Delays continue to hamper the start of intra-Afghan negotiations 

After more than a month of speculation around the start of intra-Afghan negotiations, talks have still not started as delays continue to dominate the process. 

For months the Afghan nation has waited for negotiations to get underway but these were initially delayed by challenges around the prisoner release process. 

Last week President Ashraf Ghani released the final batch of ‘hardcore’ Taliban prisoners, except for six, raising hopes that talks would start immediately. 

On Saturday, a Taliban delegation that had been in Pakistan for talks returned to Doha and later that day announced the names of their negotiating team members. 

This led to further speculation that talks could start Monday – especially as the United States’ chief peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad also reportedly arrived in Doha over the weekend. 

But anticipated talks did not start on Monday as hoped for and the Kabul team has not yet left   Afghanistan.

 One senior government official told Reuters on Monday that the negotiating team may fly on Tuesday.

According to him, the cause of the delay was partly due to the Taliban and officials in Doha sorting out final logistical questions over the opening ceremony, including who should be given time to speak and how flags should be arranged.

These matters carry symbolic weight for the two sides, each of whom has questioned each other’s legitimacy to present themselves as governing powers, Reuters reported.

Another issue hampering the start to talks was that plans to move the six prisoners to Qatar have yet to be finalized. 

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said that there were no “major issues” causing the delay, adding that they were waiting for the six prisoners to be released, but technical teams from both sides were working on the issue, Reuters reported. 

On Monday afternoon, President Ashraf Ghani’s spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said government was ready to start talks. 

In a post on Twitter, he said: “The Afghan government delegation is ready for peace talks and the technical problems in front of these talks in Qatar have been resolved.” 

Abdullah Abdullah, the Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, meanwhile held a number of high-profile meetings with stakeholders on the issue of peace on Monday. 

During the course of the day, he met with UNAMA chief Deborah Lyons to discuss the upcoming talks as well as the Charge d’affaires for the EU in Afghanistan Arnout Pauwels. 

In another meeting, Monday Abdullah discussed peace efforts with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) envoy Huseyin Avni Botsali. 

But despite all the discussions around peace talks – no firm date has yet been given as to when talks would start.