Karzai in Doha to discuss Taliban peace negotiations

Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai being received by HE Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Attiyah, Minister of State, at Doha International Airport yesterday. Sayar Abdurrahman Jassim al-Mauda, Qatar’s ambassador to Pakistan and non-resident ambassador to Afghanistan, and Mohamed Qassim Hemmat, Afghanistan’s charge d’affaires in Doha, were also present at the airport to receive the Afghan president.

AFP/Doha

Afghan President Hamid Karzai arrived in Qatar yesterday to discuss the Taliban group opening an office in Doha for peace negotiations that could end more than a decade of war.

Karzai was welcomed at the Doha airport by Minister of State, HE Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Attiyah, the official Qatar News Agency (QNA) said, without giving any further details on his talks schedule.

With Nato-led combat troops due to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, Karzai seems to have agreed to the proposed Taliban office in Doha and is expected to firm up the plan in talks with Qatari leaders today.

Any future peace talks still face numerous hurdles before they begin, including confusion over who would represent the Taliban and Karzai’s insistence that his appointees be at the centre of negotiations.

“We will discuss the peace process, of course, and the opening of an office for the Taliban in Qatar,” presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi told AFP before Karzai left Kabul.

“If we want to have talks to bring peace to Afghanistan, the main side must be the Afghan government’s representatives, the High Peace Council, which has members from all the country’s ethnic and political backgrounds,” Faizi added.

A statement from Karzai’s office said he was accompanied on the two-day state visit by Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul and Salahuddin Rabbani, chairman of the High Peace Council.

Negotiating with the Taliban regime was for many years anathema to countries fighting in the UN-backed coalition against the group.

But the search for a political settlement became a priority as the insurgency raged on.

Kabul has repeatedly stressed that it will only start talks if the insurgents break all links with Al Qaeda and give up violence, and Faizi said that any Taliban office in Qatar must be held to strict conditions.

“It can only be an address where the armed opposition sit and talk to the Afghanistan government,” he said. “This office cannot be used for any other purposes.”

The UN this week welcomed news that Karzai would visit Qatar, and issued another call for the Taliban to come to the negotiating table.

“You are Afghans, you care, I assume, about your country, you care about (a) peaceful stable future of the country,” Jan Kubis, the UN envoy to Afghanistan, said. Page 4

President to push for Qatar embassy in Kabul

Afghan President Hamid Karzai will push for the opening of a Qatari embassy in Kabul when he meets the country’s top leaders including HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani in Doha today, writes Zia Khan, Staff Reporter.

Afghan diplomats in Doha told Gulf Times that Karzai would request HH the Emir and other Qatari leaders to open an embassy in Kabul to help facilitate  political and economic contacts between the two countries.

Afghanistan opened its embassy in Doha in 2003 and wants Qatar to reciprocate the move now, said Mohamed Qasim Himat, the acting Afghan ambassador. “We think it will be in the mutual interest of our two nations,” said the envoy. “If there is an embassy of Qatar in Kabul it is easier for investors from here to go and explore the opportunities in the mining sector in Afghanistan,” added Himat, who has been involved in preparing the ground and setting the agenda for Karzai’s visit.