In the beginning of year 2019 American and Taliban officials agreed in principle to the framework of a peace deal to end 17 years of war in Afghanistan. As per the statement of the negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad, the framework includes Taliban’s agreement to a cease-fire and to talk directly with the Afghan government which the insurgents have opposed in the past. The draft framework, is the biggest tangible step toward ending a war.The draft agreement on the issue of foreign troop withdrawal and the Taliban pledges that Afghan soil would not be used against others. “We want peace quickly, we want it soon, but we want it with prudence,” President Ashraf Ghani said in a statement. As per the New York times reports , “Since the United States started to engage the Taliban, this by far is the closest to a deal,” said Hekmat Khalil Karzai, a former Afghan deputy foreign minister who leads the Center for Conflict and Peace Studies and has been involved in the peace efforts for years.
Pakistan shares border with Afghanistan and has a vital role to play in this peace deal. U.S. President Donald Trump wrote a formal letter to PM Khan asking for his help to bring the Taliban to the table for negotiations. Imran Khan said, the U.S. has changed its tune by requesting help instead of saying Islamabad is not doing enough, as U.S. officials have previously insisted. Pakistan has convinced the Taliban that neither U.S. nor Taliban were winning and there is absolutely no military solution to the ongoing war in Afghanistan. Taliban were further sensitised to focus on the rebuilding of Afghanistan through international funding of their homeland rather than empty slogans of victory .An unstable Afghanistan threatens Pakistan, therefore Pakistan has immense interest for the peace in Afghanistan. Therefore, Pakistan immediately responded to US request to facilitate the peace process in Afghanistan.
What we need to understand is that the Taliban, who control more than half of Afghanistan are actually in the dialogue from a position of strength. And only a better understanding in between the US and Taliban (backed by the regional players) can help bring stability in the region. Meanwhile, gradually declining in size, the US should continue with its financial support and engagement to help war ravaged economy of Afghanistan for some more time. While, the Afghans should sustain the patient hope that their country will stabilize and strengthen over time, but at the same time US exit from Afghanistan received with a mixed response in one of the latest report on Afghanistan titled “Consequences of a Precipitous US Withdrawal from Afghanistan”, warns president Trump not to decide exit of the US Forces from Afghanistan in haste. An early withdrawal, the report argues, will cause the insurgents to loose interest in negotiating peace with the United States. Report also causes speculations of a chaos in the region where regional players will likely exert pressure in support of respective groups. The subsequent consequences call for an overly sensitive debate. Let us hope that this dialogue initiative leads to peace and ends almost three decades of suffering of the Afghan people.
( The author is a freelancer from central Kashmir’s Budgam district. Views are exclusively his own)
