Taliban, government leaders meet as car bomb kills at least 14 in Afghanistan

The Taliban's former envoy to Saudi Arabia Shahabuddin Delawar (L) arrives with Taliban negotiator Abbas Stanikzai (R), along with Taliban Qatar spokesman Suhail Shaheen (2nd-R), and the Taliban's former culture and information minister Amir Khan Mutaqi to attend the Intra Afghan Dialogue talks in the Qatari capital Doha on July 7, 2019. (AFP)

• This is the first time members of the insurgency have met representatives from President Ghani’s government
• Taliban spokesman maintained ahead of the conference that the meeting did not constitute “formal negotiations,” Kabul leaders to speak in “personal capacity”

DOHA: Senior Afghan political leaders, including several Kabul government representatives and women activists, wrapped up day-long discussions with Taliban representatives on Sunday, the first time members of the insurgency sat face-to-face with members of President Ashraf Ghani’s administration to find a negotiated settlement to an 18-year-long war.
Taliban political spokesman, Suhail Shaheen, told Arab News ahead of the meeting that the intra-Afghan conference did not constitute “formal negotiations” and participants would not represent the Kabul government but speak in their personal capacity.
“Every participant,” he said, “will share views as to how peace could return to Afghanistan.”
Shaheen added, however, that the Taliban would represent their political office and explain their official stance on the peace process, with Sher Abbas Stanekzai leading the insurgents’ delegation.
Part of diplomatic efforts to end years of violence that continued this week with a devastating bomb attack in Kabul that killed at least eight Afghan security personnel and four civilians, the conference was held in a “friendly environment,” according to the Taliban spokesman, in which both sides freely expressed their views. He said the Taliban had welcomed “suggestions by the delegates from Kabul.”
Shaheen maintained that Taliban leaders explained their position on how to end foreign invasion and bring peace to Afghanistan. He also reiterated the longstanding Taliban position of not holding talks with the Kabul administration unless the US formally announced a time-frame for the withdrawal of troops.
“We will talk to all Afghan sides when the invasion comes to an end, and we are discussing this with the Americans,” he continued.
The conference will continue on Monday and a joint statement is likely to be issued at the conclusion of the meeting.
Representatives from the Taliban and the United States started a seventh round of peace talks last week, aiming to hammer out a timeframe for the withdrawal of foreign troops in exchange for guarantees from the Taliban that they would not use Afghan soil to launch attacks against the United States.
US special envoy for Afghan reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad, an Afghan-born American diplomat, has been tasked by his government to secure a political settlement with the Taliban, which now controls more Afghan territory than at any time since being toppled in 2001 by US-led forces.
In a tweet on Saturday, Khalilzad said the latest round of talks were the “most productive session” to date, adding that significant progress had been made on all four aspects of a potential peace deal: troop withdrawal, counter-terrorism assurances, participation in intra-Afghan dialogue and negotiations, and a permanent and comprehensive cease-fire.
The US and Taliban will resume talks on July 9 after Sunday’s dialogue, the Taliban and Khalilzad have said. In the past, the Taliban repeatedly refused to meet President Ashraf Ghani’s government, which they called a puppet regime.
The Doha conference was earlier scheduled to be held in April but Qatari organizers postponed it after differences emerged over who would participate in the dialogue.
Qatar and Germany have jointly hosted today’s conference, which some participants describe as the continuation of intra-Afghan meetings that began in Moscow in February this year.
Several members of the Taliban and delegates from Kabul met late on Saturday to discuss the agenda for the conference.
“Discussions will be held on Afghans’ basic rights, human rights and Islamic rights in the intra-Afghan negotiations and no one should have concerns,” the Taliban spokesman said when asked whether concerns about women and human rights would be addressed at the conference.
He added that during the Moscow conference, the Taliban had said that they would “ensure women rights ... in line with Islamic injunctions that include right to work, education, if they want to begin their own business or inherit...”
A larger number of women participated in the Doha conference than in previous meetings, with several women participants meeting Khalilzad on Saturday after the Taliban and Afghan delegates met informally at a dinner hosted by the organizers at a local hotel.
Afghan delegates were hopeful that the conference would pave the way for formal and direct peace negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
“This is our hope that the conference in Doha will lead to the beginning of a formal intra-Afghan dialogue,” Omar Zakhilwal, a former Afghan minister, told Arab News on Sunday ahead of the conference in Doha.