President Ashraf Ghani is rejecting the idea of prisoner releases in future Taliban talks, saying the public would never accept it. He’s also pushing for the next round of talks to be held in Kandahar, just a day after the Taliban spurned the idea of talks inside Afghanistan.
The Taliban has rejected moving talks from Doha to Afghanistan, likely because with fighting still ongoing this would allow the government to crack down on them in retaliation for anything that happens.
That Ghani even offered after the idea was already rejected, and couched it as a chance to prove they were serious about peace, may be a ploy to further spin the Taliban in a negative light. The offer, like so many on the sidelines, is made to reject.
Ghani’s comments all came out negatively, faulting the Taliban for failing to reduce violence in the country. As this comes after several recent spates of Afghan attacks, the effort to pin the fighting all on the Taliban risks positioning him as trying to undercut the peace process.
Ghani wold be the last Afghani to want peace. This is all very profitable for him.