Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai, a top Afghan peace negotiator, said he was cautiously optimistic about prospects for reconciliation with the Afghan Taliban and that all sides now realized a military solution to the war was not possible.
Stanekzai also told reporters that Kabul hoped to transform the Afghan Taliban, who have proved resilient after more than a decade of war against US-led NATO and Afghan troops, into a political movement.
He predicted the highly lethal Haqqani militant network, the most experienced at guerrilla warfare, would join the peace process if the Afghan Taliban started formal talks.
Signs are emerging that the Afghan government is gaining momentum in its drive to persuade the Taliban to lay down its arms before most NATO troops pull out of the country by the end of next year.
Members of the Afghan government, the Taliban and some of the group’s old enemies in the Afghan Northern Alliance, which fought the Taliban for years, discussed ways of easing the conflict at a recent meeting in France.
“I think one consensus was that everybody acknowledged that nobody will win by military [means],” Stanekzai said.
Pakistan, long accused of supporting Afghan insurgents such as the Taliban, has sent the strongest signals yet that it will deliver on promises of helping the Kabul government and the US bring stability to its neighbor.
Stanekzai, who studied at Cambridge and was in charge of disarmament in Afghanistan before becoming a senior member of the Afhanistan High Peace Council, stressed that to bring long-term stability, reconciliation efforts should aim to bring the Taliban and other insurgents into Afghan politics.
Some activists fear that Kabul will make concessions to pacify the Taliban that could hurt efforts to improve women’s rights.
Stanekzai said Afghan security forces had made progress, but acknowledged that more work was needed to ensure they would be ready to take over when the US combat mission ends next year.
He also believes a free and fair presidential election in April next year is essential to prevent further conflict. The last vote was plagued by allegations of widespread fraud.
“This is the time where we have to enter in negotiations to make sure that does not happen, but, as you know, politicians are always politicians. They are always in a power game,” he said.
Stanekzai warned that reconciliation was complex, with many moving parts having to be synchronized.
The Haqqanis, who are close to al-Qaeda and have been blamed for a number of attacks on Western and Afghan targets in Kabul, are regarded as a possible spoiler.
However, Stanekzai did not seem too concerned about the group.
“When you go to a market, you always use a brand name and then you sell your very low-quality product under that brand name,” he said. “We enter a negotiation with the Taliban, which is the brand marketable name. The rest is easy.”
Asked if he thought there would be a breakthrough in peace efforts this year, Stanekzai said conditions had been established to make that possible. However, he added that Afghanistan was highly unpredictable.
“Anything can happen. You don’t know which direction these different actors will take,” he said.
Stanekzai knows that first hand.
He recalled how a man posing as a Taliban peace envoy kissed the hand of former Afghan president and High Peace Council chairman Burhanuddin Rabbani before detonating a bomb hidden in his turban.
Rabbani was killed instantly and Stanekzai was badly wounded. He says that faith in Islam has helped him recover.
“It’s life. In Islam, in our religion, it says even if you are in the middle of fire, Allah can save you,” he said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese