US-Taliban peace talks myth: negotiation or capitulation?
RT
Preparing to pull the plug on a decade-long skirmish in Afghanistan, the US has made claims that it is scheduling peace talks with the Taliban to expedite the end of the war. Overseas, however, others say that’s just smoke and mirrors.
Despite US insistence that they are planning peace talks with the Taliban, the Afghan ambassador to Pakistan is shutting down the notion that these negotiations are occurring. Instead, Umar Daudzai is saying the efforts thus far are only “exploratory.”
“I must emphasize that word ‘exploratory’. They are not talks,” Afghan ambassador to Pakistan Umar Daudzai tells Reuters. “When there’s talks, it’s supposed to be between the Afghan government and the Taliban. We have not reached to that stage although we wish to reach to that stage.”
The news from Pakistan comes despite a recent interview with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in which the leader assured the Wall Street Journal that the US and the Taliban have begun an underground, three-way discussion on the matter. Daudzai, on the other hand, insists that the talk of alleged dialogue between parties is exaggerated.
