Rawalpindi has proposed a meeting with international pressure mounting on Islamabad to bring the terrorising Taliban to the negotiating table. The meeting between Afghan government leaders, including President Ashraf Ghani, and Quetta Shura leaders in Pakistan to discuss a power-sharing deal that favours Sunni Pashtun Islamists.
A previous attempt by Pakistan’s deep state to arrange a meeting between President Ashraf Ghani and Taliban commanders Mullah Yaqoob and Sirajuddin Haqqani between July 17 and 19 failed since the Islamist leaders had no desire to speak with the current Afghan government leader.
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In July, US Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad and UK Army Chief Nick Carter came up with the idea. The talks with Taliban leaders took place during Ashraf Ghani’s official visit to Pakistan. While the Taliban’s doctrinal head, Haibatullah Akhunzada, is located in Karachi, Yaqoob and Haqqani are in charge of the Sunni group’s military operations in Quetta and Helmand.
With the Taliban refusing to engage with President Ashraf Ghani, Prince Mirwais Khan, the son of former King Zahir and Chairman of the National Committee for the Preservation of Afghan Cultural Heritage has been mentioned as a prospective mediator for the Afghan government. Prince Mirwais is a Western-educated scholar who resides in Afghanistan. No dates or identities of interlocutors for the Afghan government have been set as of yet.
Despite the Taliban’s willingness to engage with an Afghan government intermediary in Pakistan due to ISI pressure, the Sunni group’s peace demands transmitted to Kabul are challenging. According to Kabul-based officials, the Taliban presented the Afghan government with three criteria for peace talks this week. They are as follows:
- All Taliban detainees in Afghan prisons should be released unconditionally.
- The Afghan government should utilise its influence to have the Taliban delisted as a terrorist organisation by the United Nations. India, by the way, is the chair of the 1267 sanctions committee, which classifies persons and companies as terrorist sponsors.
- The Taliban has recommended that the President, Defense Minister, Interior Minister, Army Chief, and NDS (spy agency) Chief be Taliban members, leaving Prime Minister to the current Kabul administration as a lame-duck role.
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While the US and Afghan governments must choose a new leader to replace Ashraf Ghani if a peace agreement is reached, the Taliban terms look humiliating to the current administration since the Sunni Islamist group will have complete control. With the Taliban pounding on Kabul’s door, the current administration in Kabul has only binary alternatives. Either it battles the Taliban and drives them back, or it gives in to the Pakistan-backed Islamist group’s aspirations for peace.
