ISLAMABAD: One of Afghanistan’s most controversial warlords and founder of the militia turned political party, Hizb-e-Islami, said on Tuesday that Afghan peace talks should be held in Kabul instead of Qatar.
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who earlier this year announced plans to contest the delayed presidential elections, gave an exclusive interview to Arab News at his Islamabad hotel on the sidelines of a peace conference hosted by Pakistan in the hill station of Bhurban this week. His comments came just days ahead of Taliban and American peace talks which resumed a fresh round in Doha on Saturday, in an effort to create the basic framework of a potential peace deal after an 18 year war, in which the militants would prevent international terrorist groups from basing themselves in Afghanistan in exchange of a withdrawal of foreign troops.
Hekmatyar took issue with the fact that the US-Taliban Doha negotiations were taking place a few kilometers away from a major American military base without Afghan civilians present. The Taliban have so far refused to sit across the table from Kabul’s western-backed civilian government, and call it a “puppet” regime.
“It would be more appropriate if the peace talks were held in Kabul,” Hekmatyar said, but added US-Taliban talks were a positive development in the peace process.
“But the talks in Qatar cannot end the crisis unless Afghans evolve a consensus to end the conflict,” he said.
In 2017, after years in exile, Hekmatyar returned to Kabul under a peace deal signed with the government in September 2016, and urged Taliban insurgents to follow his example. During the 1990’s civil war, Hekmatyar’s forces were notorious for bombarding the city. A former prime minister, he is one of the most controversial figures in Afghanistan’s modern history.
Now, among a group of senior Afghan political leaders at the Bhurban peace conference, he welcomed Islamabad’s peace overture as a “useful initiative.”
“Pakistan has taken an effective step and this process should continue and move forward. The Afghan government’s team should also be included in the process. If not, then the Taliban and Afghan political parties should have a detailed and comprehensive meeting and they should discuss all these issues,” he said.
When asked if the Taliban could possibly join another round of talks in the next round of the Bhurban process hosted in Pakistan, he said he was confident this would happen.
“We have demanded this of Pakistan. When we met Prime Minister Imran Khan, (we) requested (him) to take initiative and pave the way for the meeting between the Taliban and Afghan political leaders,” he said, but conceded the Taliban had not yet agreed on an intra-Afghan dialogue that included the Kabul government.
“We told him (Imran Khan) that in case the Taliban are not willing to sit with the Kabul administration then it is not appropriate to delay the whole process,” he said and added the process had to start somewhere, even if it was between the Taliban and opposition parties.
Addressing the Taliban directly, he went on to say that an intra-Afghan dialogue did not necessarily mean a recognition of the government.
Speaking of his own peace deal with the Kabul administration, he said the nature of peace negotiations was that they were held with rivals, “with those whom you fight.”
According to him, the government has yet to completely honor their 2016 pact, but that he was satisfied with the deal he made three years ago.
“I prefer to sit in Kabul rather than staying in the mountains,” he said, speaking of his exile. “I can do more for the withdrawal of foreign forces while sitting in Kabul.”
To a question about the upcoming presidential elections, he said it was foreign forces and not Afghans who would decide the election’s results.
“We want the US to neither interfere in election process nor try to impose people of their choice on Afghans. I do not think the decision will be made through ballots but the decision will come from outside,” he said, and added that people had serious concerns about the transparency of the elections and did not want any further delay.
The former warlord also called for the participation of refugees in elections, and said the millions of Afghan refugees in the region were being deprived of their democratic right to vote.
When asked about the Afghan war, he said the US had failed to reach the objectives it had set out to achieve 18 years ago, despite spending billions of dollars.
“The American generals were expecting they will win the war and would give the same message to the White House,” he said. “And would seek more time and resources (to) eliminate the Taliban but it did not happen.”
“Now all should focus on political solution to the problem,” he said.