KABUL: Afghanistan is planning to hold a grand council of tribal elders and political leaders next month to discuss how to end the Taliban insurgency, a presidential peace envoy said, as Taliban officials and US diplomats prepared to resume talks in Qatar on Monday.
The assembly, known as a loya jirga, will be convened in Kabul on March 17, with more than 2,000 participants gathering for four days of debate under a large tent, according to Umer Daudzai, the special peace envoy appointed last year by President Ashraf Ghani.
The loya jirga is a centuries-old institution used to build consensus among competing tribes, factions and ethnic groups and was used to lay the foundations of a post-Taliban society after a US-led campaign drove the hardline militants from power in 2001.
Having waged an unrelenting guerrilla war against government and Western forces since then, the Taliban has consistently refused to talk to the Kabul government, dismissing it as a foreign-backed “puppet” regime.
A loya jirga, however, could potentially provide a forum for representatives of the Taliban to enter into a dialogue with wider Afghan society.
“The main purpose of holding the loya jirga is to reach a national consensus for peace in the country,” said Daudzai, who is leading preparations for the assembly.
Daudzai, a former interior minister, said it would also be an opportunity to make clear that the ultra hardline rule imposed by the Taliban in the 1990s, with its harsh punishments and restrictions on womens’ rights, were unacceptable for Afghanistan’s broader society.
“We will discuss in the jirga that the gains, particularly the rights of women and freedom of speech are not up for debate or concession,” Daudzai said.
Participants invited to attend the jirga would be chosen by special committees to provide a voice for a cross-section of Afghan society from across the country.
On Monday, US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad is due to meet a Taliban delegation in Qatar for the latest in a round of meetings that started last year, with the focus likely to be on how to implement a cease-fire and the possible withdrawal of international troops.
The Taliban’s political chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar will be the most senior figure attending the talks.
The US side has been trying to persuade the Taliban to talk to the government in Kabul. Daudzai, who would lead any negotiations with the Taliban, said the insurgents would eventually have to engage with the government to address their demands for the exchange prisoners and removal of international travel bans on senior leaders.
With civilian casualties hitting record levels last year and more than 3,800 people killed, Daudzai said the momentum for peace was fast building and he hoped direct negotiations with the Taliban could start within two to three months.
Afghanistan to hold grand council of elders to discuss peace talks
Afghanistan to hold grand council of elders to discuss peace talks
- The assembly, known as a loya jirga, will be convened in Kabul on March 17
- More than 2,000 participants will gather for four days of debate under a large tent
Venezuela parliament unanimously approves amnesty law
CARACAS: Venezuela’s National Assembly on Thursday unanimously approved a long-awaited amnesty law that could free hundreds of political prisoners jailed for being government detractors.
But the law excludes those who have been prosecuted or convicted of promoting military action against the country — which could include opposition leaders like Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado, who has been accused by the ruling party of calling for international intervention like the one that ousted former president Nicolas Maduro.
The bill now goes before interim president Delcy Rodriguez, who pushed for the legislation under pressure from Washington, after she rose to power following Maduro’s capture during a US military raid on January 3.
The law is meant to apply retroactively to 1999 — including the coup against previous leader Hugo Chavez, the 2002 oil strike, and the 2024 riots against Maduro’s disputed reelection — giving hope to families that loved ones will finally come home.
Some fear, however, the law could be used by the government to pardon its own and selectively deny freedom to real prisoners of conscience.
Article 9 of the bill lists those excluded from amnesty as “persons who are being prosecuted or may be convicted for promoting, instigating, soliciting, invoking, favoring, facilitating, financing or participating in armed actions or the use of force against the people, sovereignty, and territorial integrity” of Venezuela “by foreign states, corporations or individuals.”
Venezuela’s National Assembly had delayed several sittings meant to pass the amnesty bill.
“The scope of the law must be restricted to victims of human rights violations and expressly exclude those accused of serious human rights violations and crimes against humanity, including state, paramilitary and non-state actors,” UN human rights experts said in a statement from Geneva Thursday.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Venezuelans have been jailed in recent years over plots, real or imagined, to overthrow the government of Rodriguez’s predecessor and former boss Maduro, who was in the end toppled in the deadly US military raid.
Family members have reported torture, maltreatment and untreated health problems among the inmates.
The NGO Foro Penal says about 450 prisoners have been released since Maduro’s ouster, but more than 600 others remain behind bars.
Family members have been clamoring for their release for weeks, holding vigils outside prisons.
One small group, in the capital Caracas, staged a nearly weeklong hunger strike which ended Thursday.
“The National Assembly has the opportunity to show whether there truly is a genuine will for national reconciliation,” Foro Penal director Gonzalo Himiob wrote on X Thursday ahead of the vote.
On Wednesday, the chief of the US military command responsible for strikes on alleged drug smuggling boats off South America held talks in Caracas with Rodriguez and top ministers Vladimir Padrino and Diosdado Cabello .
All three were staunch Maduro backers who for years echoed his “anti-imperialist” rhetoric.
Rodriguez’s interim government has been governing with US President Donald Trump’s consent, provided she grants access to Venezuela’s vast oil resources.
