KABUL – Afghan president Hamid Karzai has said his representatives have begun talks with the Taliban and the US government, a potentially significant development suggesting the Taliban were dropping long-standing objections to face-to-face discussions with the Afghan regime.
A member of the Afghan High Peace Council also described the recent Afghan government contacts to the New York Timesthis week and said there had been an agreement with Taliban representatives to go ahead with peace talks in Qatar, but that no date had yet been set for meetings.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journalon Wednesday last, Mr Karzai said "there have been contacts between the US government and the Taliban, there have been contacts between the Afghan government and the Taliban, and there have been some contacts that we have made, all of us together, including the Taliban".
The High Peace Council member, Haji Musa Hotak, said that some talks had been started with the Taliban. “There is willingness among the Taliban; they spoke with their leadership and got them to agree to talks in Qatar with the Afghan government,” Mr Hotak said. He added that no date had been set for future meetings and that it was “too early to say what the Taliban want”. Taliban spokesmen could not be immediately reached to confirm whether any meetings had already been held.
Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the US National Security Council, declined to comment on Mr Karzai’s disclosure, but has made clear in the past that many steps would be needed before real peace negotiations could begin.
There is also deep distrust of the Taliban within the Afghan government and even more in the wider Afghan population, including in the north and west of the country, where many people who fought the Taliban hold considerable power.
Nonetheless, the mere possibility that the Taliban would entertain continuing direct talks with the Afghan government is significant. In the past, the Taliban have described Mr Karzai as a “puppet leader” and the Afghan government as a “puppet government.”
Since the Taliban were ousted in 2001, they have insisted they are the rightful Afghan government. In the past year, they have insisted on face-to-face talks with the Americans rather than with the Afghan government.
If they continue to talk directly to the Afghan government, it would suggest an admission that the Afghan government is legitimate. It also begins to get key players needed to start discussions in the same room, though the obstacles to breakthrough remain formidable.
Pakistan is also needed for talks since it hosts the Taliban and has allowed their fighters to live there, raise money and train.
Mr Karzai told the Wall Street Journalhe would be asking for Pakistan's help at a meeting yesterday with Pakistani and Iranian presidents in Islamabad, Pakistan.
Any substantive talks would require concessions by both sides, and for those Mr Karzai would need full support from the Americans because they control key bargaining chips that he would need to offer to the Taliban as measures to create trust and later to persuade them to stop fighting.
Among the confidence-building measures that the Americans have discussed with the Taliban is the transfer of Taliban detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. However, such concessions are politically delicate for the Obama administration in an election year.