Will Afghan peace council bring Taliban to negotiation?
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In continuation of efforts to end the protracted instability and ensure lasting peace through dialogue in the militancy-plagued Afghanistan, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has set up a peace body, High Council for Peace, to bring Taliban militants back to negotiating table.
The government-backed peace council on Sunday picked up a former president and sitting legislator Burhanudin Rabbani who had fought Taliban militants in the past decade as its chairman to approach Taliban outfit for talks.
However, a Taliban spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmadi in a sharp reaction, according to reports, has downplayed the peace body.
The militants previously in a statement described formation of the High Council for Peace as a ploy of the United States to deceive public opinion and emphasized the solution of Afghan crisis rest with the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.
Rabbani who had fought against Taliban in the past, according to observers, has been regarded as the foe at the eyes of many Taliban militants.
Taliban militants who described Rabbani's former regime as source of "evil and corruption" in the last decade and ousted his government in Kabul in 1996 would not trust him, observers believe.
Rabbani's supporters had steadfastly stood against Taliban onslaught in the north of Afghanistan and blocked militants' advance to occupy the whole country until their collapse by the U. S.-led military campaign in late 2001.
Moreover, majority of the 70-member High Council for Peace are former anti-Taliban commanders and leaders who resisted Taliban advance in the north of the country and sided the U.S.-led Coalition against Taliban fighters.
Abdul Rab Rasoul Sayaf and Hajji Mohammad Mohaqiq are other figures that firmly resisted Taliban militants advance in the past.
Furthermore, the presence of eight women in the peace council as members of the body to push for talks is another factor that would prevent Taliban to initiate dialogue.
Above all, President Karzai has explicitly stated that the government would welcome those Taliban who severe ties with al- Qaida, accept Afghanistan constitution and renounce violence, a condition hardly acceptable to extremist outfit.
Taliban militants who are dismissing Afghan constitution as a U.S. ploy and deny women rights for education and working outside home, according to observers, would never sit around a table with delegation wherein its members are women.
This is not the first time that President Karzai has been attempting to woo Taliban support for talks and bring them to negotiating table.
President Karzai even in talks with certain media has admitted that unofficial contacts between his administration and Taliban have been continuing for quite some time.
The Afghan government had in the past proposed talks but the radical outfit rejected the offer, saying there would be no talks in the presence of foreign troops in the country.
Although chairman of the peace council Burhanudin Rabbani promised to do his best for ensuring viable peace in the country through dialogue, the inflexibility of Taliban militants and their old enmity with the key members of High Council for Peace would make achieving the noble goal very difficult if not impossible.
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