[The conference was still scheduled to begin on Saturday, but officials and diplomats said the dispute would most likely be difficult to resolve. Afghan officials have said they would not accept changes to the list of about 200 participants that they sent to the Qatari hosts, which emerged from a protracted internal selection process. But the Taliban are refusing to meet with that group.]
By Mujib Mashal
 |
|
President
Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan met on Wednesday in Kabul, the capital,
with
delegates to a weekend peace conference in Qatar. The conference now
appears
to be in doubt.CreditCreditAfghan Presidential Palace, via Reuters
|
DOHA,
Qatar — A conference in
Qatar that would bring Taliban negotiators and Afghan government officials
together to inch the struggling peace process forward was in jeopardy on
Thursday, after the insurgents apparently objected to the large number of
officials included in the Afghan delegation.
The two-day conference, scheduled to start on
Saturday, was expected to include government officials as part of a delegation
of about 200 people representing a cross-section of Afghan society. The
Taliban, who have been in peace talks with American officials, have so far
refused to meet with the Afghan government, and the weekend meeting was seen as
a potential icebreaker that might eventually lead to direct negotiations.
But on Thursday, dozens of Afghan officials
who had gone to bed expecting to fly to Qatar the next day instead woke up to
“final” lists of the meeting’s participants in local news media that did not
include their names. That was followed by phone calls telling them that the
delegation’s flight to Qatar was off.
The conference was still scheduled to begin
on Saturday, but officials and diplomats said the dispute would most likely be
difficult to resolve. Afghan officials have said they would not accept changes
to the list of about 200 participants that they sent to the Qatari hosts, which
emerged from a protracted internal selection process. But the Taliban are
refusing to meet with that group.
“They asked us to prepare our bags and
passports for a flight at 12 p.m. on Thursday, which is today,” said Sediqullah
Tawhidi, a member of the Afghan delegation. “This morning we received a call
from the palace again, and they told us that the flight was canceled and that
they will let us know later.”
Messy disagreements over the past couple of
weeks have brought to light divisions among Afghanistan’s political elite about
who should lead talks with the Taliban, as well as how tricky it has become to
maneuver around the Taliban’s insistence on negotiating on their own terms.
After several rounds of talks, the Taliban
and American negotiators seem to be near a deal on major issues, including the
withdrawal of American troops and a Taliban guarantee that international
terrorist groups will not be allowed on Afghan soil. But that progress cannot
be finalized until Afghans negotiate a political future for the country after
the American withdrawal.
Although the Taliban had quietly agreed to
the participation, in a private capacity, of some government officials in the
conference this weekend, they regarded the final list of participants as
essentially a government delegation, according to Taliban representatives and
Western diplomats. It did not help that President Ashraf Ghani’s office, in
announcing the list on Tuesday, called it “the delegation of the government of
the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.”
Soon after the release of the list, the
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, in a statement, said the Qatari hosts had
made it clear “both in written and verbal form” that no one at the conference
would be representing the government, and that any official who was there would
be participating in a personal capacity.
“The creators of the Kabul list must realize
that this is an orderly and prearranged conference in a faraway Gulf country
and not an invitation to some wedding or other party at a hotel in Kabul,” Mr.
Mujahid said, alluding to the large number of participants.
Even before the latest complication, the
lineup of the delegation had been a divisive issue for the political elite in
Kabul. The peace talks are overlapping with national elections, in which Mr.
Ghani is seeking another five-year term, and the question of who would
participate in the conference was caught up in domestic political jostling,
with every player wanting a piece.
Mr. Ghani’s camp sees the opposition forces,
normally divided, as united in one thing: wanting to use the peace process to
topple him. For their part, the opposition groups, along with some Western
diplomats, regard Mr. Ghani’s team as stubborn and not genuinely committed to
any peace efforts not firmly in their control, seeing a better chance at
retaining power if the talks are scuttled.
Fahim Abed contributed reporting from Kabul,
Afghanistan.
