Afghan government and Taliban officials have held a two-day “non-official meeting” in Qatar over the weekend, ending with an agreement to allow the Taliban to reopen a political office for the purpose of negotiations.
Negotiations in Afghanistan have been excruciatingly slow. underscored by the fact that this carefully choreographed “non-meeting” was simply talks about the possibility of holding talks that are themselves just exploring peace talks.
Taliban officials reiterated during these talks that any actual peace talks and any actual settlement of the 14-year long war is entirely dependent of the withdrawal of NATO occupation forces.
Which of course means that no deal is to be made, as the Afghan government already made a deal with the US and NATO allowing them to keep troops in the country through 2024 and beyond.
As Clausewitz so nicely put it, 'Great conquerors, like Napoleon, are always men of peace. They wish to enter our state unopposed.'