WASHINGTON: Secret high-level talks have commenced between the representatives of the Taliban and the Afghan Government to negotiate an end to war.
The talks being held at an undisclosed location, involve high-level representatives of the Taliban authorized by the dominant Quetta Shura led by the groups elusive leader Mullah Omar, Washington Post reported quoting Afghan and Arab sources.
Omar’s group had shunned negotiations in the past insisting that the Taliban would settle for nothing less than total withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan.
The Post quoting sources said that Quetta Shura was giving up its rigid stand and has begun talk about a comprehensive agreement that would include participation of some Taliban’s figures in the government and the withdrawal of US and NATO troops on an agreed timeline.
“They are very, very serious about finding a way out,” a source close to the talks was quoted as saying by the paper.
The Paper said discussions with the Quetta Shura do not include a representative of the Haqqani network, a separately led Taliban faction that US military and intelligence consider particularly brutal and which has been targeted recently by escalated US drone attacks in North Western Pakistan.
Washington Post said the Haqqani group is seen more closely tied to the Pakistani intelligence service than the Quetta Shura, which is based in South Western Pakistani province of Baluchistan.
The Paper quoting Afghan sources said the talks had triggered tensions between Kabul and Islamabad as Pakistan was insisting on a central role in any negotiation.
It said Islamabad was queering the pitch by making it difficult for Quetta Shura. “They (Pakistanis) try to keep very tight control,” a Pakistani source said.
The talks come amid what Arab and European sources said they see a distinct change of heart on the part of the Obama administration towards negotiations.
The reports of high-level contacts between Karzai and Taliban follow remarks last week by the top US commander in Afghanistan Gen David Petraeus that Taliban leaders have made overtures to reconcile with the Afghan government.
“There are very high-level Taliban leaders who have sought to reach out to the highest levels of the Afghan government and indeed have done that,” Petraeus told reporters in Afghanistan.
The General said that the reconciliation with Taliban leaders was being “pursued by the Afghan leadership at the very highest level”.
President Hamid Karzai last week announced setting up of a 70-member peace conference to formalize efforts to reconcile to the Taliban.
Staffan de Mistura, the top UN representative in Afghanistan has predicted “very rough months ahead in negotiations”.
Among the potential roadblocks he cited opposition from a resurgent northern alliance of non-Pushtun speaking people of the country, who helped US in overthrowing Taliban in 2001 and divisions within the Taliban.
The UN envoy has urged the US administration to reach out more forcefully to other countries in the region including Russia, India and Iran to become part of a negotiated settlement in Afghanistan. -PTI
