Afghans, Taliban engage in peace talks amid violence

The Taliban and U.S.-backed Afghan government began peace negotiations this weekend in what looks to be a once-in-a-generation opportunity to end decades of war, but another wave of violence across the country threatened to overshadow the historic meeting.

With top Trump administration officials in attendance, Taliban representatives and Afghan officials kicked off a grueling negotiating session in Doha, Qatar, on Saturday.

The two sides are aiming for a long-term resolution that can end conflict between Afghan security forces and Taliban fighters while also paving the way for the U.S. to pull all of its troops from a country in which they’ve been stationed since October 2001.

But government representatives warned Sunday that the Taliban remains intent on carrying out violent attacks across Afghanistan, even as the organization’s leaders engage in diplomacy in Doha.

“The Taliban have not decreased their violence and offensive attacks” in Afghanistan, tweeted Fawad Aman, spokesman for the country’s Ministry of Defense.

The Taliban over the past several days has launched a series of attacks against Afghan security forces and planted more than a dozen improvised explosive devices across the countryside, government officials said. Taliban officials also confirmed some of the attacks, with a spokesman for the group tweeting that insurgent fighters clashed with an “enemy convoy” near the city of Kunduz.

At least 12 people were killed in that fight alone, the Taliban said.

The Taliban’s resilience and commitment to seemingly never-ending attacks is a central part of why the Trump administration sought a peace deal in the first place. Even after nearly 20 years of U.S. presence and thousands of troops killed or injured, the U.S. and its Afghan partners still were unable to fully control the country or entirely eliminate the Taliban.

It is estimated that the Taliban controls more Afghan territory today than at any point since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Against that backdrop, the Doha peace talks are seen as the last, best chance for peace. The dialogue is a central element to the U.S. deal with the Taliban, which called for a drawdown of U.S. troops in Afghanistan in exchange for guarantees that the country would never again be used as a safe haven for terrorist groups such as al Qaeda.

The U.S. already has withdrawn thousands of troops from Afghanistan as part of the peace process. The White House is expected to soon announce another reduction, down from 8,500 to between 4,000 and 5,000.

But the agreement did not lay out a formal cease-fire between the Afghan government and Taliban. Reaching such a cease-fire deal is at the top of the agenda in Doha this weekend.

Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation, called for a “humanitarian cease-fire” on Saturday and cast it as a necessary step toward long-term stability.

“I believe that if we give hands to each other and honestly work for peace, the current ongoing misery in the country will end,” Mr. Abdullah said, as quoted by Al Jazeera.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Taliban officials over the weekend and urged both sides to come to an agreement, starting with an immediate end to violence.

“Secretary Pompeo urged the Taliban to seize this opportunity to forge a political settlement and reach a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire,” State Department spokesman Cale Brown said in a statement. “He welcomed Afghan leadership and ownership of the effort to end 40 years of war and ensure that Afghanistan is not a threat to the United States or its allies.”

The U.S. had pushed the two sides to begin talks immediately after the deal was struck in February, but it took six months for the Afghan government and Taliban to complete prisoner swaps and other preliminary steps.