Karzai rejects Taliban dialogue, breaks off talks with US - Broadsword by Ajai Shukla - Strategy. Economics. Defence.

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Thursday 20 June 2013

Karzai rejects Taliban dialogue, breaks off talks with US



Hamid Karzai furious at being marginalised by the Taliban, the US and Pakistan

Ajai Shukla
Business Standard, 20th Jun 13

In a dramatic development the day after the Taliban formally opened an office in Qatar to start talks with Washington, Afghanistan’s furious president, Hamid Karzai, broke off discussions with the US on a “bilateral security agreement” that would govern the number and status of US troops in Afghanistan after 2014.

Karzai has steadfastly opposed direct talks between the US and the Taliban, wanting Afghan ownership of the “reconciliation process”, as the reintegration of the Taliban into the mainstream is referred to. For years, an Afghan government body, the High Peace Council, has tried with limited success to engage the Taliban in dialogue. In Sept 2011, a Taliban suicide bomber assassinated the High Peace Council chief, former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, halting the reconciliation process.

With the Taliban contemptuous of Kabul but willing to talk to Washington, Karzai today disassociated himself from that initiative. His office cites as a reason the Taliban’s adoption of the symbols of state used by them when they ruled Afghanistan. The Qatar office has adopted the title of “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”; and the white flag and the national anthem that the Taliban government adopted when they seized power in 1996 until they were ousted from Kabul by the Northern Alliance in 2001.

But Karzai’s frustration stems more from being sidelined in the unfolding talks, where the US and a Pakistan-influenced Taliban have taken centre stage. Today, a presidential statement said: “Recent developments showed that there are foreign hands behind the opening of the Taliban office in Qatar. Unless the peace process is led by Afghans, the High Peace Council will not participate in the Qatar negotiations.”

As Washington explores every option --- especially dialogue with the Taliban --- for smoothing its exit from Afghanistan, the opening of the Qatar office had come as a reprieve. The Taliban however is maintaining battlefield pressure on the US, as was evident from a rocket attack that killed four US soldiers outside Kabul yesterday, just hours after the Qatar office was opened.

After the US troop surge in 2009 failed to bring the Taliban to its knees, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had said that Washington was “launching a diplomatic surge to move this conflict toward a political outcome that shatters the alliance between the Taliban and al-Qaeda, ends the insurgency, and helps to produce not only a more stable Afghanistan but a more stable region.”

Washington also climbed down from many of the preconditions that it had set out for talks with the Taliban. Preconditions like cutting itself off from Al Qaeda; and acceptance of the Afghan constitution, were transformed into “outcomes”. Multiple sources have reported that Pakistan was asked to persuade Mullah Omar and the Taliban leadership to open dialogue, for which Islamabad was granted significant concessions, including a waiver for the supply of military equipment and aid.

This apparently was yielding results. The Qatar office was inaugurated by Taliban representatives that US officials confirmed were definitely linked with Mullah Omar, including a close associate, Mohammad Naim. However, there is little clarity about whether the ISI-linked Haqqani network, and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s Hizb-e-Islami were on board the Qatar initiative.

The office was opened symbolically on the day that the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police formally took over security responsibility for the country from NATO. As the NATO troop drawdown continues to a final figure at the end of 2014, at least 100,000 foreign combat troops, almost 70,000 of them American, will be withdrawn from Afghanistan.

New Delhi has been closely observing the Pakistan Army’s growing role in bringing the Taliban to the table and Washington’s quid pro quo, both in terms of military aid and apparent acceptance of a greater role in post-2014 Afghanistan. India has steadfastly backed President Karzai’s position that any reconciliation process or dialogue must be “Afghan owned and Afghan led.”

5 comments:

  1. yeah... master... stroke... we... how to play... balls... learn...

    ReplyDelete
  2. America's withdrawal from Afghanistan is EXACTLY like their withdrawal from Vietnam.

    Even in 1979 when they were busy signing a "peace treaty" with North Vietnam, the South Vietnamese president complained about betrayal and being cheated by the US - just like Karzai.

    In the end, just like in Afghanistan, the North Vietnamese broke the Paris "peace treaty" with the US and attacked South Vietnam and invaded Saigon, while the US FLED. The South Vietnamese president desperately asked for American help but received "nothing" and in the end had to escape for his life to Taiwan while tens of thousands died in South Vietnam, just like how the Taliban are going to slaughter those defending Kabul as the Americans leave!

    India needs to be aware of this and take counter measures right now by having a credible force of "anti-Taliban" forces ready to defend their lands instead of fighting for some failed Karzai government.

    ReplyDelete
  3. why not find Mullah Omar and eliminate him? Does only ISI have such capability of neutralizing Afghan officials?

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  4. I don't understand why Afghans are afraid of Taliban and Pak Army. Pakistan itself declared that terrorist groups such as Taliban are non-state actors. If Pakistan cannot eliminate such non-state actors from their domain, Afghans should happily finish the job for the Pakistan Army. Just do hot pursuit of Taliban where ever they run and try to hide, be it in Pakistan, Quetta, Islamabad, Peshawar or Karachi. Americans are already doing that using drones, if America can do it, why can't the Afghans or for that matter India.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Here the stand of Karzai is correct. Furthermore Karzai should be diplomatic enough to make amends with Dr Abdullah Abdullah and other remnants of the Northern Alliance. This broad people's front shall be supported now by the India, Russia and others from CIS. This combination shall be able to crush the macabre designs of the Taliban, AQ and their pakistani friends in the manners unequivocally.

    ReplyDelete

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