A fresh effort to end Afghanistan’s 12-year-old war was in limbo on Thursday after a diplomatic spat about the Taliban’s new Qatar office delayed preliminary discussions between the United States and the Islamist insurgents.
A meeting between US officials and representatives of the Taliban had been set for Thursday in Qatar but Afghan government anger at the fanfare surrounding the opening of a Taliban office in the Gulf state threw preparations into confusion.
The squabble may set the tone for what could be arduous negotiations to end a conflict that has torn at Afghanistan’s stability since the US invasion following the September 11, 2001 al Qaeda attacks on US targets.
Asked when the talks would now take place, a source in Doha said, “There is nothing scheduled that I am aware of.”
But the US government said it was confident the US-Taliban talks would soon go forward.
“We anticipate these talks happening in the coming days,” said State Department spokesman Jen Psaki, adding that she could not be more specific. James Dobbins, the US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan “is packed and ready to go with his passport and suitcase,” she said.
One logistical complication is a visit by US Secretary of State John Kerry to Doha on Saturday and Sunday.
Kerry will discuss the Afghan peace talks with the Qatari hosts, senior US officials said, but does not plan to get immersed in any talks himself or meet with Taliban representatives. A major part of his meeting will be devoted to talks on the Syrian civil war.
The opening of the Taliban office was a practical step paving the way for peace talks. But the official-looking protocol surrounding the event raised angry protests in Kabul that the office would develop into a Taliban government-in-exile. A diplomatic scramble ensued to allay the concerns.
Kerry spoke with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday and again on Wednesday in an effort to defuse the controversy.
NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen appeared to side with Karzai by pointing out that alliance leaders at NATO’s Chicago summit last year had made clear that the peace process in Afghanistan must be “Afghan-led and Afghan-owned”.
“Reconciliation is never an easy process in any part of the world,” Rasmussen told reporters in Brussels.
