Failure Of Doha Talks On Afghanistan May Lead To Further Conflict Escalation - MSF

The failure of the inter-Afghan talks in Doha to achieve any political solution to the conflict will only lead to an exponential increase in fighting as compared to last year, Christopher Stokes, the special representative of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, or Doctors Without Borders) in Afghanistan, told Sputnik

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th April, 2019) The failure of the inter-Afghan talks in Doha to achieve any political solution to the conflict will only lead to an exponential increase in fighting as compared to last year, Christopher Stokes, the special representative of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, or Doctors Without Borders) in Afghanistan, told Sputnik.

"We know that this fighting season there is a lot of expectation around the Doha talks, the different talks that are happening in Doha or in Moscow and if those talks don't succeed, Afghans have told us that the fighting will be even worse this year," Stokes said.

Stokes added that MSF would be forced to step up a plea for donations if there was a large increase in fighting.

"We won't do a specific drive unless there is a big deterioration in the fighting this year," Stokes noted.

Afghanistan has long been gripped by war and political instability, but the two main rivals, the Afghan government and the Taliban movement, have been making efforts toward achieving peace by holding indirect talks.

Along with these contacts, Afghan diaspora and Afghan politicians, such as former President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai, as well as representatives of the political office of the Taliban in Qatar have recently launched intra-Afghan talks.

The first round of intra-Afghan talks took place in Moscow on February 5-6. The Afghan government's delegation was absent from the talks. Following the conference, attendees produced a declaration, in which they outlined their desire for the talks to be attended by officials of the Afghan government in the second round. It also stipulated that Taliban leaders should be removed from international "blacklists" and expressed the need to end the war in Afghanistan.

The second round of the talks is expected to be held in the Qatari capital on April 19-21.