A furious Afghan government has signalled to Americans that they can no longer take for granted the positioning of U.S. forces in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of NATO forces from the country at the end of 2014.
A statement released by Afghanistan’s National Security Council on Wednesday said the “fourth round of talks on security agreement between Afghanistan and the U.S. which is currently underway in Kabul has been suspended as there is a contradiction between what the U.S. government says and what it does regarding peace talks.”
Analysts say that Afghans feel let down by the Americans on the opening of the Taliban office on Tuesday in Doha.
Apparently, the Afghan government was under the impression that the Taliban office in the Qatari capital would be an unostentatious venue to advance peace talks, but after its opening, they were surprised that it has the trappings of a quasi-embassy.
The Afghan government reinforced its protest by backing out of talks with the Taliban scheduled in Doha for Thursday.
Without the participation of the Afghan government, a peace process on Afghanistan can hardly be expected to take off.