Taliban Want US Deal, but Some in Bigger Hurry Than Others

 

Afghanistan’s Taliban leadership agreed it wanted a deal with the United States. But some of the leaders were in more of a hurry than others.

Even before U.S. President Donald Trump¹ canceled talks with the Taliban last weekend, its negotiators argued with their Council of Leaders, or shura, about whether or not to attend the meeting.

Taliban officials who know about the talks say the Council of Leaders was against sending a negotiating team to Camp David, a country home of U.S presidents. Some Taliban leaders criticized the negotiators who wanted to go.

The militant² Islamic group has been holding talks with U.S. representatives for over a year in Doha, the capital of Qatar. The Taliban has a political office in Doha. The group calls itself The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

Suhail Shaheen is a spokesman for the Doha office. He told the Taliban Al-Emarah website this week that U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad had invited Taliban negotiators to Camp David in late August.

The Taliban agreed. Then it delayed. Taliban members demanded the deal be announced first by Qatar. They wanted a signing ceremony witnessed by the foreign ministers of Pakistan, Russia, China and other countries. The delay reportedly followed the shura’s rejection⁴ and criticism of the negotiators.

Taliban representatives spoke³ on the condition that they not be identified because they did not have permission to discuss the situation with reporters.

Several months earlier, the shura opposed an offer to give the U.S. military 14 months to withdraw 14,000 troops from Afghanistan. The offer was the idea of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the chief negotiator and co-founder of the Taliban. The shura told Baradar it did not agree with the suggested withdrawal⁵ date. They also told him he could not make decisions without their approval.

Taliban officials who had knowledge of both the negotiating team and the shura said that the Taliban leadership debated every part of the agreement. They also said the negotiating team either got the shura to agree or accept its decisions.

“The Taliban mobilized at the highest levels to support negotiations⁶ with the U.S.,” said Michael Kugelman. He is deputy director of the Asia Program at The Wilson Center, in Washington, D.C. “Senior Taliban officials…helped lead (the talks.)”

“There may be divisions within the Taliban, but they presented a relatively⁷ common front in the negotiating process. That’s more than one can say for the Afghan government, or even the Trump administration,” Kugelman added.

Baradar, the lead negotiator, has been campaigning for a peace deal in Afghanistan even before the U.S. government was willing to open talks. As far back as 2010, he had secretly opened peace talks with Afghanistan’s then-president, Hamid Karzai. When Pakistan learned of this, Baradar was arrested in a raid carried out with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. He spent eight years in a Pakistani jail. This was his punishment for trying to open peace talks that did not include Pakistan.

Karzai had told The Associated Press he asked both Pakistan and the United States to release Baradar, but was told no. The first secret contacts between the Taliban and the U.S. government started in 2013.

Today the Taliban are in their strongest position in Afghanistan since they were removed from power in 2001. They now have control over more than half the country. Nearly every day, Taliban forces carry out a deadly attack.

Khalilzad’s year-long peace effort has been the U.S. government’s strongest push for peace. The discussions include the Taliban, the Afghan government, leading Afghans and the governments of neighboring countries.

Some of the countries have been accused of trying to interfere⁸ with Afghanistan. These include Pakistan, Iran and Russia.

The talks should start again soon or the progress that Khalilzad made will be lost, warned Andrew Wilder. He is the Asia Programs’ vice⁹ president at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Wilder fears that Afghanistan’s neighbors could begin to again interfere or cause problems. If the U.S. withdraws, he said, “Pakistan may decide that it’s more important than ever to support a proxy¹⁰ like the Taliban to protect Pakistan’s…interests in Afghanistan.”

For now, the Taliban has been unapologetic about the daily attacks that have killed many civilians¹¹ — and which have been blamed for the talks’ collapse¹².

Trump claimed earlier this week that the Taliban had later expressed regret.

Shaheen, the Taliban spokesman in Qatar, did not express regret. He argued that the U.S. military has also continued its operations in Afghanistan during the peace talks. “There was no cease-fire and the agreement was not signed,” he added.

However, it appears the two sides are still talking, even if it is just to ask the other what it all means.

“We have contacted them (U.S. officials) and they too have (contacted) us,” Shaheen said, adding that he asked for more information about Trump’s decision. “We are hopeful of a response and are waiting for their response.”

The Trump administration still wants U.S. troops out of Afghanistan. While Trump said the peace talks were “dead,” he also said that the troops have become policemen in Afghanistan and that is not their job.

“The Taliban are in a good place right now,” said Kugelman. They want a U.S. troop withdrawal, he said, adding that “unlike the U.S. they’re in no rush to get one.”

I’m Anne Ball. And I'm Bryan Lynn.

Words in this Story

mobilize – v. to move or to get ready

proxy – n. a substitute for a peson or thing

rush – n. to go quickly, to hurry

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 rejection   

n.拒绝，被拒，抛弃，被弃

参考例句：

• He decided not to approach her for fear of rejection.他因怕遭拒绝决定不再去找她。
• The rejection plunged her into the dark depths of despair.遭到拒绝使她陷入了绝望的深渊。

5 withdrawal   

n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销

参考例句：

• The police were forced to make a tactical withdrawal.警方被迫进行战术撤退。
• They insisted upon a withdrawal of the statement and a public apology.他们坚持要收回那些话并公开道歉。

6 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

7 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

8 interfere   

v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰

参考例句：

• If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话，可能弊多利少。
• When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件，棘手的事情就来了。

9 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

10 proxy   

n.代理权，代表权；（对代理人的）委托书；代理人

参考例句：

• You may appoint a proxy to vote for you.你可以委托他人代你投票。
• We enclose a form of proxy for use at the Annual General Meeting.我们附上委任年度大会代表的表格。

11 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

12 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。