Source: ET
US Secretary of State John Kerry put the onus on the Taliban to revive stalled efforts to end Afghanistan’s 12-year-old war and warned the ultraconservative militia on Saturday they might lose their new office in Qatar if the peace bid collapsed.
US officials were due to hold preliminary discussions with the Taliban in Qatar last Thursday, but they were called off after the Afghan government objected to the fanfare surrounding the militants’ opening of an office in Doha.
“We need to see if we can get back on track … I don’t know whether that’s possible or not,” Kerry told a news conference in Qatar. “If there is not a decision … to move forward by the Taliban in short order, then we may have to consider whether or not the office has to be closed.”
Kerry did not spell out what steps he wanted the militants to take to revive the preliminary meeting, but according to Afghan government officials they had been particularly angered by the Taliban’s decoration of their building with a flag and plaques that suggested the group had achieved some level of international recognition.
The decorations had broken agreements on how the build-up to the talks would be handled, the government officials said. The plaques bore the name of the ‘Political Office of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’, the name the Taliban used for the country when they controlled it.
The Taliban’s flag was later lowered, but not removed. A nameplate outside the office was taken down but a similar one inside was still in place.
Categories: Americas
It is ‘childish’ to blame the Taliban for the break-down of the talks (before they started). It was the US side who did not ‘do their homework’ and did not coordinate the efforts with its ‘client’, President Karzai.