In response to Taliban’s recent statement, in which the banned militant outfit had expressed its willingness to hold dialogue, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has yet again offered peace talks to Taliban to find out a peaceful solution to Afghan quandary.
“The government offers peace negotiations to the Taliban without any conditions,” Ghani said at the second “Kabul Process” conference that concluded in Afghan capital recently. The event was attended by top officials and security experts from 25 countries to find out ways and means to end a more than one and half decade old conflict between the US-backed Afghan government and the Taliban.
The Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said that his government would recognize Taliban as a legitimate political group provided it accepted a ceasefire, entered peace talks and recognized the government and rule of law. Talking about other confidence building measures the President said Taliban members would also be able to get Afghan passports and a Kabul office. “In exchange, the government would agree to release Taliban prisoners, remove sanctions against the group and agree to a review of the Afghan Constitution”, he added.
President Ghani’s unconditional dialogue offer to Taliban is seen as a positive development that will go a long way to bring peace in the region. Holding negotiations with Taliban, recognising them as a legitimate political entity and bringing it to mainstream fold will certainly give impetus to peace efforts in the region. It is good to see that both sides have realised the importance of dialogue. So far as the conflict resolution mechanism and its applied techniques are concerned an unhindered, uninterrupted and sustainable dialogue remains the only option to resolve disputes, no matter how complex and protracted they are.
Since the people of the war torn country had witnessed death and destruction during the deadly war that has been going on for past several years, it is time that government as well as other key stakeholders should realise their duties, move forward sincerely with a positive state of mind to find out a peaceful solution to this quandary that had torn down the social fabric of the society. Moreover, tens of thousands of people have been killed in this deadly war that had paralyzed life of common people in the country.
Since there are a number of regional as well as global actors directly involved in the dispute it is quite hard to predict as in what way the wind will blow but the US that is virtually calling shots on ground has a major role to play. However, given the Taliban’s virility and fighting spirit, its role could not be ignored. Despite boring the brunt of disastrous attacks from NATO forces Taliban remains to be the region’s main contending force fighting against the US and its allied forces. Rather than relying on old and tested strategies the US should revisit its wisdom on the matter and support an Afghan led and Afghan owned peace initiative to bring peace and stability in the region. Time has come that the US, Taliban and the Afghan government should move beyond their stated positions and demonstrate flexibility to kick start a dialogue process to end the lingering conflict once and for all.
