The Taliban and the Afghan government will resume talks on Saturday to bring stability in Afghanistan and try to end two decades of conflict in the country.
The deal outlines a peace process which involves the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan, reducing violence to ensure social stability in the nation, free close to 5,000 Taliban prisoners held by Afghan security forces and free 1,000 security personnel held by the Taliban.
Stakeholders
The biggest stakeholders in these talks are the Afghan people. Their sentiments can be put into perspective in the words of US secretary of state Mike Pompeo. “(Both sides must) deliver what the Afghan people are demanding — a reconciled Afghanistan with a government that reflects a country that isn’t at war,” Pompeo said on Friday, according to Reuters.
The Taliban and the Afghanistan government will surely differ on issues like women empowerment and education for all as the Taliban have made it clear that they would want a theocratic Islamic state which is contrary to what the Afghanistan constitution outlines.
“The Taliban have always been clear about what they want and that is a pure Islamic government, which is incompatible with the current liberal democratic Islamic political order,” Nishank Motwani, deputy director at the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, told wire agency Agence France Presse.
The 21-member team has women politician Raihana Azad and Fawzia Koofi, who recently survived an assassination attempt and along with Zalmay Khalilzad will negotiate how to protect minorities and women who are one of the prime stakeholders in this conversation.
One of the unlikely stakeholders is US president Donald Trump under whose presidency the US has managed not to engage in war on foreign soil. Trump will look forward to keeping his election promise and ensure that US soldiers get to return home.
Objectives
The talks will primarily aim to draw a timeline which will outline the withdrawal process of US troops, Nato soldiers and the private army men, according to the Council of Foreign Relations website.
The discussions will also aim to ensure that the Afghanistan soil is not used for fostering terrorist groups. A UN report cited by the New York Times says that fighters from outfits like Al-Qaeda and terrorists from countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have found cover under the Taliban.
Another primary objective will be to ensure that the ceasefire between Afghan forces and the Taliban terrorists continue. The intra-Afghan talks will also aim at making the Taliban recognise the achievements made by the democratic governments and to not bring back the reign of terror which was the norm when the nation was under the rule of the Taliban in the 1990s.
Pompeo, US special representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad, politicians from the Afghanistan government and Taliban forces will start talks aiming to restore peace and rule of law in the country.
