Pakistan Upbeat About Prospects of Afghan Peace Talks

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Baradar (left) and Qureshi (right)

Ayaz Gul
VOA News
August 26, 2020

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan said Tuesday it was “hopeful” about prospects of U.S.-backed peace talks between Afghanistan’s warring parties to end the country’s long conflict.

The optimism stemmed from a meeting Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi held Tuesday with a visiting Afghan Taliban delegation led by the insurgent group’s political affairs chief, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.

A post-meeting Pakistani statement said the discussions focused on the stalled Afghan peace process and the way forward.

The proposed talks are a product of a Feb. 29 landmark peace deal the United States signed with the Taliban to help end decades of Afghan violence and allow all U.S. troops to withdraw from the country by mid-2021.

“The foreign minister emphasized the implementation of the U.S.-Taliban peace agreement in its entirety, paving the way for the earliest possible commencement of intra-Afghan negotiations,” the statement said.

Qureshi noted that Taliban leaders had reiterated determination to stick to the agreement to find a political resolution to the Afghan war.

“I expect our talks today (with Taliban delegates) will, God willing, help in finding a way forward,” the foreign minister said without further elaboration.

Prisoner swap

The opening of the intra-Afghan dialogue, however, is linked to the completion of a prisoner swap between the Taliban and the Afghan government, which was kept out of the agreement.

The deal called for the Taliban to free 1,000 Afghan security forces they held captive. In exchange, the Afghan government was supposed to release up to 5,000 insurgent prisoners.

While the Taliban has already released in phases all the detainees since the swap began in April, Kabul has freed all but about 320 Taliban prisoners.

Afghan officials have cited security concerns and pressure from foreign governments for not setting the remaining prisoners free. The detainees, they maintain, are involved in deadly attacks against Afghans and citizens from other countries.

The government has also cited stepped-up insurgent attacks across Afghanistan as another reason for its reluctance to release the prisoners.

The Taliban said it will discuss a cease-fire when intra-Afghan talks begin, and denies allegations against insurgent prisoners, ruling out peace talks until all prisoners are freed.

Pakistan’s ISI

Washington has also been pressing all Afghan sides to remove remaining hurdles to the peace talks and begin dialogue as soon as possible.

Tuesday’s talks in Islamabad were also attended by the head of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Lt. Gen. Faiz Hameed.

The spy agency, critics say, is known for its close ties with Afghan armed groups, including the Taliban, since the time of the former Soviet Union’s occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

The agency is believed to have used its influence with the Taliban to bring them to the table for talks and ultimately sign the February deal with the U.S.

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Dozen Killed In Taliban Truck Bomb, Other Attacks Across Afghanistan

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RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan
August 25, 2020

At least 12 people have been killed and scores wounded in attacks across Afghanistan, including in a Taliban truck bombing that targeted a military base used by Afghan commandos, officials said.

The suicide truck bomber in the northern province of Balkh killed three people, including two Afghan commandos and a civilian, according to the provincial governor’s spokesman, Munir Ahmad Farhad.

Hanif Rezaie, a spokesman for Afghan forces in the north of the country, said on August 25 that initial military reports suggested at least six commandos and about 35 civilians were wounded in that explosion. He said the blast also destroyed or damaged dozens of nearby civilians houses.

“Most of the wounded civilians are women and children,” Rezaie said.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the Balkh attack in a tweet, claiming that “tens” of military personnel were killed. The Taliban often exaggerate their battlefield claims.

Meanwhile, an August 25 attack on a checkpoint of pro-government forces in Ghor Province killed eight soldiers and wounded five, the provincial governor’s spokesman, Arif Aber, said.

Aber said the attack in Ghor’s Shahrak district triggered a five-hour gunbattle.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for that attack. But authorities blamed the Taliban, who have claimed numerous previous attacks on security checkpoints in Ghor Province.

Meanwhile in Kabul, a roadside bomb killed a police officer and a policewoman and her driver were wounded when unknown attackers opened fire on them, Kabul police spokesman Ferdaws Faramarz said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks in Kabul.

Both the Taliban and extremists from the so-called Islamic State (IS) militant group are active in Kabul. IS militants have claimed most of the attacks in the Afghan capital in recent months.

Despite efforts to launch peace talks between the government and the Taliban, Afghan civilians continue to bear the brunt of the war.

The start of the talks envisaged under a U.S.-Taliban peace agreement signed in February has been hampered by multiple delays that have frustrated Washington.

There had been expectations that the negotiations would begin earlier in August.

A United Nations report released in July said 1,282 people were killed by violence in Afghanistan during the first six months of 2020.

With reporting by AP and dpa

Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

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Taliban Delegation In Pakistan To Talk Afghan Peace

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Baradar

RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal
August 24, 2020

A Taliban political team arrived in Pakistan on August 24 amid ongoing efforts to start negotiations between the Afghan government and the militants.

The talks, envisaged under a landmark peace agreement signed in February between Washington and the Taliban, had been expected to start earlier this month but were stymied by a series of delays.

The militants’ delegation, headed by Taliban political chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, will discuss with Pakistan’s leaders the “recent developments in Afghanistan’s peace process,” according to a tweet by Suhail Shaheen, the spokesman for the Taliban political office.

Shaheen added that the “relaxation and facilitation of people’s movement and trade between the two neighboring countries” will also be on the agenda.

The visit comes a day after the Taliban chief announced a beefed up negotiating team that includes nearly half of the Taliban leadership council and has the power to set agendas, decide strategy, and even sign agreements with the Kabul government.

That Taliban team is headed by the militants’ chief negotiator, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai.

Pakistan earlier gave the go-ahead to implement UN sanctions against a number of outlawed groups, including the Taliban.

The sanctions restrict travel, freeze assets, limit fundraising, and outlaw weapons sales. The UN has allowed travel for the purpose of peace negotiations but for a limited number of Taliban figures.

Baradar, who is on the sanctions list, spent eight years in jail in Pakistan until his release in 2018.

Baradar and U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who negotiated the U.S.-Taliban deal, signed the agreement on February 29.

The Afghan government and the Taliban are deadlocked over outstanding prisoner releases. Kabul wants the Taliban to free 22 Afghan commandos they hold captive while the Taliban demand the release of a final 320 Taliban prisoners held in Afghan jails.

The release of the remaining prisoners was approved by a traditional Afghan council or Loya Jirga called by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani earlier this month but the government later said the Taliban were still holding Afghan soldiers and halted freeing the Taliban.

With reporting by AP and AFP

Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.