A recent move by the Taliban has suggested that they might be ready to begin peace talks about the end of the insurgency in Afghanistan. The Taliban have agreed that they will open up a peace mission in Qatar, and this is seen as a significant reversal of the previous position when it would not end its insurgency in the war-torn country.
The spokesman for the Taliban is Zabiullah Mujahid, who announced along with the opening of a peace mission in Qatar that he would like to see the Taliban prisoners held in Guantánamo Bay released. He gave very few details about the opening of the mission or the release of the prisoners.
The American government had previously stated that the best way for peace to be achieved in Afghanistan would be by the Taliban setting up a mission in a different country. Unfortunately, there have been many previous attempts at establishing a peace mission and some of these have led to significant embarrassment for the West.
The idea of the peace mission is to create a location where Western diplomats and representatives of the Taliban can meet and conduct talks. The United States has seen, for a long time, that the only way to end the war in Afghanistan would be for a political solution to be reached and that a military solution was not a realistic end point. A Policy from President Obama has seen increased pressure placed on the Taliban which has been aimed at getting the group to conduct negotiations.
While Western diplomats remain optimistic that a peaceful solution will be reached they have said that there is no guarantee that a political solution to Afghanistan will be accomplished. Some, however, have described the willingness of the Taliban to set up a peace mission as the beginning of the end for the Afghanistan conflict.
A Western diplomat based in Kabul has commented, “If we are looking for an endorsement that the Taliban want to pursue a peaceful strategy then establishing a peace mission is about as good as were going to get. It is important that people remember that despite this announcement of a peace mission a concrete deal is years away, and that’s if one is reached at all.”
There has been no comment from the Afghan government as of yet, whilst Qatar announced that it would be willing to host a peace mission to the Taliban. Afghan officials complained that they had not been informed about the political move by Qatar. Since this time, however, the president of Afghanistan has agreed that Qatar should be the location of any peace talks that take place.
The United States Embassy in Kabul issued a statement on Tuesday stating, “We welcome any move by the Taliban to accept the Constitution of Afghanistan and break ties with Al Qaeda.” One of the most challenging processes the Western diplomats have been faced with is to establish a reliable contact within the Taliban, and finding a legitimate representative has proved difficult.
In 2009, the West was embarrassed to find out that a man they thought was a representative of the Taliban was merely an impostor who had been taking money from Western diplomatic efforts. Officials from both the US and Afghanistan have confirmed fears that Pakistan might abuse the peace process for its own gains.
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