What is the issue?
- Afghan government has proposed peace with Taliban and offered for talks to work out a settlement.
- This is the most comprehensible outreach since the ouster of Taliban from power in 2001 by the U.S. led coalition.
What is the exact proposal?
- The Offer - Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has recently invited the Taliban for talks and promised to recognise them as a political party.
- He also called for other confidence-building measures and asked them to recognise the Kabul regime and the constitution.
- The Taliban was asked to open an office in Kabul and passports and freedom of travel were offered to those involved in negotiations.
- The Afghan government has presently come up with a seven-point plan for engagement and no apparent preconditions have been set.
- Also, no time limit has been set for the Taliban to respond and negotiations are being premised on an openness to be accommodative.
- Previously – An attempt for peace with Taliban was made in July 2015, and talks between the warring parties were held in Pakistan.
- But those efforts collapsed when it emerged that Taliban leader Mullah Omar had died two years earlier in an attack.
- Ever since, the Taliban has stepped up its violent campaign, killing thousands and the current offer is partly in desperation.
What drove the offer?
- Clearly, 16 years of unending war seems to be driving the government and its allies to a fatigue, as the Taliban still looks resilient and persistent.
- Notably, Taliban’s is currently on the offensive and is expanding its influence across rural areas, and has a strong presence in 70% of the country’s territory.
- While Taliban has shown a capacity to strike even fortified positions in Kabul, it cannot capture the city as long as the U.S. has boots on the ground.
- Considering this stalemate like situation, both sides have incentives for initiating talks and try direct negotiations for a way out.
- Significantly, Mr. Ghani’s offer comes a month after U.S. President Trump ruled out talks with the Taliban and committed more troops for Afghanistan.
- But given the indispensability of U.S. support for the regime, the present offer is likely to have got the tacit approval of the Trump administration.
How does the future look?
- Previously, U.S. had tried various tactics like – “increasing troops, pressuring Pakistan to restrain Taliban, and promoting secret talks”.
- But as these have resulted in little success and hence it is important to experiment with a direct Afghan driven initiative like the present one.
- Settling the Taliban menace is also vital as another threat is looming large in eastern Afghanistan, where “Islamic State affiliates” are gaining clout.
- If the Taliban accepts the peace proposal, it could set the stage for a constructive engagement and provide the much needed relief for the Afghanis.
Source: The Hindu
