© ers / Mohammad Ismail
Afghanistan is ready to negotiate peace with the Taliban
without any preconditions, including drafting a new constitution, a high-ranking government official said on the heels of an Afghanistan peace conference in Moscow.
Afghanistan's government will not set out any preconditions for direct peace talks with the Taliban, Ehsan Taheri, spokesman for the country's High Peace Council (HPC), told RIA Novosti in an interview.
Previously, Kabul demanded that the insurgent movement lay down its arms and respect the constitution, but this is not the case now.
"Nowadays, we - the government and the High Peace Council - declare that there are no prerequisites for the launch of the talks," Taheri said.
Established in 2010 by then-President Hamid Karzai, the HPC is a body in charge of negotiating peace with the Taliban.
The long-awaited peace negotiations may start this year or next year. There is "a growing desire" among Taliban commanders to engage in the talks "without intermediaries," according to the official.
Comment: This could potentially be a good development, but it just goes to show what an utter failure the U.S. invasion and occupation of Afghanistan has been. Seventeen years later, and what does the U.S. have to show for it? Drug money is the only net benefit to come out of it, if you consider that a benefit. The fact is, the Taliban has been winning the war -
they've got the upper hand, despite American support for Kabul:
There's no doubt the Afghan government relies on speeding up talks with Taliban" as the situation on the ground deteriorated over the past two years, Nikita Mendkovich, an expert with Russian International Affairs Council, told RT.
The Taliban have managed to gain upper hand in various parts of the country, and the Western-backed Afghan National Army risks being defeated in the coming years, he explained. And while Kabul's offer of peace sounds promising at a glance, analysts say it has more to do with the survival of the current government than anything else.
The militants are able "to take matters into their own hands" without providing any security guarantee to the Afghan government, the expert noted.
That aside, Afghanistan is preparing to hold presidential elections, putting the sitting President Ashraf Ghani in a precarious position. Because he is unpopular with sizeable part of the population and regional elites, he must demonstrate "some results."
"A peace deal or at least a long-term truce with Taliban would be a bargaining chip for Ghani to remain in power,"according to Mendkovich. However, the main reason for Kabul to accelerate the peace process is still rooted in "military defeats" sustained by the Afghan army and NATO forces.
Meanwhile, Omar Nessar, a researcher with Russia's Institute for Oriental Studies, said he doesn't see how a peace deal might become reality. The Taliban are demanding that NATO troops leave the country, which in turn is "unacceptable" for Western sponsors of Kabul.
The Taliban "doesn't need peace talks right now as they continue to gain foothold in Afghanistan," Nessar stressed. The Afghan leadership is a too week actor to talk with, but the Americans may try to ask Kabul to negotiate on their behalf in order to "save the image of the government."
Looks like Moscow is going to win 'the long war' in Afghanistan after all...
20th Sept:
No peace allowed: US strikes Taliban after group agrees to join Moscow talks
6th Nov:
Afghanistan Peace Council & Taliban to send delegations to international peace talks in Moscow
Comment: This could potentially be a good development, but it just goes to show what an utter failure the U.S. invasion and occupation of Afghanistan has been. Seventeen years later, and what does the U.S. have to show for it? Drug money is the only net benefit to come out of it, if you consider that a benefit. The fact is, the Taliban has been winning the war - they've got the upper hand, despite American support for Kabul: Looks like Moscow is going to win 'the long war' in Afghanistan after all...
20th Sept: No peace allowed: US strikes Taliban after group agrees to join Moscow talks
6th Nov: Afghanistan Peace Council & Taliban to send delegations to international peace talks in Moscow