On Tuesday, June 18, Taliban formally opened its political office in Doha, the capital of Qatar, a growing gulf power in pursuit of playing bigger role in the region. From the very start of the possibility of talks, the country announced its preparation to host Taliban leaders and play important mediatory role between Afghan government and its armed Al-Qaeda linked opposition.
The formal opening of the office angered Afghan government. Kabul hurriedly announced that a bilateral talk over strategic partnership with US was suspended due to its double standard actions. Afghan officials claimed that US did not act upon its commitment and said that till the process was not led by Kabul, they would not hold any type of serious talks with Taliban militants.
Two issues angered Afghan government: First of all the name of political office and second the press release that Taliban representatives made after inauguration of the ceremony. It was named the office of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the name of its government when it was ruling the country from 1994-2001. The name angered Afghan officials and worried that foreign countries might start dealing with Taliban without considering the government. Afghan social network users also hugely criticized it, saying it clearly meant two governments ruling in one country.
The second issue was the press release that Taliban representative made after the opening of the office. They said that peace and war go hand to hand. They will not give up fighting and will continue to complete withdrawal of foreign security forces. According to them, Afghanistan was under the occupation and they will fight to liberate it from occupiers.
These two issues terribly affected the prestige of Afghan government. First of all, the name of office was sign of weak status of Afghan government and vice versa the strength of Taliban. Its name gave a sense that Taliban are not armed opposition but a government that wants to make peace deal with another government. That could have been a major blow to prestige of Afghan government that also when Afghan security forces took complete security responsibilities.
In addition, the acceptance of the name by foreign allies, particularly US, further complicated the situation. It seemed that they did not accept Taliban as mere opposition but a strong force that can be an alternative to the present government. This was a huge diplomatic success for Taliban and terrible diplomatic failure for Afghan government. Same is the case with the press release.
Representative of Taliban said that they will not stop fighting. They will carry out their Jihad against Afghan and foreign security forces.
In this case it should be noticed that few days ago the security responsibilities were fully transferred to Afghan security forces. Foreign countries are decisive to pull out their security forces on set schedule. So the result necessarily becomes that Taliban actually has not accepted Afghan government as an elected government by Afghan people but, as they said, as stooge of foreign countries that should be ousted.
But the question is why our foreign allies easily yielded to such a blunt mistake. Why foreign allies did not resist against the name of political office. There are several reasons that should be noticed. Afghan government lacks a clear-cut strategy to deal with armed opposition.
President Karzai frequently called them as dissent brothers and asked them to lay down arms and join his government. He called them as enemy of Afghans that kill civilians. Meanwhile, he seriously stood against foreign allies on several issues. In the case of Bagram prison, he said that if the US did not hand over the security responsibility of the prison, it violates the national integrity.
He also strongly stood against NATO aerial attacks. Frequently the issue dragged the bilateral relation with US to a complete rocky road. In the ceremony held for completion of security hand over to Afghan security forces, President Karzai once again emphasized they should not depend aerial power. He openly said that air strikes should be used in order to decrease civilians’ casualties.
Indubitably, the air strikes are the most effective and cheap operations that can deal serious blow to militant establishment through hunting down their leaders. Maybe in the future, the US tries to carry out drone attacks in the country similar to what it is doing in Pakistan to go after master minds of al-Qaeda linked militants. Definitely, without the support of foreign aerial power, the mission of Afghan security forces will be so tough.
In lack of aerial power, militants can easily ambush Afghan security forces without fear of militarily effective aerial operations. Such oppositions of Mr. President restricted foreign security forces to weaken Taliban and improve the status of Afghan security forces. On other hand, President Karzai often turns the edge of his harsh criticism against Pakistan. He frequently put the issue that US is actually fighting at the wrong place. If it wanted to uproot militancy, it should target them at their hideouts in bordering areas. Meanwhile he supported the state of Islamabad that drone attacks indeed violate its national integrity. He defended the Pakistani opposition that such strikes should be stopped.
Obviously, such contradictory positions somehow have disappointed foreign allies. They think that they cannot go with such contradictory status and instead try to push deal with militants.
It should be noticed that however the name of Emrat-e-Islami was removed from the office but it happened after the opposition of Kabul. It shows that US is far more interested to end the dilemma of war against Insurgency.