Opinion | Doha resolution offers hope, however slender, for peace in Afghanistan

After two decades of strife, the Afghan Taliban and the Kabul government have struck a resolution to pave the way for peace, even as Donald Trump meets Imran Khan to encourage Pakistan, a Taliban supporter, to nudge the peace process along

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An Afghan boy outside the Musa Qala district-centre military base in Afghanistan. The Taliban insurgency has led to numerous bombings and killings since the 1990s. Photo: AFP

Published: 5:30am, 26 Jul 2019Updated: 6:23am, 26 Jul 2019

Notwithstanding the startling assertion by United States President Donald Trump that he can end the war in Afghanistan in “a week” if he chose to but did not want to “kill 10 million people”, there is cause for hope in war-ravaged Afghanistan. Trump made these remarks during a meeting with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday in Washington DC, but the real story lies in Doha and Kabul.

The recently concluded intra-Afghan dialogue in Doha, co-hosted by Qatar and Germany, offers hope of a dim light at the end of a dark and bloodied tunnel, whose genesis goes back to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in December 1979.

There were no breakthroughs or substantive outcomes at the conference, which brought together as many as 60 participants, including women from a broad spectrum of Afghan representatives and a group from the Taliban. The Afghan government representatives there also emphasised that they were participating in a “personal” capacity, because the Taliban dismisses Ashraf Ghani’s regime in Kabul as a puppet government and refuses to engage with it.

However, the delegates managed to agree on a road map to reduce violence and embark on reconstruction and peace-building. The joint resolution, signed by 17 Taliban members, agreed to stop attacks on “religious centres, schools, hospitals, educational centres, bazaars, water dams and workplaces”, and committed to reaching a “consensus on all-inclusive Afghan negotiations”.

Members of a Taliban delegation leaving after peace talks with Afghan senior politicians in Russia on May 30. Photo: Reuters

It added: “All Afghans are committed to a united and Islamic country, putting aside all ethnic differences; Afghanistan shall not witness another war. The international community, regional and internal elements shall respect Afghans’ values accordingly.”