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Afghanistan Rejects Talks With Taliban and the U.S. Afghanistan Rejects Talks With Taliban and the U.S.
(about 2 hours later)
KABUL, Afghanistan — Less than 24 hours after the Taliban opened an office for peace talks in the Gulf emirate of Qatar, the Afghan government on Wednesday backed away from even starting discussions with its adversaries and broke off talks on future military cooperation with the United States. KABUL, Afghanistan — Lashing out in anger at the rise of a virtual Taliban embassy in Qatar just a day before, President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan on Wednesday broke off critical security talks with the United States and then scuttled a government peace delegation to the insurgents.
In one statement, signaling his anger at how the Americans had negotiated the opening of the Taliban office, President Hamid Karzai suspended talks on a bilateral security agreement with the United States that would allow American troops to stay after 2014. The action again showed Mr. Karzai’s willingness to unilaterally halt American initiatives when his allies displeased him, after reining in American detention operations and Special Operations missions earlier this year. It struck directly at two of the most critical parts of the Obama administration’s long-term vision for Afghanistan: entering peace talks with the Taliban to help dampen the insurgency as Western troops withdraw, and reaching an agreement to allow a lasting American military force past 2014.
It was at best a rocky prelude to peace talks with the Taliban, which have collapsed repeatedly in the past. American officials have long pushed for such negotiations, believing that they are crucial to stabilizing Afghanistan after the withdrawal of Western forces next year. At the same time, it became increasingly apparent that the Taliban, at little cost in binding promises or capital, were seizing the peace process as a stage for a publicity coup.
In a separate announcement several hours later, the government delayed indefinitely any encounters with the Taliban in Qatar, saying that it would not meet with them unless the insurgents lowered the office’s profile. When the Taliban opened the office Tuesday evening, they described it as a political office, and put up a banner calling it the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan — the name they used when they were in power — suggesting that they saw it more as an office of a government in exile. In one move, showing a sudden and surprising willingness to open an office after months of resistance, the insurgents could appear to accede to an exhaustive international effort to start peace talks, even while using Qatari territory — and its globally reaching news outlets — in a new bid for acceptance as a political force.
After initially responding with cautious acceptance of the opening of the Taliban office on Tuesday, long envisioned as the first step in peace talks, Afghan officials and much of the public reacted viscerally to the images that followed. News footage showed the Taliban flag being raised in the Doha office, and a banner was hung that evoked the old Taliban government: “Political Office of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.”
Afghan officials had long demanded that the office should be only an “address” for the Taliban in a neutral place, and not the symbol of a government in exile. Faced with signs that the Taliban saw the office as basically an embassy for a shadow government — and, perhaps, the realization of his expressed concerns that his American allies would seek to bypass him in talking to the Taliban — Mr. Karzai slammed the brakes.
In an initial statement, President Karzai accused the Americans of acting disingenuously in negotiating the shape of the Taliban office, and immediately called off talks between Afghan and American officials over the bilateral security agreement that would allow a post-2014 American presence in Afghanistan.
Then, in a second statement from his office, Mr. Karzai put off indefinitely any government negotiations with the Taliban in Qatar, saying that it would not meet with them unless the insurgents lowered the office’s profile and reiterating a demand that the peace process be led by Afghan officials.
“The way the Taliban office was opened in Qatar and the messages which were sent from it was in absolute contrast with all the guarantees that the United States of America had pledged,” said the statement from President Karzai’s office.“The way the Taliban office was opened in Qatar and the messages which were sent from it was in absolute contrast with all the guarantees that the United States of America had pledged,” said the statement from President Karzai’s office.
“Recent developments showed that there are foreign hands behind the opening of the Taliban office in Qatar. Unless the peace process is led by Afghans, the High Peace Council will not participate in the Qatar negotiations,” the statement said, referring to a body Mr. Karzai established in 2010 during earlier peace efforts. The statement also seemed to lump in Qatar, for its active role in facilitating the Taliban office, with the United States. “Recent developments showed that there are foreign hands behind the opening of the Taliban office in Qatar. Unless the peace process is led by Afghans, the High Peace Council will not participate in the Qatar negotiations.” the statement said, referring to a body Mr. Karzai established in 2010 during earlier peace efforts.
The statement came during an all-day meeting in the presidential palace that included Mr. Karzai, senior Afghan government officials and the members of the High Peace Council. Meanwhile, American negotiators were reported to have arrived in Qatar. It was unclear in the short term whether they would go ahead with the planned negotiations at the Taliban office, or, perhaps, seek to urge the insurgents to lower the office’s profile.
Referring to the latest Afghanistan diplomacy at a news conference Wednesday in Berlin with Chancellor Angela Merkel, The Associated Press reported that Mr. Obama said that Washington had anticipated “there were going to be some areas of friction, to put it mildly, in getting this thing off the ground. That’s not surprising. They’ve been fighting there for a long time” and mistrust is rampant. “The Taliban cannot call themselves an Islamic emirate,” said Aminuddin Mozafari, a member of the High Peace Council and a former mujahedeen commander who fought the Russians. “They are just a group of insurgents with no legal status.”
The Afghan government has been angered by Taliban signals that the insurgents see themselves as an alternative to Mr. Karzai's government. At the office’s opening on Tuesday in Doha, the Taliban also raised the white flag they had used when they ran the country and sang the national anthem used when they were in power before the American-led invasion in 2001. The rapid-fire developments on Wednesday came a day after the American military formally handed over control of security in all of Afghanistan to Afghan forces, a development that was followed hours later with the three sides’ announcement that peace talks would begin in Doha.
“The Taliban cannot call themselves an Islamic emirate,” Aminuddin Mozafari, a member of the High Peace Council and a former commander who fought the Russians, said. “They are just a group of insurgents with no legal status.” The opening was hailed by American officials as a breakthrough after 18 months of stalled peace efforts, though they cautioned that a long road remained ahead.
“The High Peace Council for the time being postponed its trip to Doha as a sign of its disagreement with the current status of the Taliban office in Qatar and will not participate in any talks until they change the term ‘Political Office’ and ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,’ ” he said. Meanwhile, the Taliban played to the cameras.
Afghan officials have long said that the office should be only an “address” for the Taliban in a neutral place, and not the symbol of a government in exile. Opening their Doha office with a lavish ceremony that included a ribbon-cutting and the playing of the Taliban anthem, insurgent officials said they intended to use the site to meet with representatives of the international community and the United Nations, interact with the news media, “improve relations with countries around the world” and, almost as an afterthought, meet “Afghans if there is a need.” They did not mention the Afghan government.
The Taliban, however, seemed to cast the office as something closer to an official embassy, underpinning the insurgents’ claim to legitimacy. Some of the other language the Taliban used closely followed the American framework for peace talks. The insurgents seemed to agree to distance themselves from Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, saying the Taliban’s aims were only within Afghanistan and that they did not support the use of Afghan soil to plot international attacks.
They said they planned to use the office to meet with representatives of the international community and the United Nations, interact with the press, “improve relations with countries around the world” and, almost as an afterthought, meet “Afghans if there is a need.” They did not mention the Afghan government. American officials said the Taliban overture was relatively sudden, initially signaled by Qatari officials toward the end of May. The timing, too, offered some surprise. Taliban forces in Afghanistan had been stepping up their attacks as summer neared, bloodying Afghan Army and police forces who have been taking the lead in security operations as American troops stepped back to a support role.
Within hours of opening the office, Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan launched a deadly ambush on an American convoy. Almost as a reminder that the Taliban, too, could borrow a page from the “fight and talk” American road map for diplomacy in Afghanistan, insurgents struck within hours of the Doha office opening. Insurgents tripped a deadly ambush on an American convoy near the Bagram Air Base north of the Afghan capital, killing four American soldiers, Afghan officials said.
The rapid-fire developments on Wednesday came a day after the American military formally handed over control of security in all of Afghanistan to Afghan forces, a development that was followed hours later with the three sides’ announcing that peace talks would begin in Doha.
But then came the surprise announcement Wednesday that Afghan officials would cease cooperation with the United States in discussing the presence of American troops after most foreign forces withdraw next year.
“In view of the contradiction between acts and the statements made by the United States of America in regard to the peace process, the Afghan government suspended the negotiations, currently under way in Kabul between Afghan and U.S. delegations, on the bilateral security agreement,” said a statement by Mr. Karzai’s office.
If the peace talks do go forward, they would be a significant step in peace efforts that have been locked in an impasse for nearly 18 months, after the Taliban walked out and accused the United States of negotiating in bad faith.
But the Taliban may have other goals. Their language made clear that they sought to be dealt with as a legitimate political force with a long-term role to play beyond the insurgency. In that sense, in addition to aiding in talks, the actual opening of their office in Qatar — nearly a year and a half after initial plans to open it were announced and then soon after suspended — could be seen as a signal that the Taliban’s ultimate aim is recognition as an alternative to the Western-backed government of President Karzai.

Sangar Rahimi, Sharifullah Sahak, and Habib Zahori contributed reporting.

Sangar Rahimi, Sharifullah Sahak, and Habib Zahori contributed reporting.