Afghans, Taliban Talk in Qatar, War Rages at Home

Date: 08 July 2019 - 21:46

News ID: ۶۷۸۵۷

KABUL (Dispatches) – Wary representatives of Afghan society met Taliban officials in Qatar on Monday for a second day of talks, with bloody militant attacks back home casting a pall over efforts to end Afghanistan’s years of war.
The Taliban on Sunday detonated a car bomb outside a government security compound in central Afghanistan killing 14 people and wounding 180, including scores of children.
The attack came at the onset of a two-day meeting between Afghan citizens and the militants, meant to open the way to an Afghan peace process that should build on a hoped-for deal between the United States and the Taliban to end the longest ever U.S. war.
"It is very hard to sit across from those men who are waging a war against innocent Afghans, but it is also a test of our commitment to peace,” said a senior Afghan government official involved in the talks.
The Taliban and U.S. officials are trying to strike a deal on a Taliban demand for the withdrawal of U.S. and other foreign forces and a U.S. demand that the Taliban not let Afghanistan be used as a base for terrorism.
But the Taliban have refused to negotiate with the U.S.-backed Afghan government, denouncing it as a U.S puppet.
So while the 60-member delegation of Afghan representatives in Qatar includes government officials, they are not there in their official capacity.
During their 1996-2001 rule, the Taliban barred women from working outside their homes, and said women could only go out in public if accompanied by a male relative.
The talks have touched on how Afghanistan might be organized but no conclusions have been reached.
According to the United Nations, 3,804 civilians - including more than 900 children - were killed and 7,000 wounded in 2018, the deadliest year for civilians in the conflict.
U.S. negotiators and the Taliban get back to their talks on Tuesday.
Last week, the chief U.S. negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad, said the discussion was the "most productive session” since the process got going late last year.