Afghan political parties united against the president, Hamid Karzai, are in talks with the Taliban and Islamist groups, hoping to broker peace before next year's exit of international combat troops and a presidential race that will determine Karzai's successor, leaders of the factions have said.
This is the first confirmation that the opposition has opened its own, new channel of discussions to try to find a political resolution to the war, now in its 12th year. And the Taliban too seem to want to move things forward, even contemplating replacing their top negotiator, two senior Taliban officials told the Associated Press.
Reaching an understanding with both the Taliban and the militant group, Hezb-e-Islami – headed by the US-declared terrorist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar – would give the opposition, which expects to field a consensus candidate in next year's election, a better chance at cobbling together a post-Karzai government.
The alternative to a multiparty government after the 2014 elections, many fear, could signal a return to the internecine fighting of the early 1990s that devastated Kabul.
But with ongoing back-channel discussions and private meetings being held with Taliban interlocutors around the world, it is difficult to know exactly who is talking to whom.
Early last year, Karzai, who demands that any talks be led by his government, said that his administration, the US and the Taliban had held three-way talks aimed at moving towards a political settlement of the war. The US and the Taliban, however, both deny that such talks took place.
Hekmatyar's group has held talks with both the Karzai government and Washington officials, and a senior US official said the Taliban were talking to representatives of more than 30 countries, and indirectly with the US.
The Taliban broke off formal discussions with the US last year and have steadfastly rejected negotiations with the Karzai government, which they view as a puppet of foreign powers.
News about the opposition group's new avenue of talks comes amid Karzai's latest round of verbal attacks on the US, which have infuriated some of his allies in Washington and confused some of his senior advisers.
In recent weeks, Karzai has accused the US of colluding with the Taliban to keep foreign troops in Afghanistan and has attacked the Taliban for talking to foreigners while killing Afghan civilians in their homeland. The Afghan president also has stepped up his rhetoric against his political opponents, trying to paint them as American pawns in a grand scheme to install a government of its liking when coalition troops leave by the end of 2014. The troop withdrawal and presidential elections are two major events observers fear could bring instability to Afghanistan.
Trying to put its stamp on the future, the opposition – united under a single banner called the Council of Co-operation of Political Parties – says it has reached out to both the Taliban and Hekmatyar, a one-time US ally who is now listed as a terrorist by Washington. In addition to getting the blessing of the Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar, any peace deal would have to be supported by Hekmatyar, who has thousands of fighters and followers, primarily in the north and east.
Omar and Hekmatyar are bitter rivals, but both launch attacks on the Afghan government and foreign forces and both have suspended direct talks with the US, saying they were going nowhere. "We want a solution for Afghanistan … but every step should be a soft one," said Hamid Gailani, a founding member of the united opposition. "We have to start somewhere." The opposition group is full of political heavyweights.
There are former presidential candidates, Abdullah Abdullah and Ali Ahmed Jalali – both of whom were said to be Washington's preferred candidates in the last presidential election in 2009.
There is also Rashid Dostum, who leads the minority Uzbek ethnic group, and Mohammed Mohaqiq, the leader of another minority ethnic group, the Hazaras. Also in the group is Ahmed Zia Massoud, a former Afghan vice-president and the brother of the anti-Taliban fighter Ahmed Shah Massoud, the charismatic leader of the ethnic minority Tajiks and the Northern Alliance, who died in an al-Qaida suicide attack two days before 9/11, which provoked the invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.
Monday, March 18, 2013
Afghanistan opposition parties in talks with Taliban, claim leaders
Afghan political parties united against the president, Hamid Karzai, are in talks with the Taliban and Islamist groups, hoping to broker peace before next year's exit of international combat troops and a presidential race that will determine Karzai's successor, leaders of the factions have said.
This is the first confirmation that the opposition has opened its own, new channel of discussions to try to find a political resolution to the war, now in its 12th year. And the Taliban too seem to want to move things forward, even contemplating replacing their top negotiator, two senior Taliban officials told the Associated Press.
Reaching an understanding with both the Taliban and the militant group, Hezb-e-Islami – headed by the US-declared terrorist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar – would give the opposition, which expects to field a consensus candidate in next year's election, a better chance at cobbling together a post-Karzai government.
The alternative to a multiparty government after the 2014 elections, many fear, could signal a return to the internecine fighting of the early 1990s that devastated Kabul.
But with ongoing back-channel discussions and private meetings being held with Taliban interlocutors around the world, it is difficult to know exactly who is talking to whom.
Early last year, Karzai, who demands that any talks be led by his government, said that his administration, the US and the Taliban had held three-way talks aimed at moving towards a political settlement of the war. The US and the Taliban, however, both deny that such talks took place.
Hekmatyar's group has held talks with both the Karzai government and Washington officials, and a senior US official said the Taliban were talking to representatives of more than 30 countries, and indirectly with the US.
The Taliban broke off formal discussions with the US last year and have steadfastly rejected negotiations with the Karzai government, which they view as a puppet of foreign powers.
News about the opposition group's new avenue of talks comes amid Karzai's latest round of verbal attacks on the US, which have infuriated some of his allies in Washington and confused some of his senior advisers.
In recent weeks, Karzai has accused the US of colluding with the Taliban to keep foreign troops in Afghanistan and has attacked the Taliban for talking to foreigners while killing Afghan civilians in their homeland. The Afghan president also has stepped up his rhetoric against his political opponents, trying to paint them as American pawns in a grand scheme to install a government of its liking when coalition troops leave by the end of 2014. The troop withdrawal and presidential elections are two major events observers fear could bring instability to Afghanistan.
Trying to put its stamp on the future, the opposition – united under a single banner called the Council of Co-operation of Political Parties – says it has reached out to both the Taliban and Hekmatyar, a one-time US ally who is now listed as a terrorist by Washington. In addition to getting the blessing of the Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar, any peace deal would have to be supported by Hekmatyar, who has thousands of fighters and followers, primarily in the north and east.
Omar and Hekmatyar are bitter rivals, but both launch attacks on the Afghan government and foreign forces and both have suspended direct talks with the US, saying they were going nowhere. "We want a solution for Afghanistan … but every step should be a soft one," said Hamid Gailani, a founding member of the united opposition. "We have to start somewhere." The opposition group is full of political heavyweights.
There are former presidential candidates, Abdullah Abdullah and Ali Ahmed Jalali – both of whom were said to be Washington's preferred candidates in the last presidential election in 2009.
There is also Rashid Dostum, who leads the minority Uzbek ethnic group, and Mohammed Mohaqiq, the leader of another minority ethnic group, the Hazaras. Also in the group is Ahmed Zia Massoud, a former Afghan vice-president and the brother of the anti-Taliban fighter Ahmed Shah Massoud, the charismatic leader of the ethnic minority Tajiks and the Northern Alliance, who died in an al-Qaida suicide attack two days before 9/11, which provoked the invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.
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