Long awaited as a key for trying to kickstart the Afghan peace process, the Istanbul summit was finally scheduled for next week, but is now being postponed indefinitely, with the Taliban having refused to attend.
The Taliban had been set for the conference not so long ago, but are now objecting because the US reneged on the May 1 pullout date, and won’t return to the talks unless the US changes that.
Officials indicate that they’re postponing the summit until some time after Eid al-Fitr, which is in mid-May, and will try to get the Taliban to participate after that. The Taliban are reportedly keen on a prisoner release deal to get them back to the table.
The summit was to be sponsored by the UN, Turkey, and Qatar. The Afghan government has been reviewing various peace proposals of its own to take to the conference, while President Ghani has urged them to focus chiefly on his proposal.
The Taliban has warned the conference can’t just be a “political spectacle” for the benefit of the US. The US is also bringing a proposal to the conference, if and when it happens, encouraging a ceasefire in Afghanistan and a new interim government featuring government and Taliban figures preparing for new, free elections.
This might’ve gone much more smoothly in early April, before the US officially backed off May 1, as the Taliban was still on board with talks. Turkey, however, kept balking at different dates, and the first date set was announced a couple of days before it began, leading the Taliban to say they didn’t have time to arrange travel. By the time they came up with this new date, the US had made its changes, and the Taliban changed their minds.
There seems to be hope that talks could work some disagreements out, even if the US has made them harder to hold. They may need to offer an incentive to get everyone to the table, but once they do, there’s still hope for a deal to be had.
US strategy: Blow up the talks by open bad faith, then cancel the withdrawal because the talks blew up.
I think the US learned how to perfect that trick from Israel.
I don’t know about that. We perfected it pretty well dealing with Native Americans and Mexicans.
Fair enough.
Not sure US ever even pretended to negotiate much peace with Native Americans.
“Reservations or death. Take it or leave it.” was pretty much the full extent of those peace talks from what I remember of US history.
Not only US history but all regions of the world when Europeans or more civilized people met lesser organized natives. It all started with the elimination of the Neanderthals. Not unique to America at all.
There does seem to be a pattern there.
But, the Neanderthal disappearance has also intrigued me for many years.
They were FAR stronger than modern humans (strength closer to chimps than modern men), had a larger brain size (therefore possibly smarter) and much better adapted to European climate at the time.
There seems to be no way the invading humans could have conquered Neanderthals militarily in fair combat.
A small population was likely absorbed into a larger, disappeared by dissolving into the larger.
That is what Israelis really fear, about their Arab neighbors.
Troops may be out by September 11, however, the contractors will remain, and, bombs will continue to rain on Afghanistan.
The Taliban understand out motive perfectly.
Get them to a computer console and have a teleconference instead of “to the table”. It would save money. That also goes for all of our gallivanting all over the globe for the honchos on their government paid vacations and world tours.
The Taliban have a thing for honoring agreements.
Rearming and strategizing: Surface-to-air missiles. I suggest they acquire video equipment and broadcast capabilities to document their conquests.