By Jalil Afridi and Sojla Sahar
Washington DC & Islamabad: Intra-Afghan talks are currently the most sizzling topic of the drawing rooms. Currently, the Afghanistan government and Taliban’s have agreed to engage into negotiations for ending the bloodiest and longest war of US history
Sources tell that, the fragile intra-Afghan talks are already facing challenges. It was in itself the biggest progress to get Afghanistan government and Taliban’s on table.
Now both the parties have certain disagreements about the agendas of the negotiations. The formation of agendas and planning for the future of Afghanistan is entirely different for the government of Afghanistan and Taliban’s.
The actors have different ideologies and struggles; the Afghanistan government aims to develop Afghanistan in liberal way. Whereas the Taliban’s still seem to be attached with their conservative narratives.
This point pinches U.S. as it also have severe reservation on what form of government will Taliban’s go for after the negotiations? Will the system be ethnically generalized or not?
The foreign policy analysts view the entire situation is in the favor of Taliban’s. They have more to gain from these dialogues as U.S. has elections nearby. For the next presidential term U.S. will have to fulfill their promise of pulling of troops and ending the Afghan war that has put massive economic burden on U.S.
Trump’s policy of peace is favoring Taliban’s right now. Utilization of time will help or hurt the actors.
The experts say that, the regional actors are also ready to indulge in intra-Afghan dialogues for the peaceful future of Afghanistan because chaos in Afghanistan will disturb the security situation of the whole country.
Moreover, the major missing in intra-Afghan talks is limited inclusion of women. There are currently only 4 women for discussion on women situation in conflict. The ratio of women in dialogues indicates the importance of women rights in the future of Afghanistan.
Taliban’s want to talk of ceasefire, interim government, nuclear arrangements, security arrangements. Whereas it seems that U.S. is aiming at “exit U.S. policy” leaving the chaos in the backyard, experts say.
For fruitful outcomes, there is a need of “unity of vision” between the Afghanistan government and the Taliban’s. If the difference of agendas and realities persist this will damage the whole progress made till now.
