Afghan Taliban reject talks with U.S. in Pakistan

[maneatinglizard]

Afghan Taliban reject talks with U.S. in Pakistan | Reuters

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - The Afghan Taliban rejected reports in the Pakistani media that they were prepared to resume meetings with U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in Islamabad and repeated their refusal to deal directly with the Afghan government.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan (R) speaks with U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad (3rd L) during a meeting at the Prime Minister's office in Islamabad, Pakistan, in this handout photo released January 18, 2018. Press Information Department (PID)/Handout via REUTERS
Pakistani newspapers and television stations reported that a meeting in Islamabad was in prospect following discussions between Khalilzad and Pakistani officials including Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday.

Senior Taliban leaders said that regional powers including Pakistan had approached them and wanted them to meet the U.S. delegation in Islamabad and also include the Afghan government in the peace process but that the approaches had been rejected.

“We wanted to make it clear that we will not hold any meeting with Zalmay Khalilzad in Islamabad,” Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid in a statement.

Talks between the two sides have stalled after the Taliban accused Khalilzad of straying from the agreed agenda and there is no clarity on when they may resume.

“We have made it clear again and again that we would never hold any meeting with the Afghan government as we know that they are not capable of addressing our demands,” said one senior Taliban leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The United States says any settlement in Afghanistan must be between the internationally recognized Afghan government and the Taliban, who have so far refused to talk to an administration they describe as an illegitimate puppet regime.

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The Taliban leader said peace talks with the U.S. delegation could resume if they were assured that only three issues would be discussed - a U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, an exchange of prisoners and lifting a ban on the movement of Taliban leaders.

Khalilzad arrived in Islamabad on Thursday and met Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan as well as the Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and other officials.

“The two sides reviewed developments post Abu Dhabi, in order to take the Afghan peace process forward,” a foreign office statement said. An Afghan Taliban delegation had a round of talks last month with U.S. officials in Abu Dhabi.

The statement didn’t give any further details on the talks, but several local TV channels reported that Pakistan agreed to host the next round of talks between the Afghan Taliban and the United States in Islamabad.

Khalilzad, an Afghan-born veteran U.S. diplomat who served as George W. Bush’s ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and the United Nations, was named by the Trump administration four months ago as a special envoy to negotiate peace.

Washington has long been pushing Islamabad to lean on Taliban leaders, who it says are based in Pakistan, to bring them to the negotiating table.

It often accuses the south Asian nation of covertly sheltering Taliban leaders, an accusation Islamabad vehemently denies.

The United States, which had more than 100,000 troops in Afghanistan at its peak during the first term of former President Barack Obama, withdrew most of them in 2014 but still keeps around 14,000 there.

Additional reporting by Asif Shahzad; Editing by Michael Perry

[maneatinglizard]

Pakistan has been trying to take over the negotiations for a while now. They’ve been trying to circumvent the Taliban’s official negotiators by replacing them with their own puppets, and recently they arrested a senior Talib to pressure them into participating in talks held in Pakistan.

It’s good to see the Taliban rejecting the attempted strong-arming by Porkistan. Seems like their efforts to improve relations with Iran and Russia have worked to decrease their reliance on the Pakis. The Afghan government should do the same with regional powers to decrease their dependence on the US as well. Neither of these countries are interested in the good of our nation. Remove both of them from the equation, and maybe the government and Taliban could actually come to an agreement.

On the other hand, I wonder if Pakistan is actually trying to sabotage the talks completely. They did this exact same thing a few years back, trying to take over talks and threatening the Taliban into joining. They must know that the Taliban don’t react well to their bullying, so why try it again? We know the ISI is stupid, but is this stupidity or intentional sabotage?

In any case, there’s one thing all Afghans can agree on, and that’s Pakistan Murdabad.

[maneatinglizard]

There’s another element to this. Ever since Khalilzad claimed that they discussed a ceasefire with the Taliban, the talks have gone cold. As I said previously, it is really bad form to publicly contradict your partners in a negotiation as Khalilzad did.

Now the Taliban are adamant that they’re only willing to discuss the three issues they’re interested in. Previously they may have been open to discussing a ceasefire or some kind of recognition of the Afghan government behind closed doors, but Khalilzad’s blunder makes that less likely.

This is why they need a better negotiator than the neocon moron Khalilzad. They need to bring in someone without his baggage and biases.

[Samandri]

Pakistan has been trying to take over the negotiations for a while now. They’ve been trying to circumvent the Taliban’s official negotiators by replacing them with their own puppets, and recently they arrested a senior Talib to pressure them into participating in talks held in Pakistan.

It’s good to see the Taliban rejecting the attempted strong-arming by Porkistan. Seems like their efforts to improve relations with Iran and Russia have worked to decrease their reliance on the Pakis. The Afghan government should do the same with regional powers to decrease their dependence on the US as well. Neither of these countries are interested in the good of our nation. Remove both of them from the equation, and maybe the government and Taliban could actually come to an agreement.

On the other hand, I wonder if Pakistan is actually trying to sabotage the talks completely. They did this exact same thing a few years back, trying to take over talks and threatening the Taliban into joining. They must know that the Taliban don’t react well to their bullying, so why try it again? We know the ISI is stupid, but is this stupidity or intentional sabotage?

In any case, there’s one thing all Afghans can agree on, and that’s Pakistan Murdabad.

Shah Shuja also did not like to be seen as puppet of East India Company but nonetheless he was. Same is case with Taliban, they are uncomfortable with the fact that their movement has too much Pakistani hands in it and they are seen as Pakistani puppets so they try to show they are not, just like Karzai would burst out against America from time to time as people were comparing him with Shah Shuja.

Taliban is precious investment of Pakistan in Afghanistan. Your heroes are getting training and rest on my soil under supervision of ISI.

[khushal]

It's always funny when a paki brags. It sound like a donkey braying.

They didn't reject the talks in Pakistan because they were in Pakistan, they rejected them because the Pakistanis were telling them to meet with the Afghan gov just like they had scheduled talks with the US delegation in Riyad but then canceled them when the Saudis told them to meet with the afghan gov.