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Progress stalls in Afghan peace talks as sides ‘await Biden’
Afghan peace talks that resumed four days ago are effectively on hold, sources from both sides said on Wednesday, as negotiators wait for President-elect Joe Biden to signal whether he will stick to Donald Trump’s aggressive schedule to pull out troops, Reuters reported.
This comes after a month-long break, which saw most, but not all, negotiators return to Doha last week for the resumption of talks.
A diplomatic source in Kabul told Reuters on Wednesday that expectations were low for progress before Biden takes office on January 20.
The sides “do not want to commit to anything before the 20th. They wanted to have the process going in the meantime because that was one of the requirements of the international community, so they have the process. But it is stagnant,” the diplomatic source said.
In an agreement signed between the US and the Taliban last year, Washington agreed to a full withdrawal by April this year.
The agreement was however conditions based and the Taliban is expected to meet certain security conditions before the last of the troops leave Afghanistan.
The Afghan government says these conditions have not been met while Biden and his advisors have so far given few clues as to their plans.
“We are waiting for the new US administration and their policies towards Afghanistan to see whether they would respect the peace accord,” a Taliban negotiator told Reuters on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak publicly.
“If they don’t honour their commitment of withdrawing their forces as promised…then we would need to make tough decisions by appointing hardliners to key positions on the ground.”
After months of little progress, the sides finally agreed ground rules for talks late last year. The talks then broke up in December, in part to allow negotiators to return home for consultations with their leadership.
The sides announced last week they would re-start talks on Saturday. But so far only limited meetings between smaller teams called ‘contact groups’ have taken place, three diplomatic and Afghan government sources told Reuters.
About four key members of the Taliban negotiating team were not yet in Qatar, the group’s spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters.
He said this was due to logistical issues travelling from remote areas where they were visiting family. They would arrive in the next few days and the delay would not affect the talks.
Some Afghan government negotiators were also not yet in Doha. One, who has been receiving treatment for cancer, told Reuters she planned to travel there this week.
Pakistan’s Deputy Minister of the Interior Ministry, Talal Chaudhry, says a new deadline will not be granted for Afghan refugees to leave the country. He stated that the process of returning undocumented migrants to Afghanistan is ongoing and that no new extension for their departure will be considered.
According to him, over 800,000 Afghan migrants—some of whom even held ACC cards have been deported so far.
“Those who only have the “ACC” cards or any other type of card are being sent back to their country. Since October 30, 2023, more than 800,000 people have been deported, and in the past few days alone, 11,000 individuals with ACC cards were returned to Afghanistan. This process will continue. As for asylum seekers being transferred to other countries, they have until the end of April this year—a deadline which will not be extended,” he added.
Meanwhile, Acting Minister of Refugees and Repatriation, Mawlavi Abdul Kabir, during a meeting with Robert Chatterton Dickson, the British chargé d’affaires for Afghanistan, stated that Pakistan has intensified the forced deportation of migrants in violation of international laws and norms.
He emphasized that addressing the situation of these migrants requires increased support from the international community.
In this meeting, Dickson also said that the UK has added more than seven million pounds to its humanitarian aid to provide additional support for the Afghan migrants.
An Iranian economic delegation has visited Afghanistan’s bordering province of Herat and held talks with local officials about expanding trade with the country.
The delegation is headed by Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs Rasoul Mohajir, and comprises Deputy Minister of Planning and Resource Management of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development and the Governor of South Khorasan Province.
The Iranian embassy in Kabul said the delegation visited the Khaf-Herat railway and the industrial township of Herat, met with the provincial governor and a group of businessmen and discussed the expansion of trade between the two countries.
After Herat, the delegation will also visit Farah province to discuss ways to develop bilateral cooperation and facilitate the transportation of goods between Iran and Afghanistan.
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) on Friday publicly executed four individuals after they were found guilty of murder, the Supreme Court has announced.
Two were executed in Badghis province and two in Nimroz and Farah.
One of them had killed three people and the other three murdered one each, according to the court.
The court said that families of victims had been requested to pardon the murderers, but they didn’t accept it.
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