Details coming out regarding the US appeasement of Pakistan by according treatment to the Taliban — which the Americans have been fighting for years — on par with the elected government of Afghanistan, leave little doubt that an elaborate deception was at work in Washington.
It is learnt that a letter to Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, under the signature of US President Barack Obama, sought to assure the Afghan leader that the Taliban will be given no special status through the opening of an office in Qatar capital Doha for the extremist outfit to engage in talks with various parties, aimed at bringing about peace in Afghanistan in the wake of the end of the US combat mission in that country in 2014. It was on the basis of this letter that President Karzai initially accorded conditional acceptance to the opening of the Taliban office in Doha, which was the result of some two years of persevering work by the Americans.
But hardly had the letter been delivered that it became clear that the game was to take the Afghans for a ride, and in the process the Indians as well. This aspect is likely to become a matter of discussion with secretary of state John Kerry over his three-day stay in the Indian capital commencing Sunday.
From the time of the London Conference in January 2010, India had been emphasising that any peace process to stabilise Afghanistan after the departure of international troops had to be Afghan-led, and not chaperoned by Washington or Islamabad. New Delhi’s position was the result of the understanding that it remains Pakistan’s strategic objective to install the Taliban in power in Kabul once again. The Indian appreciation of the situation is congruent with that of Kabul. The opening of the Taliban office in Doha occasioned shock and dismay in Kabul and New Delhi as it carried the sign-board of the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” the name that the Taliban government in Kabul had given itself when it ruled the country until thrown out by invading US forces allied with Afghan militias opposed to the Taliban in 2001. The opening ceremony also featured the raising of the Taliban flag. Interestingly, Barnett Rubin, a well known New York University political scientist who has taken an interest in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, and tilts toward Pakistan, was present at the opening of the Doha office. Dr Rubin, thought to be close to the American Democratic Party establishment, is known for his view that India should not be permitted to carry influence in Kabul as this discomfits Pakistan. Responding to the deception, President Karzai ordered the suspension of strategic talks with the US through which America was seeking to retain some bases and troops in Afghanistan after 2014. It was America’s turn to run for cover. Mr Kerry kept trying to call Mr Karzai, but the President wouldn’t take his calls. When the secretary of state did make contact, he tried to be contrite. The Taliban flag came down the mast and the Taliban government’s name-board was removed.
It is understood the first thing Mr Karzai did domestically was to rally all political forces and ethnic leaders in Kabul, including the Pashtun (from whom have risen the Taliban), and had a resolution passed condemning the developments in Doha surreptitiously put together by the US and Pakistan. Kabul has told Washington that their bilateral security talks will remain in abeyance until Taliban issues public statements renouncing violence and acceptance of the Afghan Constitution, and the US announces clearly that the peace process will be Afghan-led. What has suffered in the process is American prestige and credibility.