Government Hopes Qatar Summit End in Intra-Afghan Dialogue

The Afghan government is hopeful that sending a delegation to the Qatar summit will result in ending up of war and starting of an intra-Afghan dialogue, said Omid Maysam Deputy Spokesperson of the Afghan Chief Executive on Wednesday.

At the same time, the Leadership Council for Reconciliation held its second meeting today in the presidential palace where they decided that the talks with the Taliban in Qatar will be held between 19 and 21 April.

But a former Taliban member says that direct negotiation between the Taliban and the Afghan government would not be possible in the presence of the foreign forces in the country.

“If the government delegation participates in Qatar Summit as Afghans, the Taliban will set with them. But if they participate as government representatives Taliban will not accept them,” said Sayed Akbar Agha, a former Taliban official.

Political analysts believe that lack of a productive formula for reaching peace has caused the national and international efforts to be ineffective.

“There is a long way ahead of us to reach peace. President [Ghani] wants peace conditioned to remain in power, Hamid Karzai wants peace conditioned to be appointed as the head of the interim government, the Taliban want peace conditioned to having the power,” said Ahmad Saeedi, an Afghan political commentator.