ISLAMABAD: Taliban chief Maulvi Hibatullah Akhunzada has appointed a hard-line cleric Sheikh Abdul Hakim as the group’s key negotiator for upcoming intra-Afghan dialogue, a Taliban spokesman confirmed on Saturday evening.
A Kandahar-native, Hakim is the group’s incumbent chief justice and a close confidant of the Taliban chief. He will lead a 21-member team in the peace talks with the Afghan government, which are expected to begin in Doha, Qatar, in the coming days.
“Sheikh Mawlawi Abdul Hakim (was) appointed as head of negotiation team and Mr. Sher Muhammad Abbas Stanekzai as (his) deputy,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a Twitter post.
He added that Muhammad Naeem Wardak replaced Suhail Shaheen — one of the few known faces of Taliban leaders — as spokesman.
With the appointment of Hakim, the Taliban chief has now strengthened his control over the group’s political affairs. The negotiation team includes 13 members of Rehbari Shoura, the leadership council, who are answerable to the chief.
Almost all members of the Taliban negotiation team have already reached Doha, including six led by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar — until now the chief negotiator — who were visiting Pakistan left Islamabad early Saturday, Taliban sources said.
The intra-Afghan negotiations were initially scheduled to begin on March 10, but delays over exchange of prisoners — 5,000 held by the Afghan government and 1,000 by the Taliban — have hindered efforts to get them started.
While the government has now freed almost all Taliban prisoners, its negotiation team could not depart from Kabul on Saturday due to technical issues, according to Afghan media reports. The team is expected to leave for Qatar on Sunday.
According to the State Department, US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad departed for Doha on Friday.
He will be in the region to promote the immediate start of intra-Afghan talks.
“The Afghan people are ready for a sustainable reduction in violence and a political settlement that will end the war. Afghan leaders must seize this historic opportunity for peace,” the State Department said in a statement on Saturday, adding that all sides have taken important steps to remove obstacles for the start of negotiations and it is “the time to start.”