Moscow Meeting On Afghanistan Revives Plans To Hold Kabul-Taliban Direct Talks

The third meeting in the so-called Moscow format on the Afghan peace settlement with the participation of Taliban representatives and the members of the Afghan High Peace Council was held in the Russian capital on Friday and is thought to pave the way for the direct talks between the radical movement and the Afghan government.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th November, 2018) The third meeting in the so-called Moscow format on the Afghan peace settlement with the participation of Taliban representatives and the members of the Afghan High Peace Council was held in the Russian capital on Friday and is thought to pave the way for the direct talks between the radical movement and the Afghan government.

The Moscow format of consultations was created in 2017 based on the six-party consultation mechanism with the participation of special representatives of Afghanistan, China, India, Iran, Pakistan and Russia. The second Moscow-format meeting in April 2017 resulted in the decision to expand the size of consultations and invite the representatives of the Central Asian countries to join the discussions.

Invitations to take part in the third meeting in Moscow were given to representatives of Afghanistan, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan Uzbekistan and the United States.

Both the Taliban delegation, comprising five individuals, and the Kabul delegation, made up of four members of the Afghan High Peace Council, stressed ahead of the meeting that their participation in the event did not imply direct talks between the two parties, with the Kabul delegation expressing hope that the current meeting might pave the way for holding direct talks in the future.

The meeting, whose organization took more than a year, was initially scheduled for September 4, but then was postponed for an indefinite period at Kabul's request.

"As you know, it was originally planned to hold the conference in early September, but then in a telephone conversation with [Russian Foreign Minister Sergey] Lavrov, the president of Afghanistan, citing various circumstances, asked to postpone the event for a month in order to work jointly on modality," Russian Foreign Ministry Second Asian Department Director, Special Presidential Envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov explained.

He added that the Afghan authorities had delayed the meeting by imposing impossible conditions, in particular, the condition of possible direct talks with the Taliban movement.

"The Afghan government demanded, exactly demanded, that direct negotiations with the Taliban movement should be held on the sidelines of the Moscow consultations. We have contacted the Taliban as we were interested in that ourselves and asked the Taliban leadership to respond positively, if possible, however, they refused categorically," Kabulov revealed.

The year ahead of the meeting has been marked by consultations between Kabulov and Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Nasir Ahmad Andisha with the participation of Mohammad Akram Khaplawak, the CEO of the Executive Secretariat for the Peace and Reintegration Process at the Afghan High Peace Council.

TALIBAN'S DEBUT IN MOSCOW FORMAT

The previous two meetings were held without Taliban representatives, which Moscow explained by inviting only government representatives. According to experts, Moscow might have changed its stance on the issue due to the constantly worsening situation in Afghanistan on the ground.

"We welcome the delegations of the High Peace Council of Afghanistan and the Taliban movement present here. Their participation in today's event is an important contribution to the creation of favorable conditions for the start of direct negotiations between the government, the Taliban movement and representatives of the wide public and political circles of the country," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said when opening the meeting on Afghanistan in Moscow.

Kabulov, in turn, recalled that the Afghan negotiating process belonged to Afghanistan's entire people, including the Taliban movement, which is also a member of the country's society.

"There is a popular belief and our Western colleagues often refer to the so-called Afghan-owned and Afghan-led process, which is a [peace] process belonging to and managed by the Afghans.

But we should not forget that it is not the Afghan government-led and owned process ... it is an all-Afghan process. And the Taliban is a part of the Afghan society. That is why the process belongs to all Afghans, who are indeed interested in holding such negotiations," Kabulov stressed.

The issue of possible direct talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban movement was central during Friday's meeting. Following the discussions, the Afghan High Peace Council expressed its readiness to engage in direct talks with the radical movement and to offer assistance in organizing negotiations between the Afghan authorities and the Taliban.

"The Afghan authorities, in coordination with the Afghanistan High Peace Council, have recently put forward peace proposals offering the Taliban to launch peace talks without [preconditions] in any place they choose ... The Afghanistan High Peace Council is ready to create opportunities for the start of negotiations between the Afghan authorities and the Taliban," the council's spokesman Ihsan Taheri told Sputnik.

Taheri indicated that the challenges that used to prevent the holding of such talks in the past no longer existed.

"There are currently no serious obstacles that we used to have in the past. We are just waiting for the Taliban to announce its official delegation for the negotiations ... We are ready to facilitate this," Taheri pledged.

The spokesman added that, taking into account Kabul's invitation, the start of the future negotiations was unconditional.

"Tendency is growing among the different levels of the Taliban leadership for the direct talks to take place sooner with the government of Afghanistan. We hope it's sooner when they are deciding to announce their readiness for talks to take place between the government and the Taliban, because the people of Afghanistan are tired of fighting, people of Afghanistan are thirsty for peace," Taheri said.

The Taliban delegation, in turn, positively assessed the outcome of the discussions, with Al Haj Muhammad Abbas Stanikzai, the head of the Taliban political office delegation, expressing hope that future negotiations on Afghan reconciliation will be held in the format of the Moscow consultations.

"The Moscow format was a successful conference ... we have expressed our own point of view on different issues in my country, Afghanistan," Stanikzai noted.

The Russian Foreign Ministry then confirmed that the meeting's participants agreed to continue consultations under the Moscow-format mechanism.

Speaking about the main issues that should be settled ahead of the launch of direct talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government, the radical movement mentioned the presence of foreign troops in the country.

"From our point of view, Afghanistan's problems have two dimensions. The first one is external. The second one is internal. If the problems of the external dimension are resolved, then we can solve [the issues belonging] to the internal dimension, including the issues of constitution, human rights, rights of women, the problem of drugs and all internal problems," a representative of the Taliban delegation said following the meeting.

Kabulov later confirmed the Taliban's stance, saying that the movement would be ready to talk with the government only after agreeing with the United States on a schedule for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.

"They said that they would be ready to talk with the Afghan government only after reaching an agreement with the Americans on the schedule for withdrawing all foreign troops from Afghanistan. As a confidence-building measure, the Taliban preliminarily demand the release of all political prisoners and the cancellation of anti-Taliban sanctions imposed on them back in 1997," Kabulov indicated.

According to the Taliban delegation, the talks on the pullout of the US troops from Afghanistan were currently at an early stage.