The United States and Taliban officially resumed peace talks on Saturday in Qatari capital, Doha. In September, US President Donald Trump abruptly called off the negotiations, which lasted for almost a year, after the Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide attack in Kabul which left behind 12 people, including an American soldier, dead. Although President Trump had formally declared the talks as “dead”, American diplomats and Taliban representatives remained in touch with each other until they finally re-launched the process this week. The Taliban confirmed the fresh round of negotiations, saying they started from where they had stopped.
The resumption of peace talks is a welcome development. All parties to the conflict have now concluded that there is no military solution, and therefore any diplomatic effort aimed to bring a negotiated settlement to the war is a positive step. The good news about the fresh round of peace negotiations is that they have not started from scratch, and the efforts over the last year have not gone in vain.
The diplomatic push had raised hopes among Afghans for the political settlement of the conflict and their country’s future. Trump’s cancellation of the talks had spurred skepticism in Afghanistan over American intentions, yet Trump’s impatience for US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan to boost his re-election bid in the 2020 US presidential election had kept alive the hope in Afghans that Washington will return to the negotiating table. Now that talks have been re-launched, they should led to a tangible improvement in the political and security situation of Afghanistan. The American and Taliban interlocutors have held enough discussions over all aspects of the conflict as the bilateral peace deal had already been finalized and ready to be signed, so the path needs to be cleared for the second phase of the peace process soon, the talks between Afghans. The US-Taliban agreement is not the ultimate solution to the Afghan problem; Afghans need to set together and decide future government system for their country. The sooner such intra-Afghan talks are held, the earlier the conflict-stricken nation can be extricated from the scourge of war.