Afghans and Taliban representatives

meet in Pakistan for peace talks

Afghan officials attend the opening of the Oslo Forum 2015 in Oslo on June
16. Representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban are
continuing peace talks that occurred there. (Heiko Junge/NTB Scanpix via
Reuters)

By Sudarsan Raghavan and Tim Craig July 7

KABUL Representatives of the Taliban were meeting with an Afghan government
delegation Tuesday in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, in what Afghan officials hope
will be a step toward negotiating a peace deal with the insurgent group and ending the
countrys protracted war, according to Afghan and Pakistani officials.
The gathering, under discussion for several weeks, is not the first time both sides have
met to discuss a cease-fire. Several other meetings between Taliban representatives
and Afghan officials have taken place in recent months in Qatar, China and Norway.

But the meeting in Islamabad carries more significance because of Pakistans longstanding ties to the Taliban, as well as Afghan President Ashraf Ghanis efforts to
persuade Pakistan to play a significant role in convincing the Taliban to come to the
negotiating table. It would mark the first time that such a senior-level delegation was
meeting face-to-face with the Taliban.
We have always had a pretty clear view of what Pakistan can and cannot do in terms
of delivering the Afghan Taliban to the negotiating table, a U.S. official, who spoke on
the condition of anonymity to freely discuss the peace efforts, said in a recent
interview. But we see, at this point, a sustained effort by the Pakistanis to
support President Ghanis effort.
On Tuesday, Ghanis office announced through its official Twitter account that a
delegation from the High Peace Council of Afghanistan has traveled to Pakistan for
negotiations with the Taliban.

Object 1

The council is a body that includes former Taliban members. It was created in 2010 by
then-President Hamid Karzai to negotiate with elements of the Taliban. The delegation
also includes Afghanistans deputy foreign minister, Hekmat Karzai, a cousin of the
former president.

According to Pakistani officials, the Taliban sent four representatives who represent
all top Taliban leaders. A second U.S. official said that the United States also had
representatives at the talks after being invited by both the Afghan and Pakistani
governments.
The first meeting between the two sides took place at an undisclosed location after the
end of the daily fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, according to
Pakistani officials. The talks continued past midnight.
It remains to be seen whether the talks will have any impact on the conflict, now nearly
14 years old. Even as meetings have unfolded in different countries, the Taliban has
mounted fierce offensives around the country and dispatched suicide bombers to
attack government officials and symbols of official power in Kabul and elsewhere.
The second U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive
negotiations, said the fact that legitimate representatives of the Taliban and the Afghan
government were meeting was significant.
That means something. ... But how you get to a process where you start talking about
substantive issues is a difficult question, the official said.
Some analysts have suggested that the Talibans offensives are an attempt to
strengthen their bargaining position ahead of potential peace talks. There is also
growing concern among the Taliban about the emergence of the Islamic State, which
has been wooing Taliban factions to defect and align with its cause. In Nangarhar
province, the Taliban is engaging in skirmishes with defectors who now operate under
the Islamic State brand. They have managed to seize control of several areas of the
province. The specter of more fighters joining the Islamic State could prompt the
Taliban leadership to agree to a political settlement with the government, some
analysts say.
But there is also the question of which Taliban the government is negotiating with. The

insurgency is far less cohesive today than it was in 1996, when it quickly seized power
across Afghanistan. With its supreme leader, Mohammad Omar, not seen in years,
many factions have become more independent from the Talibans core leadership. It
remains unclear whether many Taliban commanders would even accept a peace
agreement or instead would continue fighting or join the Islamic State.

Pakistan, too, remains a questionable interlocutor. Many Afghans, including powerful

political and military figures, remain suspicious of Islamabad and its motives. The
Pakistani military and intelligence services have long been viewed in both Afghanistan
and Pakistan as the godfathers of the Taliban, nurturing it as a proxy and providing
haven to its leadership.
Pakistani officials on Tuesday insisted they are honest brokers.
Pakistan, as a friend of Afghanistan, is trying to facilitate result-oriented talks
between the Afghan government and the Taliban, said a Pakistani security official,
who spoke on the condition of anonymity, per protocol.
In a meeting with local reporters and political analysts on Tuesday, Ghani said that the
meeting in Islamabad would focus on confidence-building and preparing key points in
the peace talks agenda, as well as setting the stage for future discussions, according to
a statement from his office.
Ghani said that peace talks would be led by Afghans, suggesting that the Pakistanis
would play a less visible role, and insisted that the government was speaking with the
insurgents from a position of strength, the statement said. He also said that women
will continue to be part of the peace talks delegations.
Our goal is reducing the violence level in the initial phase and then end it finally,
Ghani said, according to the statement.

Missy Ryan in Washington, Sayed Salahuddin in Kabul and Shaiq Hussein in

Islamabad contributed to this report.
Read more:
Years after invasion, the U.S. leaves a cultural imprint on Afghanistan
Taliban has a major Afghan city within its grasp for the first time since 2001
To fight the Taliban, Pakistani military turns to unorthodox but simple tactics

Sudarsan Raghavan has been The Post's Kabul bureau chief since 2014. He
was previously based in Nairobi and Baghdad for the Post.

Tim Craig is The Posts bureau chief in Pakistan. He has

also covered conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and within the District of
Columbia government.
Posted by Thavam