DOHA: The US peace envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad left for China on Tuesday after meeting with the Taliban negotiators in Doha to redress the differences over the time-frame for foreign troop withdrawal — the only issue seen as a major hurdle in reaching a final deal.
Khalilzad claims that Taliban and the US reached an accord over three out of the four key issues and that progress had been made on the fourth.
“I had a meeting with the Taliban this morning. Headed to China now and then will return to Washington to report and consult on the Afghan Peace Process,” he tweeted.
Khalilzad is likely to attend a conference in Beijing organized by the Shanghai Institute for International Studies on Afghan peace process. Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai will also attend the conference.
Meanwhile, Taliban officials in Doha have said that the seventh round of Afghan peace talks will resume after both sides have briefed their leaders on the discussions held so far.
“There is break for consultations with the leaders and this round will resume later to finalize the remaining issues,” Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told Arab News, without giving further details. He did not say when the talks will restart.
Shaheen, however, wrote on twitter that the two sides will meet soon after consultations with their respective leaders and finalize whatever has been discussed.
Taliban sources, familiar with Tuesday’s talks said that both sides had constituted committees to address different issues currently under discussion. These committees met on Tuesday to iron out technical details pertaining to these issues including withdrawal of foreign forces, preventing Afghan soil from being used against the US in future, cease-fire, and direct talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government.
Taliban have refused to declare cease-fire and hold talks with the Kabul administration unless the US announced a time-frame for complete withdrawal of forces.
Khalilzad is visiting China days after senior Taliban negotiators traveled to Beijing for talks with the Chinese officials on the country’s role in the peace process asking China to become one of the key guarantors if the US and Taliban sign a peace deal.
China had also offered to host the intra-Afghan talks if all sides agreed to the proposal joining the line with Uzbekistan and Indonesia, but the Taliban rejection the move.
Taliban delegation and Khalizlad met following a two-day intra-Afghan conference in Doha in which the Taliban political representatives, Afghan government officials, politicians, women and civil society activists agreed on a roadmap for peace stressing the need to “minimize civilian casualties to zero.”
“Civilians should not be affected, war continues, but our aim is to reduce civilian casualties,” read the joint resolution passed at the end of the Intra-Afghan Peace Conference late Monday.
The joint statement pledged to “guarantee the security of public institutions like schools, religious madrassas, hospitals, markets, water dams and other working locations.”
Although, not binding in nature, the statement further urged the stakeholders to take confidence-building measures, including “unconditional release of elderly, disabled and ill inmates,” ahead of the direct negotiations.
Doha conference, which was jointly hosted by Qatar and Germany, witnessed the attendance of Afghan government representatives for the first time but the three officials spoke in their personal capacity.
The participants stressed continuation of dialogue and said they have “full consensus that achieving sustainable, far-reaching and a dignified peace, which is the demand of the Afghan people, is the only possible through Afghan inclusive negotiations.”
The conference announced full support for peace negotiations currently underway between the Taliban and the US in Qatar to find out a political solution to the conflict.
Taliban, US to resume peace talks after brief break
Taliban, US to resume peace talks after brief break
- Taliban and US delegates agree to resume talks after consultation with their leadership
- China could become one of the key guarantors if the US and Taliban sign a peace deal
Imran Khan’s party shutdown draws mixed response; government calls it ‘ineffective’
- Ex-PM Khan’s PTI party had called for a ‘shutter-down strike’ to protest Feb. 8, 2024 general election results
- While businesses reportedly remained closed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, they continued as normal elsewhere
ISLAMABAD: A nationwide “shutter-down strike” called by former prime minister Imran Khan’s party drew a mixed response in Pakistan on Sunday, underscoring political polarization in the country two years after a controversial general election.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PIT) opposition party had urged the masses to shut businesses across the country to protest alleged rigging on the second anniversary of the Feb. 8, 2024 general election.
Local media reported a majority of businesses remained closed in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, governed by the PTI, while business continued as normal in other provinces as several trade associations distanced themselves from the strike call.
Arab News visited major markets in Islamabad’s G-6, G-9, I-8 and F-6 sectors, as well as commercial hubs in Rawalpindi, which largely remained operational on Sunday, a public holiday when shops, restaurants and malls typically remain open in Pakistan.
“Pakistan’s constitution says people will elect their representatives. But on 8th February 2024, people were barred from exercising their voting right freely,” Allama Raja Nasir Abbas Jafri, the PTI opposition leader in the Senate, said at a protest march near Islamabad’s iconic Faisal Mosque.
Millions of Pakistanis voted for national and provincial candidates during the Feb. 8, 2024 election, which was marred by a nationwide shutdown of cellphone networks and delayed results, leading to widespread allegations of election manipulation by the PTI and other opposition parties. The caretaker government at the time and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) both rejected the allegations.
Khan’s PTI candidates contested the Feb. 8 elections as independents after the party was barred from the polls. They won the most seats but fell short of the majority needed to form a government, which was made by a smattering of rival political parties led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The government insists the polling was conducted transparently and that Khan’s party was not denied a fair chance.
Authorities in the Pakistani capital deployed a heavy police contingent on the main road leading to the Faisal Mosque on Sunday. Despite police presence and the reported arrest of some PTI workers, Jafri led local PTI members and dozens of supporters who chanted slogans against the government at the march.
“We promise we will never forget 8th February,” Jafri said.
The PTI said its strike call was “successful” and shared videos on official social media accounts showing closed shops and markets in various parts of the country.
The government, however, dismissed the protest as “ineffective.”
“The public is fed up with protest politics and has strongly rejected PTI’s call,” Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on X.
“It’s Sunday, yet there is still hustle and bustle.”
Ajmal Baloch, All Pakistan Traders Association president, said they neither support such protest calls, nor prevent individuals from closing shops based on personal political affiliation.
“It’s a call from a political party and we do not close businesses on calls of any political party,” Baloch told Arab News.
“We only give calls of strike on issues related to traders.”
Khan was ousted from power in April 2022 after what is widely believed to be a falling out with the country’s powerful generals. The army denies it interferes in politics. Khan has been in prison since August 2023 and faces a slew of legal challenges that ruled him out of the Feb. 8 general elections and which he says are politically motivated to keep him and his party away from power.
In Jan. 2025, an accountability court convicted Khan and his wife in the £190 million Al-Qadir Trust land corruption case, sentencing him to 14 years and her to seven years after finding that the trust was used to acquire land and funds in exchange for alleged favors. The couple denies any wrongdoing.
