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Arg to Taliban: Stop making excuses, introduce your negotiating envoy
After the Taliban criticized the formation of the Afghan government’s negotiating team of intra-Afghan dialogue, saying it will not talk to the team which is not all-inclusive, the Afghan presidential palace blames the Taliban for beating around the bush.
Presidential Advisor Waheed Omer says, “What we want of the Taliban is not to make excuses. That is, it will talk to a team that is inclusive of all levels of Afghanistan – something which is not their business… If it comes to excuses, we can also judge the formation of the team formed by the Taliban.”
The government says that its negotiating team of 21 is an inclusive one, it is final and no changes will be made to it.
Najia Anweri, the spokesperson to the state ministry of peace, says, “The negotiating team of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, as it is said in the press release, has been formed after consulting with the well-known figures of Afghanistan. It is a strong one. To decide the inclusivity of the team is the business of none other than the government.”
In the meantime, some political movements and groups favorable to Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah say that they have not been consulted regarding the formation of the negotiating team. According to some sources, these political movements want Hamid Karzai to lead the team.
Gul Rahman, a former judge at the monitoring commission of the constitution enforcement, said, “The negotiating team is not inclusive and accountable. It should be led by a man of good character and background.”
Moreover, it seems like the prisoner releases, which is a precondition to the intra-Afghan dialogue, has been facing challenges again.
Also, a Taliban team was supposed to visit Kabul to talk over the prisoner releases; however, the visit, for some reason, has been delayed.
Advisor Waheed Omer says that the release of the prisoners all at once will not be plausible and “the prisoner release will be conditional of the intra-Afghan talks.”
Meanwhile, Roland Kobia, European Union Special Envoy for Afghanistan, has criticized the Taliban’s stance tweeting, “In war, like in peace, you don’t get to choose your opponent. If you want a say in the composition of the other Negotiating Team, fine but then you should accept they have a say in yours too, to check if it is fully representative of your society. Where are the women for example?”