DUSHANBE, May 26, 2015, Asia-Plus – Some media outlets report that Afghanistan’s envoy held secret talks with former Taliban officials in China last week, accelerating regional efforts to bring the insurgency to the negotiating table, people briefed on the matter by the warring parties said.
The Wall Street Journal
(WSJ) reports that the people said that the two-day meeting, which took place in the northwestern Chinese city of Urumqi, was aimed at discussing preconditions for a possible peace process.
“These were talks about talks,” one diplomat was quoted as saying by the WSJ.
The meeting was significant for another reason: It was facilitated by Pakistan’s intelligence agency in an apparent show of goodwill aimed at a negotiated solution to the insurgency.
People familiar with the meeting said Chinese officials and representatives of Pakistan’s spy agency—the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, or ISI—also attended the May 19-20 talks in Urumqi, the capital of China’s western Xinjiang region.
A spokeswoman for China’s foreign ministry, Hua Chunying, said she wasn’t familiar with the talks in Urumqi and added: “We hope that Afghanistan can soon recover peace and stability, and we are willing to help play a constructive role in this process.”
Several Pakistani government and military officials declined to comment.
Members of Afghanistan’s peace-negotiating body frequently hold informal meetings with the Taliban, but such high-level interactions are unusual.
The meetings in Urumqi come after a months-long diplomatic outreach led by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to reset ties with Pakistan after years of frosty relations, in a bid to revive talks aimed at ending Afghanistan’s 13-year war.
The Afghan delegation in China was led by Mohammad Masoom Stanikzai, who until last week was the most prominent member of the High Peace Council, the country’s peace-negotiating body. Mr. Stanikzai was nominated on Thursday as minister of defense, a position that needs parliamentary approval.
The three former senior Taliban officials who attended the meeting—Mullah Abdul Jalil, Mullah Mohammad Hassan Rahmani and Mullah Abdul Razaq—are based in Pakistan, and they are close to the Taliban’s Quetta-based leadership council.
Maulvi Qalamuddin, a former top Taliban official, said the meeting represented a very high-level effort to discuss peace.
“These people are more important than those in Qatar,” said Mr. Qalamuddin, who is now a member of the High Peace Council. “These talks are held secretly, and only a few people know about it.”
It is far from clear, however, whether the talks in Urumqi could lead to formal negotiations. In an official communication on Sunday evening, the Taliban denied the meeting took place. The group frequently makes public denials about peace overtures, while privately confirming outreach.
People familiar with the movement said the three Taliban who attended the China talks have strong ties to Pakistan’s spy agency, and that they aren’t authorized to speak on behalf of the insurgency about reconciliation.
The Taliban have previously said that only the members of its Qatar-based political commission are allowed to participate in peace-related efforts. Earlier this month, members of the commission held informal discussions with Afghan officials and civic activists in Qatar, an effort that participants said could eventually pave the way to a formal peace process.
A peace deal is still far away, however. The Taliban are pressing a countrywide offensive that is causing high casualties on both sides, and the fighting is unlikely to end soon.
The insurgency still insists that all foreign troops should leave Afghanistan as a precondition for peace negotiations to begin.
