Taliban in Moscow says 'occupation' must end for Afghan peace
A Taliban delegation met a group of senior Afghan politicians
in Moscow on Tuesday, insisting that international forces must leave
Afghanistan for peace to be agreed, amid gathering diplomatic efforts to end
the 18-year war.
The delegation, led by chief Taliban negotiator Mullah
Baradar Akhund, met politicians, including senior regional leaders and
candidates challenging President Ashraf Ghani in this year’s presidential
election.
“The Islamic Emirate wants peace but the first step is to
remove obstacles to peace and end the occupation of Afghanistan,” Baradar said,
appearing openly on television in what appeared to be a calculated move to
establish his legitimacy as one of the main public faces of the Taliban.
The Taliban, ousted by US-backed forces weeks after the
Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, refer to themselves as the
Islamic Emirate.
Mohammad Karim Khalili, head of the High Peace Council, the
main body charged with pursuing peace efforts, said dozens of people were being
killed in fighting every day and it was time for a “dignified and just
mechanism” to end the bloodshed.
Taliban officials have been talking to US diplomats for
months about the terms of a withdrawal of more than 23,000 US and NATO
coalition troops from Afghanistan and have reached a draft agreement on some
issues but no new date for the next round of talks has been set and many
obstacles remain.
Chief among these is the Taliban refusal to deal directly
with President Ashraf Ghani’s Western-backed government in Kabul, which they
dismiss as a “puppet” regime.
Meetings between the Taliban delegation and political figures
not formally associated with the government have been seen as a way of
preparing the way for full negotiations later. But those contacts are regarded
with deep suspicion by many Afghan officials who see them as undermining the
legitimacy of the government while reinforcing the position of the Taliban.
The group of politicians attending the ceremony to mark the
centenary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Afghanistan and
Russia included many of Ghani’s most powerful political adversaries.
Atta Mohammad Noor, the former governor of the northern
province of Balkh and a leader of the mainly ethnic Tajik Jamiat-e Islami
party, said it was in the interests of all sides to establish a good
understanding.
“We want to have good relations with the Taliban and we
expect peace from them,” he said.
However, the presidential election in September is expected
to put Afghanistan’s political system under heavy strain following bitterly
disputed parliamentary elections last year that drew widespread accusations of
cheating.