Americans to talk peace with Teliban

US drops demand Taliban renounce al-Qaeda to allow talks to progress

America will engage in its first formal direct talks with the Taliban on Thursday, after dropping its long-standing demand that the movement renounce ties with al-Qaeda in order for them to progress.

The Telegraph,

18 January, 2013

The US will engage in its first formal direct talks with the Taliban on Thursday, according to officials, in a milestone on the road to peace after more than a decade of war.

The first meeting will take place in Doha, the Qatari capital, after the Taliban opened their first official overseas office and Washington dropped its long-standing demand that the movement renounce ties with al-Qaeda as a precondition for the talks.

“The US will have its first formal meeting with the Taliban, and indeed first meeting with the Taliban for several years, in a couple of days in Doha,” a senior official with Obama administration said.

Afghan peace negotiators will also travel to Qatar for talks, according to President Hamid Karzai, speaking as Nato officially transferred authority to Afghan national forces on the ground in Afghanistan.

Just hours after the agreement was announced, four American soldiers were killed by insurgents during an attack on Bagram Air Base. There were very few details of the attack, but a US official said the soldiers were killed by "indirect fire", possibly rockets or mortars.

The challenges ahead were further underlined however by a suicide attack only a few miles from where Mr Karzai was speaking.The Taliban has repeatedly refused to meet Afghan peace envoys.

After months of behind-the-scenes negotiations however, including some in Norway according to Espen Barth Eide, the country’s foreign minister, the movement has now agreed to open the Doha office to facilitate talks.

“The office is to open dialogue between the Taliban and the world,” Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said, although he made no reference to peace talks or the Afghan government. “The Islamic Emirate Of Afghanistan [the group’s formal name] doesn’t want any threats from Afghanistan soil to other countries, and neither permits anyone to threaten other countries using Afghanistan soil.

“We support a political and peaceful solution that ends Afghanistan’s occupation, and guarantees the Islamic system and nationwide security.”

None of the parties are expecting any imminent breakthrough, but US officials described the opening of negotiations with the Taliban as an “important development” on the road to reconciliation.

They were at pains to be realistic about the road ahead, conceding that levels of trust between parties were “extremely low”.

Officials said the first meeting would simply be an “exchange of agendas” in which both sides laid out what issues they wanted to address. It could be followed by a second meeting in coming weeks.

Recalling the Northern Ireland peace process took years to complete, senior Obama administration officials said the Taliban office was “the first step on what – if it is successful – will be a very long road”, adding that there was “no guarantee that this process will happen quickly, if at all.”

One official significantly added that a requirement for the Taliban to drop relations with al Qaeda – something which had stymied previous attempts at direct talks – was no longer necessary in order for them to progress.

“We’ve long had a demand on the Taliban that they make a statement that distances themselves from the movement from international terrorism, but made clear that we didn’t expect immediately for them to break ties with al Qaeda, because that’s an outcome of the negotiation process,” the official said.

President Barack Obama, speaking at the G8 summit in Northern Ireland, called the opening of the Taliban’s political office an important step toward reconciliation between the group and the Afghan government, although he predicted the road ahead will be long and complicated.

David Cameron, the Prime Minister, gave his backing to the talks.

“We need to match the security response in Afghanistan ... with a political process to try to make sure as many people as possible give up violence, give up an armed struggle and join the political process,” he said. “It’s the right thing to do – of course it involves all sorts of difficulties.”

Graeme Smith, of the International Crisis Group, said members of the High Peace Council themselves do not expect much progress.

“The main forces that were killing a lot of insurgents in recent years are leaving,” he said. “The insurgents don’t have a whole load of incentive to negotiate until they find out where the military balance lies after the withdrawal.”

Speaking at a heavily defended army academy just outside Kabul, Mr Karzai told Nato officials that the handover would help cement support for the Afghan security forces.

“From tomorrow, our security and defence forces will now be in the lead,” he said. “From here, all security responsibility and all security leadership will be taken by our brave forces.”

Some 97,000 international troops remain in the country. From now until the end of next year their role will be largely to train and advise local forces.

The transfer of the last 95 districts from Nato to Afghan control include some of the areas still affected by Taliban attacks, including Kandahar — the spiritual home of the movement — and territories that border Pakistan.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Nato secretary-general, was in Kabul for the handover. He said the coalition will help militarily if and when needed but will no longer plan, execute or lead operations.

“Ten years ago, there were no Afghan national security forces. Five years ago, Afghan forces were a fraction of what they are today,” he said.

“Now you have 350,000 Afghan troops and police. A formidable force. And time and again, we have seen them dealing quickly and competently with complex attacks. Defeating the enemies of Afghanistan, and defending and protecting the Afghan people.”

US to join direct peace talks in Qatar with Taliban over Afghanistan's future

'Peace and reconciliation' milestone comes after US drops request for formal rejection of al-Qaida as precondition to talks

the Guardian,

18 January, 2013

The US is to open direct talks with Taliban leaders within days, it was revealed on Tuesday, after Washington agreed to drop a series of preconditions that have previously held back negotiations over the future of Afghanistan.

In a major milestone in the 12-year-old war, political representatives of the Taliban will shortly meet Afghan and US officials in Doha, the capital of Qatar, to discuss an agenda for what US officials called "peace and reconciliation" before further talks take place with Afghan government representatives soon after.

The move came on the day that Nato forces handed official control of nationwide security to Afghan troops. Less than 12 hours later, the US confirmed that four US personnel died at Bagram air base near Kabul, in what was thought to be a mortar attack.

Earlier the Taliban, in a statement announcing their plans for peace talks and an office in Qatar, said they would not allow anyone to threaten or harm other countries from Afghan soil – a move senior US administration officials described as an important first step to the Taliban severing ties with al-Qaida.

The US has agreed that a formal rejection of al-Qaida by the Taliban leadership would now be a "negotiating aim" rather than a precondition for talks. It will also seek a commitment from the Taliban to end its insurgency in Afghanistan and recognise women's rights in the country.

"This is an important first step but it will be a long road," said one senior US official. "We have long said this conflict won't be won on the battlefield, which is why we support the opening of this [Doha] office."

White House officials say they believe the Taliban delegation at the talks represents the movement's leadership, and includes more radical groups such as the Haqqani network. Officials said the US would have a direct role in the talks starting starting this week in Doha, but the substantive negotiations over the future of Afghanistan would then be led by the Afghan government.

Speaking later, Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser, said: "The United States will be supporting a process that is fundamentally Afghan-led … We can play a role in talking to the Taliban as well in supporting that peace process – and because we have issues of our own to bring up with them."

A Taliban spokesman said the group was opening the Doha office to "reach understanding and initiate talks with countries of the world for the purpose of improving relations with them", and to support a peaceful, political solution to end the "occupation of Afghanistan".

The proposal for a Doha office has been on the table since 2011, and several senior Taliban figures have been living in Qatar for many months now, but the group had not publicly embraced plans for peace talks.

In Kabul, Afghan president Hamid Karzai said he hoped the opening of the Taliban office would bring the start of talks between the High Peace Council he set up to lead government negotiation efforts, and the insurgents.

However the Afghan leader, who has long been lukewarm about efforts to set up a Taliban base in Qatar, also called for any negotiations to move back to Afghanistan as soon as possible. "We hope that our brothers the Taliban also understand that the process will move to our country soon," he told a news conference in Kabul, although US officials stressed that moving talks to Afghanistan would take time.

Karzai also announced that Nato forces had handed official control of nationwide security to Afghan troops on Tuesday. Foreign soldiers will still be fighting on the ground and supporting Afghans with air power, medical evacuation and other key capacities until the end of next year.

Barack Obama is understood to have informed G8 leaders of the breakthrough at a dinner at the Northern Ireland summit on Monday night.

The deal on talks with the Taliban was partly brokered by Pakistan and the emir of Qatar after "months of diplomatic spadework" also involving Germany, Norway and the UK. In 2011, Hillary Clinton suggested that Taliban leaders would have to renounce violence for a peace process to work.

"Over the past two years, we have laid out our unambiguous red lines for reconciliation with the insurgents: they must renounce violence; they must abandon their alliance with al-Qaida; and they must abide by the constitution of Afghanistan," she said. "Those are necessary outcomes of any negotiation. This is the price for reaching a political resolution and bringing an end to the military actions that are targeting their leadership and decimating their ranks."

But on Tuesday, that position appeared to have soften somewhat. "We don't expect them to break ties with al-Qaida [immediately]," said one of the US officials speaking on an off-the-record conference call. "That is an outcome of the process." He said the expected Taliban statement opposing the use of Afghan soil for foreign attacks was "a first step in distancing them from international terrorism".

The Taliban also appeared to have softened on their long-term demand that foreign troops leave before talks can start. Karzai, despite his misgivings about overseas talks and initial opposition to the Qatar office visited the Gulf state twice this year, apparently paving the way for Tuesday's breakthrough.

Afghan president Hamid Karzai, who has always said he would prefer talks to take place in Afghanistan, was initially lukewarm about the Qatar plans, but has visited the state twice this year, apparently paving the way for today's breakthrough.