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US Increases Push for Negotiated Settlement in Afghanistan

4th July, 2018 · admin 1 Comment

peaceAyaz Gul
VOA News
July 4, 2018

The United States is pushing hard to take advantage of the momentum for peace talks generated in Afghanistan due to a brief cease-fire during the Muslim holy festival of Eid last month.

“I think it creates this impulse for everyone to renew their efforts to find a negotiated political solution,” Alice Wells, the principal deputy assistant secretary for the State Department’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, told reporters in Kabul according to AFP.

Wells visited Afghanistan and Pakistan for four days starting Saturday, in an effort to rally the stakeholders to push forward on a negotiated settlement between the warring factions in Afghanistan.

“The support that we saw, not just from the Afghan people but from the Taliban commanders and foot soldiers was extraordinary,” she said, describing the way the Afghan public, security forces, and even Taliban reacted to the cease-fire.

Many Taliban fighters took advantage of the cease-fire to head to the cities. Local media and posts on social media showed them enjoying ice cream, taking selfies, and offering Eid prayers with their battlefield enemies in the Afghan security forces. Several of them told reporters they were tired of the war. It was the first time since the war started that both sides had agreed to put down their weapons for three days. However, when President Ashraf Ghani extended the cease-fire, the Taliban refused to follow suit.

Ghani has offered the Taliban unconditional talks but the Taliban refuse to negotiate with him, calling his government a puppet regime. They want to talk directly with the United States and demand a withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan.

“The only path to rescuing ourselves from all these calamities is for all American and other occupying forces to leave our country and for an independent, Islamic, intra-Afghan government to take root,” an Eid message from Taliban leader Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada read.

A statement from U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo around the same time hinted that his country was willing remove this obstacle by agreeing to discuss troop withdrawal.

“As President Ghani emphasized in his statement to the Afghan people, peace talks by necessity would include a discussion of the role of international actors and forces. The United States is prepared to support, facilitate, and participate in these discussions,” the statement said.

Wells said this took away “all of the objections the Taliban have about why they are not prepared to engage with the Afghan government.”

Richard Olsen, former U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said the principal focus of U.S. diplomacy was to find a negotiated political settlement with the Taliban and “Alice is particularly very focused on it.”

He also thought the Eid cease-fire, which showed the Taliban leadership had control over its cadre, increased pressure on Pakistan to “deliver the leadership.”

The United States and Afghanistan have long claimed that the leadership of the Afghan Taliban lives in Pakistan. While Islamabad denies that charge, U.S. officials continue to push back.

“Right now it’s the Taliban leaders, and frankly it’s Taliban leaders who aren’t residing in Afghanistan, who are the obstacle to a negotiated political settlement,” Wells said in Kabul according to Reuters. She added that the United States had “not yet seen that sustained and decisive action on the part of Islamabad” that it was looking for.

The U.S. South Asia strategy as far as Pakistan is concerned is a one-point agenda: to deal with the Taliban and the Haqqani Network,” said Moeed Yusuf, the associate vice president of the Asia center at the U.S. Institute of Peace, a Washington based think tank.

The U.S. demand, he explained, is to either bring them to the table and negotiate seriously, or neutralize them by killing, arresting, or expelling them from Pakistan.

“I don’t think anything else has been put on the table this trip or will be put on the table till this particular irritant is removed,” he said.

In Islamabad, Wells met with multiple ambassadors, including several Europeans, the Chinese, and the Afghan ambassador, according to a U.S. embassy official.

The Europeans are important NATO allies of the U.S. in Afghanistan. They would need to be on board in any conversation on a peace process or a political settlement, according to Yusuf.

Afghanistan’s ambassador to Pakistan, Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal, has been pushing for a peace process for a while, and the Chinese meeting may be an effort to re-invigorate a group of the United States, China, Pakistan, and Afghanistan that has been dormant for two years, according to Olsen. The four nation group was formed to convince the Taliban to join peace talks.

“All of this suggests to me movement for a peace process,” Olsen said.

The statement issued by the U.S. embassy in Islamabad said the visit “focused on the role that Pakistan can play in achieving a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Afghanistan.”

A similar statement from the spokesman of Pakistan’s military said that the two sides “reaffirmed the commitment towards the common goal of peace and stability in the region and discussed measures towards that end.”

Related

  • US Releases Report On Afghanistan’s Security, Stability
  • Why Can’t Pakistan Facilitate a Long-Term Ceasefire in Afghanistan?
Posted in Pakistan-Afghanistan Relations, Peace Talks, Security, Taliban, US-Afghanistan Relations |
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One thought on “US Increases Push for Negotiated Settlement in Afghanistan”

  1. Baghlani says:
    July 4, 2018 at 5:03 pm

    TURKISH AND IRANIAN
    ROLES
    INSIDE AFGHANISTAN
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    ********************
    ••••••••••••••••••••
    AND THE *TRUE VOICE
    OF
    THE PEOPLE OF PAKISTAN
    ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    THE TURKISH AND IRANIAN AUTHORITIES, MUST OPEN UP A GENUINE DIALOGUE WITH EACH OTHER NOW, IN REGARDS TO PEACEFUL RESOLUTION OF ALREADY WIDELY-SPREAD HOT CONFLICTS
    ACROSS MUCH
    OF
    AFGHANISTAN.
    .
    .
    .
    ALL ALONG SINCE THE GRAND INVASION OF 2001; “IRAN AND TURKEY” HAVE HAD BEEN ACTIVELY AND HEAVILY INVOLVED IN IMBROGLIOS OF AFGHANISTAN
    THROUGH VARIOUS WAYS AND MEANS.
    ===
    TURKEY JOINED AS A NATO STANDING MEMBER AND IRAN AS AN INDIRECT SILENT PARTNER IN BOLSTERING PROJECTS FOR THE PROMOTION OF THE IMPOSED
    REGIME IN KABUL- ALL UNDER THE
    CLOSE WATCHFUL EYES OF THE
    ANGLO/US ARROGANT GENERALS
    AND
    THEIR REGIONALLY-STATIONED POLITICAL WATCH DOGS.

    ===============================
    =====
    ==
    UNDER THE NEWLY-DEVELOPING POLITICAL SCENARIOS
    THOSE TWO, RATHER REGIONALLY
    STABLE AND LARGER
    ISLAMIC
    COUNTRIES, ARE TOTALLY
    OBLIGATED AND RESPONSIBLE
    TO
    HELP FACILITATE AND ESTABLISH
    THE
    RIGHT PATH
    FOR
    THE RESTORATION OF HONORABLE PEACEFUL LAW AND ORDER
    TO ALL THE
    PEOPLE
    OF
    AFGHANISTAN- OTHERWISE, THEY
    WILL BE SURELY COUNTED AS REAL
    CULPRIT PARTIES, ((%100)), TO
    THE PAST SAVAGERIES THAT HAVE HAD BEEN ALREADY EXTENSIVELY COMMITTED, PLAGUED AND IMPOSED BY THE ROGUE ACTIONS AND REACTIONS
    OF
    THE RELENTLESS POLITICAL AND MILITARY WINGS
    OF
    THE
    INTERNATIONAL INVADERS;
    THEIR HARDCORE PARASITIC
    SUPPORTERS
    AND
    CAMP-FOLLOWERS.
    *
    ========
    ========
    •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
    ========
    ========
    TO
    SUMMARIZE
    =========
    WE ASK
    TURKEY AND IRAN
    TO DEVELOP ONE FIRM UNIFIED STAND ON
    PEACEFUL STATUS
    OF
    THE PEOPLE
    OF
    AFGHANISTAN.
    *
    ***********************************************
    WE ALSO ASK:
    THE GREAT
    MUSLIM PEOPLE
    OF
    PAKISTAN
    TO CLARIFY THEIR STANDS
    AND
    EXERCISE THEIR FULL
    “PEOPLE POWER”,
    ((BY FORCING
    THEIR
    WEAK
    MILITARY AND POLITICAL
    AUTHORITIES)),
    NOT TO LET ANGLO/US
    MILITARY STRATEGISTS CONCEIVE AND LAUNCH,
    ((OVERT AND/OR COVERT)) UNHOLY
    FRESH OPERATIONS AGAINST THE
    WILL AND WISHES
    OF
    THE PEOPLE
    OF
    AFGHANISTAN- JUST
    TO STIR
    CONVENIENTLY-CHEAP, EASY; BUT, EXTREMELY
    HARMFUL ANARCHIES IN AN ORDER TO PROLONG
    DESTRUCTIVE DESIGNS
    AND
    APPEASE THEIR
    GREEDY NEEDS.
    =================================

    .
    RESPECTABLE
    PEACE
    CAN NOT BE ACHIEVED
    WITHOUT THE
    PHASED WITHDRAWAL
    OF
    THE *INVADERS
    AND SINCERELY-CIVILIZED
    INTENTIONS
    OF ALL THE
    NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES; PERIOD.
    ===============
    ===============
    *YOU ARE
    ALL
    INVOLVED
    IN
    AFGHANISTAN !
    *

    Reply

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