The Taliban Supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, has released his Eid message. Though nothing new, the statement shows no significant change in the attitude of the Taliban toward talks with the US or the Karzai Administration. Calling the upcoming Presidential elections of 2014 a “waste of time” the Taliban Amir has said, “ our pious people will not tire themselves out, nor will they participate in it. Our pious and Mujahid people know that selection, de facto, takes place in Washington. These nominal rulers are not elected through the ballots of the people. Rather they are selected as per the discretion of Washington!  Participation in such elections is only a waste of time, nothing more.”

In reference to the talks of the post-2014 American military presence, Mullah Omar says, “They should not try their fate once more by prolonging the occupation or by establishing permanent bases. In the same vein, they should not let themselves to be deceived by the futile and baseless promises of the Kabul powerless administration… If they think that they can pave the way for a permanent (military) presence by resorting to misinformation and gimmicks and by implementing different schemes or in their words, convening a fake Loya Jirga for approval of the security agreement or by creating other pretexts, they are wrong. The Afghans consider the presence of small number of invading troops as an encroachment against their independence as they are not willing to accept presence of thousands of foreign troops.”

There is not much about domestic issues part from their policy position on elections. The Taliban Amir further says, “we will not allow anyone to succeed in the wicked plan for disintegration of the country or to divide our country under geographical locations and ethnicity denominations.”

The statement does mention Taliban’s so-called ‘political office’, saying it has been established to “end the occupation” of Afghanistan. However, there seems to be continued utter disregard of the Kabul administration.

The fact that the Doha Process ended up into a debacle and Karzai’s High Peace Council has failed to make any progress, the question remains: what is fate of the talks about talks?

As it had been claimed before, some High Peace Council (HPC) officials say they have met some Taliban on “individual basis”. AP reports that Taliban negotiator Mullah Abbas Stanekzai met with an HPC member in Dubai last month. Reportedly the Taliban have reiterated their opposition to surrendering the use of flag and name as the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”, which caused failure of the Doha Process earlier last month. They also have reportedly objected to the role of Salahuddin Rabbani in leading the High Peace Council.

The recent Islamabad visit of the US Secretary John Kerry seems to have stirred a new proposal regarding talks with the Taliban. They now admit the Doha track is effectively dead, and proposals for relocating the meetings have been making the rounds.

The US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Ambassador Dobbins says it’s up to the Taliban to agree to meet with the US and High Peace Council officials to restart the Doha Process.

Despite the fact that no genuine progress will be made from these talks, the root of problem is lack of a clear vision and policy by the Karzai Administration. The HPC and all efforts to reach out to the Taliban have utterly failed, and they have no roadmap. When there are initiatives such as the Doha Process, the Administration has failed to play any constructive role or come up with any successful and workable imitative of its own. The two-year solo drive for peace efforts has failed and there is no chance it would succeed with the current approach.

On the other hand, the Karzai Administration also seems not to be interested in moving ahead on the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) with the US. The deadlock continues to remain. The US military commanders and White House have been saying an agreement should be reached between Kabul and Washington by October. Though top American military and civilian officials have downplayed the talks of zero option recently, the Government in Kabul and all Afghans should understand it would be the last choice for Washington if the current stalemate and personal-agenda oriented attitude of the Karzai Administration continues. The U.S. will pull out all its troops from Afghanistan, which will mean instability and chaos, for which, President Karzai will have the sole responsibility.

BSA is an integral part of the US-Afghanistan Strategic Cooperation Agreement and calls of another Loya Jirga is not only a waste of time and significant amount of money, but also a controversial move aimed at political maneuvering by the rulers.

The Government better focus on issues related to elections for next year. President Karzai should abandon the responsibility of reconciliation and peace talks to the next President and the new parliament. Despite two years of efforts, there has been zero result.