursday.
“The State of Qatar is pleased to announce that the Afghanistan Peace Negotiations will commence in Doha on Saturday, September 12, 2020,” the ministry was quoted as saying in a Guardian report. “These vitally important direct negotiations between the different Afghan parties represent a step forward in bringing lasting peace to Afghanistan,” the ministry said.
The Taliban said the dialogue “intends to advance the negotiation process in an appropriate manner and bring about comprehensive peace and a pure Islamic system in the framework of our Islamic values and higher national interests”.
French and Australian governments raised objections to the release of the six prisoners as they were involved in the killing of their nationals.
The Taliban and the Afghan government had agreed to release 1,000 Afghan troops if the government released 5,000 Taliban prisoners; a compromise was reached, where six prisoners will be sent to Qatar, but remain in custody. “Our six brothers arrived in Qatar a little while ago in good health,” Taliban spokesman Naeem Wardak was quoted as saying in an Al Jazeera report.
The US government, too, is expected to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan as part of an agreement, made in February, that ensures certain security guarantees from the Taliban like not making Afghanistan a ground for further terrorist activity.
Talks between the two parties are bound to go down a tricky road as the Afghan government is against the Taliban reimposing its version of Islamic law as the country's system of governance. The differences between the two sides on women’s rights, too, seem particularly deep.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who was jailed a decade ago by Pakistani authorities for trying to open peace talks with Afghan authorities will head the Taliban delegation. Baradar is the group’s deputy leader. Another leader expected to take a senior role in the talks is religious scholar Mawlawi Abdul Hakim Haqqani, who is thought to have some influence over the fighter on the ground. Abdullah Abdullah, who has for several years served as a ‘CEO’ of the government under President Ashraf Ghani, is expected to lead the Afghan delegation along with former intelligence chief Masoom Stanekzai serving as chief negotiator.
