The death of an American soldier or the Taliban’s winning way: What are the reasons for the cancellation of peace talks between the United States and the Taliban?
Talks between the United States and the Taliban in Doha over the past ten months ended on Sunday on three of US President Donald Trump’s ‘bomb shell tweets’.
In three consecutive tweets in a few seconds, the US president accused the Taliban of killing people to strengthen their bargaining position. Donald Trump called the cancellation of the talks a suicide attack Thursday in Kabul, killing 12 people, including an American soldier.
Observers who closely watched the talks between the United States and the Taliban do not agree with the justification offered by President Trump that he announced the cancellation of talks with the Taliban on the death of only one US soldier.
He says that behind this may be a dynamic lobby in US politics that contradicts the peace deal between the United States and the Taliban and believes that peace is not possible in Afghanistan even after that deal. To them, the deal is like kneeling before the Taliban.
However, some analysts consider the statement released by President Trump on Twitter on Thursday as a response to the death of a US soldier killed in Kabul.
The 34-year-old American soldier killed in the Kabul attack was given coverage by Alice Angel Barito Oertz, credited by media around the world, and the news was circulated with her image.
Kabul-based analyst Najib Nangial believes that peace talks between the United States and the Taliban are being misunderstood by the US, the Taliban and the Afghan government regarding the peace agreement between the three, and that is why neither party is convinced of the deal.
He said: “In the US, the Pentagon, the White House, the CIA and some members of Congress were also concerned. The Afghan government and the people of Afghanistan also had concerns about what was going on behind the scenes. Looking at the growing attacks of the Taliban, it seemed that their political leadership and the peace agreement between the fighters did not agree. ”
Although some observers see the attacks during negotiations as a tactic by the Taliban to make themselves ‘powerful’, Najib Ningial said the rise in violent incidents amid talks has led to groupings within the Taliban itself.
He said, “The Qatar office said something, they said their fighters were not doing so. In the last days it has been proved that not only attacks on Afghan citizens increased but also foreigners were targeted. Many of these attacks took place after the Taliban and the US delegation agreed to draft a peace agreement. ”
However, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in an interview to CBS News on Sunday that he had killed 1,000 Taliban in the last ten days. This means that attacks against each other have increased.
Former Pakistani Senator and politician Afrasiab Khattak has a keen eye on the politics of Afghanistan. They say President Trump expressed anger over the death of an American soldier, but nobody cared about the thousands of Afghan civilians, including children and women.
However, they consider the cancellation of the peace talks to be a “pressure” against a peace deal within the United States that they believe has existed for some time.
He said, “Their specialists in the United States, some civilians, both within the military and even some members of Congress, expressed strong concern over the deal, saying that it was going to be a very dangerous deal, instead of peace in Afghanistan.” Will cause more war. ‘
Opponents of the deal are President Trump’s own Senator Lindsey Graham. For them, the US should not withdraw its troops from Afghanistan so quickly.
What will happen next?
Analysts Najib Nangial understands how to suppress the US president’s statement. According to him, peace talks have not ended but have been postponed.
He said that now the three parties would have some opportunity and the chance to join the peace talks again.
According to Najib Nangial, ‘no war ends on war. Still, there will be talks and peace will come through negotiations. ”
The cancellation of peace talks with the Taliban is most beneficial to the Afghan government because there is a clear difference between them and America’s priorities.
America’s first priority is the peace deal, while the Afghan government’s first priority is the upcoming presidential election.
According to Najib Nangial, the Afghan government now has the time to hold elections so that the incoming government will not face criticism again because it is not a constitutional government.
It should be noted that the Constitutional term of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani ended on May 22, but the Supreme Court allowed him to remain in government until the September presidential elections.
The Taliban’s winning style
According to some sources, the Taliban were declaring a possible “peace deal” with the United States as their victory, and heard that they were also preparing to celebrate different areas of Afghanistan after the deal.
Behind this victorious thinking was President Trump’s statement regarding the withdrawal of all US forces from Afghanistan. In addition, the Taliban were convinced that the United States was leaving Afghanistan and, in talks, wanted to remove itself from the region. On the other hand, the flexibility shown by the United States in negotiations also made the Taliban happy.
When the US delegation, led by US Special Representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad, began negotiations with the Taliban delegation in Qatar, the American envoy said there were four key points in negotiating with the Taliban:
Afghan soil should not be used against the United States and their allies
- Withdrawal of US and International Forces
- Interfaith Dialogue with Afghan Government
- Ceasefire
However, after several months of negotiations, only the first two of these four issues continued to be debated, while the last two points were left for interfaith talks.
The Taliban are still firmly in their position that they will not negotiate with the Afghan government as a government, and according to them, the seizure will be discussed in interfaith talks.
According to analyst Najib Nangial, if the Taliban really wanted the success of peace talks, they would have gone out of their victorious thinking and shown some flexibility.
He said: ‘The Taliban did not come with the intention of showing resilience from day one. They talked victoriously, this is not the case in negotiations. In the negotiations you get to share something on a two-to-one basis. ‘