Khalilzad ‘Cautiously Optimistic’ About Peace Talks

Khalilzad said he hopes a peace deal is reached before April 20 presidential elections and called on the Taliban to use it as an opportunity.
He said he believes there is the potential for peace in Afghanistan and that the end state of peace talks would be ‘peace, a successful Afghanistan, one that doesn’t pose any threats to itself and to the international community’.
He also said that the Taliban might bring changes to its team of negotiators and that he remains “cautiously optimistic” and “hopeful” about the talks.
Khalilzad’s chat with journalists came after he returned to Kabul following three days of talks with the Taliban in Qatar, a Taliban official and another individual close to the group told Associated Press on Sunday.
The two individuals said Khairullah Khairkhwa, the former Taliban governor of Herat, and Mohammed Fazl, a former Taliban military chief, attended the marathon talks. The two individuals spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the sensitive negotiations, AP reported.
US officials could not immediately be reached for comment. The State Department has refused to comment on reported talks with the Taliban.
A third individual with knowledge of the discussions said the Taliban pressed for a postponement of next year’s presidential elections and the establishment of an interim government under a neutral leadership. Abdul Sattar Sirat, an ethnic Tajik and Islamic scholar, was suggested as a candidate to lead an interim administration.
The individual, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks, said Khalilzad wants to reach a settlement within six months, a timescale the Taliban said was too short. Khalilzad also proposed a cease-fire, which the Taliban rejected, the individual said, adding that there was no agreement on the release of prisoners, opening the Taliban office or lifting a Taliban travel ban.
Khairkhwa and Fazel were among five senior Taliban members released from the US prison at Guantanamo Bay in 2014 in exchange for US Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was captured by the Taliban after walking off his base in Afghanistan in 2009. The five are now based in Qatar, and are seen as having enough stature to sell a peace deal to insurgents fighting on the front lines.
Pakistan has meanwhile released a number of high-level Taliban prisoners, including the movement’s co-founder, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. The releases are widely seen as a US-directed move aimed at encouraging the Taliban to participate in talks.
In a lengthy statement issued earlier this month, the Taliban had demanded the lifting of sanctions against the group’s leaders, the release of prisoners and the recognition of their office in Qatar. The Afghan government is deeply opposed to any recognition of the Qatar office, which the Taliban in the past have billed as a government in exile.
Khalilzad has been touring the region in recent days, and reportedly met with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Sunday. He is expected to press Ghani to cobble together his own negotiating team, which could prove difficult given the deep divisions within the government.