US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad on Thursday said the US was committed to facilitating prisoners’ exchange between Kabul and Taliban. In a tweet, he said we must act on all fronts to clear the road of obstacles that slow our progress toward intra-Afghan negotiations.
The diplomatic efforts launched by the United States to save the peace process are appreciable and hopefully these would bear fruit as Washington has leverage with the Afghan Government, which put the first roadblock to the process of peace by creating doubts about release of Taliban prisoners. The announcement by President Ghani led to resumption of attacks by Taliban and this prompted the United States to hit Taliban. All this is happening just a few days ahead of the deadline when the intra-Afghan dialogue was to begin sent wrong signals all around. There is a general perception that ambiguities and anomalies in terminologies used by the United States in its separate accords with Kabul Government and Taliban are mainly to be blamed for this chaotic situation. One wonders whether these crept in due to haste or oversight or because of some hidden motives as ambiguities and uncertainties in the agreements can be interpreted by any stakeholder to further its own vested interests. The onus is now on the United States to save the peace process and its posture in the coming weeks would highlight its real intensions.
