Miles away from Afghanistan, two stakeholders sit down face to face on Saturday for the first time to discuss the country’s future. The peace talks between the Afghan govt and Taliban are being held in Qatar’s capital Doha, the city of Taliban’s political office, after the Afghan govt released the last batch of 6 Taliban prisoners on Thursday.
The intra-Afghan peace talks were supposed to start in March this year but were delayed as Afghanistan did not initially agree to the pre-condition of prisoner swap set by Taliban in its peace deal with the US. Taliban wanted the Afghan govt, which was not part of the US-Taliban negotiations, to release 5000 Taliban prisoners and in exchange the group would release 1000 govt & military personnel
There are two important issues that will dominate these talks – a complete and permanent ceasefire and a political power-sharing arrangement. While the Afghan govt insists that a ceasefire is its utmost priority the Taliban is not likely to agree to it till a political settlement favourable to them is reached.
The two sides are being represented by 21 people each. The Afghan govt delegation will be led by Masoom Stanekzai, a former head of Afghanistan’s intelligence agency while the Taliban will be led by Sheikh Abdul Hakim, the group's former chief justice and a close aide of the group's chief. The Afghan govt team has four women delegates who will be key in ensuring that women’s right are safeguarded in any deal reached between the two sides.
Abdullah Abdullah , the chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation and Afghanistan’s former CEO is also part of the inaugural session of the talks