Taliban, Afghan officials hold peace talks

ISLAMABAD: The first official peace talks between the Afghan Taliban and the government in Kabul concluded with agreement to meet again after the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, officials said on Wednesday.

Pakistan hosted the meeting in a tentative step towards ending more than 13 years of war in neighbouring Afghanistan, where the Taliban have been trying to re-establish their hardline Islamist regime after it was toppled by US-led military intervention in 2001.

The next round of talks is provisionally planned for August 15 and 16 in Doha.

Yesterday’s meeting was hailed as a “breakthrough” by Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

But it was far from clear whether the budding peace process could end an escalating conflict that kills hundreds of Afghans every month. Divisions within the Taliban over the peace process run deep.

Observers from the United States and China attended the talks, held overnight in Murree, a hill resort near Islamabad.

In recent months there have been informal preliminary contacts between Taliban representatives and Afghan figures, but this was the first official meeting.

“Before this, Pakistan has been accused of double dealing, but this time there can be no doubt about our sincerity,” he added. Many Afghans have deep misgivings about Pakistan’s involvement in the peace process.

Pakistan helped the Taliban come to power in Kabul in the 1990s and has been criticised for continuing to support jihadist groups to carry out its foreign policy agenda.

It has vowed to crack down on militancy, perhaps aware that regional powerhouse China wants it to do more to snuff out the danger of insurgents in its own western region of Xinjiang.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has reached out to Islamabad since taking office last year, and Pakistan has pledged to pressure Taliban leaders, many of whom are believed to be hiding in the country, to come to the negotiating table.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the United States welcomed the talks, calling them “an important step toward advancing prospects for a credible peace”.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China backed the process and was in touch with all sides.

Sharif cautioned that the talks would be difficult and said Afghanistan’s neighbours and the international community should ensure “nobody tries to derail this process”.

Taliban political leader Akhtar Mohammad Mansour also authorised the delegation to Islamabad for talks, despite objections from battlefield commander Zakir, according to the Taliban commander in Kunar.“The problem is it (the meeting) further deepened differences between Mansour and Zakir,” he said.

“Zakir threatened Mansour that he and his men would either set up another group or would join Islamic State if he did not stop the negotiations.”

Because Zakir holds sway over several thousand fighters in eastern Afghanistan, it is uncertain whether any ceasefire, likely be the first demand by Kabul, could hold. Silent throughout the process has been Mullah Mohammad Omar, the Taliban’s reclusive supreme leader who has not been seen in public since the Taliban was toppled.