https://www.wsj.com/articles/talks-raise-hopes-for-afghan-peace-plan-1430775862
Talks Raise Hopes for Afghan Peace Plan
Taliban indicates willingness for power sharing in discussions with officials in Qatar
People looked out from a bakery as an Afghan policeman inspected the site of a suicide attack in Kabul on Monday.
Photo: OMAR SOBHANI/REUTERS
Margherita Stancati
@margheritamvs
margherita.stancati@wsj.com
May 4, 2015 5:44 pm ET
AL KHOR, Qatar—Top Taliban representatives showed new willingness to negotiate an end to Afghanistan's long conflict in meetings with Afghan officials and civic activists this weekend, including their first indication that they would consider a power-sharing solution.
Delegates described the closed-door discussions, which took place over the weekend at a beach resort here, as an important first step that could lead to formal negotiations after more than 13 years of war. Representatives from both sides said they were optimistic more talks would follow as soon as June.
"In the past, they would insist on a monopoly of power and they would refuse to share power," said a delegate who is close to the Afghan government. "In this meeting there was a breakthrough: The Taliban said that different people and different political factions should be represented. That is unprecedented."
The informal discussions provided a rare forum for senior Taliban members and people connected with the government in Kabul to openly debate scenarios for political compromise.
"It was a positive, interesting meeting," Sher Muhammad Abbas Stanikzai, who headed the Taliban delegation, told The Wall Street Journal on Monday. "Such meetings will bring the different parties and political differences much closer."
The Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in Kabul that killed at least one person and wounded 13 others on Monday.
Photo: AHMAD MASSOUD/XINHUA/ZUMA PRESS
Still, the Taliban refuse to formally engage with the Afghan government, which in turn didn't send an official delegation to Qatar. And informal discussions continued even as the Taliban repeated their insistence that all foreign troops must leave the country for peace to happen.
"It's a confidence-building measure because the Taliban still don't trust the Afghan government and the Afghan government still does not trust the Taliban," one delegate said.
Details and the location of the conference—which was organized by the Pugwash Council, a Nobel Peace laureate that specializes in conflict resolution, with the assistance of the United Nations and funding from Qatar's government—were kept tightly under wraps until it was over Sunday.
The atmosphere among delegates was friendly at the venue—a half-hour drive through the desert from Doha, the capital of the Gulf emirate—with Taliban and the other participants mingling freely, and even sharing meals.
Malalai Shinwari, one of three women who participated in the event, said she found the Taliban surprisingly forthcoming.
"I thought that they would not talk to me, or sit next to me, or even say hi to me," said Ms. Shinwari, an Afghan civil-society activist. "But my impression of them changed."
The women representatives, along with the other delegates, ended up praying side by side with the Taliban, she and other delegates said.
The eight Taliban representatives who attended the conference were former officials during the Taliban government and are now part of the group's political wing. They are based in Doha, where they briefly opened an office in June 2013 as part of short-lived efforts to start the peace process.
A few representatives of the military wing of Hezb-e Islami, another Islamist group that is also fighting the Kabul government, also took part.
Several Afghan officials—including two members of Afghanistan's High Peace Council, the Kabul government's top-peace negotiating body—also attended, but did so in a personal capacity, senior Afghan officials said.
Both Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his coalition partner, Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah, had informal representatives attend: for Mr. Ghani, his uncle, Qayoum Kochai, and for Mr. Abdullah, a longtime associate from the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance.
Many delegates said they saw the meeting as an indication the Taliban would eventually be willing to accept elections as a way to join a future government.
"It's the first time they showed openness to the idea of elections," said another delegate. "They didn't use the word election—but that's what they meant."
After the conference, Pugwash issued a preliminary report declaring that, in principle, all delegates supported a peaceful end to the war.
Despite the optimism, talks are unlikely to quickly lead to a peace agreement. Sharp differences remain on what kind of constitution Afghanistan would have—the Taliban want it strictly based on Shariah law—and there is no indication that either warring party is ready to lay down its arms.
If anything, the violence is intensifying. On Monday, just as the Afghan delegates were checking out of the beach resort, a Taliban bomb went off in western Kabul, killing one person and injuring 13, Afghanistan's Ministry of Interior said. And at least 18 policemen were killed amid heavy fighting in the northern Afghan province of Badakhshan, officials said.
A Western official said he doubted the Qatar conference would yield any change on the battlefield.
"We're going to go through the larger part of the fighting season before anything is initiated," the official said. "I'm happy to be wrong."
Moreover, the Taliban's key precondition for peace talks—that all foreign troops should leave—is unlikely to be met. They reiterated this demand in an official statement released Monday.
The Taliban's other preconditions for formal negotiations include the removal of the movement's senior leaders from a United Nations' blacklist and the opening of an office that could serve as a venue to facilitate peace talks.
They also asked for the release of two members of the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani group who were captured in the Gulf last fall, and who are now in detention in Afghanistan, according to participants.
The U.S.-led coalition at the beginning of this year formally handed over responsibility for the fighting to Afghan soldiers and policemen. But the government still depends on the support of the U.S.-led military coalition to pay, equip and train its security forces, and a small number of foreign troops remain in the country, where they retain a limited combat role.
Washington says it backs efforts to reach a peaceful resolution to the Afghan conflict.
"We remain strongly supportive of an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned reconciliation process whereby the Taliban and the Afghans engage in talks toward a settlement to resolve the conflict in Afghanistan," an official from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul said.
—Nathan Hodge contributed to this article.
Write to Margherita Stancati at margherita.stancati@wsj.com