The 9th Herat Security Dialogue was held on Thursday, focusing on the ongoing peace talks where analysts, university lecturers and former and incumbent officials spoke via an online conference.
Addressing the event, former national security advisor Rangin Dadafar Spanta said the ongoing peace process has been "imposed on Afghans by the United States" in which the people of Afghanistan “are the main losers.”
“It is an imposed process by the US on Afghans and we are the main losers,” Spanta said. “The foreigners are trying to compromise with the Taliban rather than favoring Afghanistan.”
Spanta said that the ongoing peace negotiations in Doha have not met people’s expectations.
“Instead, violence has dramatically increased in rural areas and cities. The violence is taking the lives of children, women, and elderly people. We the Afghans are the losers of this unneeded war,” Spanta said.
But critics who are close to the Taliban believe that the US-Taliban peace agreement signed in Doha on February 29 provides a good opportunity to end the war in the country.
“According to my information, the US and Qatar have decided to mount more pressure. My information shows that the Taliban has shown green light about holding talks within Afghanistan,” said Nazar Mohammad Mutmaeen, a political analyst.
“Americans will use the opportunity. If they see that it is in their interest to keep bases in the region, they will cite their Bilateral Security Agreement with the Afghan government,” legal expert and university Nasrullah Stanekzai said.
The US-Taliban agreement states that the Taliban will not allow any of its members, other individuals, or groups, including al-Qaeda, to use Afghan the soil of Afghanistan to threaten the security of the United States and its allies.
The agreement notes that the Taliban will send a clear message that those who pose a threat to the security of the United States and its allies have no place in Afghanistan and will instruct Taliban members not to cooperate with groups or individuals threatening the security of the United States and its allies.