Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani on Tuesday made another offer for talks to the Taliban, even as he hit out at Pakistan for not acting “according to the global consensus on terror” at a conference where Afghanistan is seeking to take back control of the narrative on reconciliation by re-launching the “Kabul Process”.
“We’re offering a chance for peace but we must also be clear that this is not an open-ended opportunity. Taliban-sponsored terrorism is creating a platform that is bringing terrorists and criminals from all over the region to Afghanistan,” Mr. Ghani said, a week after more than 150 people were killed in a truck bombing in Kabul followed by another bombing at their funerals which killed seven more people.
Mr. Ghani has appointed a new Chairman of the High Peace Council, Mohammad Khalili, to take forward the talks, which he said could take place in “any mutually acceptable location” and would allow the Taliban to set up a representative office, as long as it follows the established guidelines of abiding by the Constitution, and abjuring violence.
However, he added that if the Taliban failed to take up the offer, Afghanistan would push for the UN to sanction the group as a “perpetrator and sponsor” of terror.
Even as Mr. Ghani began to speak at the Kabul Process meeting, attended by 24 countries, including India, militants launched a rocket that landed inside the compound of the Indian Embassy in the diplomatic zone. In another blast at Herat’s Grand Mosque, seven people were killed on Tuesday.
Positive offer
“Such attacks won’t change India’s unwavering stand on terror,” Manpreet Vohra, India’s Ambassador in Kabul, told The Hindu over the phone, confirming that no one had been injured by the rocket that fell just outside his residence. Asked about Mr. Ghani’s proposed roadmap for talks, he called it a “very positive offer”.
In his speech, Mr. Ghani said he would not enter a “blame-game” about who was responsible for the growing number of attacks in the country, but called on Pakistan to propose a “mechanism” for peace.
“Our problem, our challenge, is that we cannot figure out what is it that Pakistan wants. What will it take to convince Pakistan that a stable Afghanistan helps them and helps our region?” Mr. Ghani said.
Officials see the Kabul Process as an attempt by the Afghan government to replace other processes on reconciliation like the Moscow meetings held since December 2016, and the American-backed Murree Process in Pakistan in 2015.
“We have resumed the Kabul Process from 2010 under which all future peace and security meetings will be held in Kabul,” Ashraf Haidari, the D.G. of Policy and Strategy in Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry told The Hindu . “Even if Russia and others want to hold peace meetings, their agendas would have to be in accordance with the Kabul Process.”
Russia plan
India, Afghanistan and the U.S. had protested the Russian decision to hold a trilateral meeting on Afghanistan with China and Pakistan only, in December 2016. In subsequent meetings in Moscow, India, Iran and Central Asian countries were included, but the U.S., which was invited to a meeting in May, refused to join. Previously, India had objected to the Murree Process, which saw Taliban leaders meet with Afghan and Pakistan representatives, in a process that included the U.S. and China. As a result, the Kabul Process, which is inclusive as well as “Afghan-owned and Afghan-led”, should be supported “sincerely and honestly” by all countries of the region, Mr. Haidari said.
