Afghan Taliban is one of the terrorist groups operating in different parts of Afghanistan. This group has been killing Afghans indiscriminately as ISIS and Al-Qaeda since it was created by the hardline religious groups and Intelligence Agency of a neighboring country of Afghanistan.
The US has resumed its talks with Taliban with two main demands; A Comprehensive Ceasefire and inclusion of the Afghan government in the peace process, while Taliban has denied both and has hoped for finalization of the previous draft agreement with the United States.
However, Afghan people and the international community see no change in the behavior of the Taliban. They destroy the public infrastructures, torch girl schools, kill civilians, kidnap and kill passengers on the roads based on their ethnicity, has close relations with terrorist groups including Al-Qaeda and pursue reestablishment of Emirat in Afghanistan. These behavior of the Taliban show that they do not believe in a sustainable peace in Afghanistan. They want to misuse the opportunity to be recognized as a legitimate political group by the international community.
Peace Impossible without an Afghan ownership and Afghan led Approach
The root causes of war in Afghanistan are discrimination, marginalization of people based on their ethnicity, religion, language and gender. As a result, the war in Afghanistan has internal roots that have been fueled by the external powers including the neighboring, regional and beyond. Thus, the main causes of conflict lie in Afghan society and in its social structures. If the United States looks for a sustainable peace in the country, it shall deeply consider how it can address the root causes of the conflict in the peace talks. As any other country, Afghan government shall lead this process. If Afghan peace process is not les by Afghan government, it would be spoiled by the other stakeholders to gain the maximum benefit from it by marginalizing the Afghan government as the elected representative of the Afghans.
Islamic Republic, the fruit of Decades of Conflict and Struggles
Afghanistan has witnessed different political systems including Kingdom, Communism, Mujahedin, and Taliban. All these political systems have failed in Afghanistan. Afghans have been the victims of these political systems in the past. However, the only system that have been able to ensure the rights of all Afghans as equal citizens of the country has been the “the Islamic Republic”, system. This system has ensured the freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of opinion, freedom of religion in the country.  Therefore, the type of political system is one of the most sensitive issues in Afghanistan. Because Afghan have sacrificed their loved ones for the current system. It is crystal cut that, the Taliban seek to revive Emarat in Afghanistan. On the other hand, Many Afghans will not accept such a brutal system that denies identity to women, as half of the society, and discriminates many others based on their religion and language.
Consequently, neither Afghan citizens, nor international community trust Taliban. While US is pursuing the peace talks with the Taliban conditioned to give guarantees the group will fight the terrorist groups and will not allow them to attack the US and Western countries interests from Afghanistan, the question which raises here is that who can guarantee the Taliban? In addition to this, Taliban is a proxy group created to ensure the interests of a specific country, how they will be able to make a decision on the peace or war, without the permission of that country. And if Taliban ensures the interests of the country that has supported Taliban for many years, how other countries including India may support a peace deal with Taliban?
Afghan people support the peace process. However, marginalization of Afghan government from the peace process is not acceptable for the Afghan citizens. At the same time, all Afghan groups including the women shall be fully included in the peace process in order to have a sustainable peace deal with the Taliban.