US and Taliban delegations have met once again in Doha, continuing key
negotiations on the timeline of a US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the
general process toward ending the 18+ year Afghan War.
Afghan government officials, meanwhile, held their own round of talks in
Kabul. There are thousands of delegates, but they’re not talking to
anyone else, so the Afghan government is just trying to present internal
dialogue as a “parallel” summit.
Whether Afghan government officials ever get beyond that and up to the
point where they’re talking to someone else is another matter. The US
set up a chance for them to send a delegation to meet the Taliban, but
that entire process is on hold after President Ghani stopped his
delegation from attending.
Ghani’s jirga is insisting that a nationwide ceasefire needs to be the first step in any peace process,
and they won’t accept anything else. This doesn’t seem to be the
position of either the US or the Taliban, as they’ve made considerable
progress on their peace process, and both seem to still be fighting as
much as ever in the meantime.
US, Taliban Meet While Afghanistan Runs ‘Parallel’ Summit
Afghan officials insist ceasefire must be first step in any deal
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
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