Taliban political office to attend conference in Doha

The Afghan government and its sponsored High Peace Council have stayed away from the Pugwash meet on the plea that they consider it unnecessary because of the recently launched quadrilateral process by Afghanistan, China, Pakistan and the US.

“We also want our political office in Doha to be officially re-opened”.

Taliban envoys laid out preconditions for peace talks to begin during meetings with people close to the Afghan government on Sunday, reiterating that a formal process can’t start as long as foreign troops remain in the country.

General Raziq, who has been for the past few years fighting Taliban insurgents to evict them from Kandahar and Zabul provinces, said catiously, “I am praying for the return of lasting peace through negotiation in its earliest”.

They went on to seek the release of some prisoners, removal from a United Nation blacklist freezing their assets and imposing a travel ban on its leaders, and to have their political office in Doha formally recognised.

Representatives of the Taliban’s “political office” in Qatar will attend a conference here this weekend about resolving the conflict in Afghanistan.

“Some preliminary steps should be taken prior to starting peace talks because without them, progress towards peace is not feasible”, reads the Taliban statement which was presented at the conference. The Taliban are not expected to attend the talks, reports The Guardian.

Taliban representatives were notably absent in both rounds and analysts caution that any substantive talks are still a long way off. Despite the push to restart talks, the Taliban have ramped up violence across Afghanistan.

Members of the Taliban’s Doha office are believed to be directly linked to the current leader of the group, Mullah Akhtar Mansoor. He was previously Omar’s deputy.

The group said in a statement on Friday that the conference was “aimed at finding a solution to the conflict in Afghanistan”, now in its 15th year.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the attack against Tolo TV was an “atrocity created to undermine Afghanistan’s still-fragile media freedom”.

Calling itself the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”, the group added that it wanted good relations with the world “on the basis of mutual respect”.

“We do not want to interfere in others’ affairs, nor do we use our soil to harm others, nor allow others to interfere in our affairs”, it said.