Discussions are underway about the participation of the Afghan government in the Beijing intra-Afghan talks, officials from the State Ministry for Peace said on Wednesday, as the Taliban continue to refuse to meet with the Afghan government.
If an invitation is made by the Chinese, and the criteria are acceptable, the Afghan government will decide whether to attend the meeting, said officials.
“The State Ministry for Peace welcomes any move for talks between the Afghans, but it expects that such a move should be a step forward towards peace negotiation talks,” said Najia Anwari, spokeswoman for the State Ministry on Peace Affairs.
“The State Ministry for Peace (SMP), in principle, welcomes any kind of dialogue between Afghans but with the expectation that it would be a step forward in the peace process. The Doha Dialogue experience was a step forward in this regard, considering its method of selecting participants and setting the agenda, as it cleared a constructive path for advancing the peace process,” the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Taliban announced that they were invited to the meeting by the Chinese government and that a delegation from the group led by Taliban’s senior leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar would attend the meeting.
“If there is a peace negotiation process, but there is no a delegation from the Afghan government, then such meeting will not prove fruitful,” said Khoshak Watandost, a member of Afghan parliament.
“These are not the kind of talks where a decision can be made; these talks only allow the involved parties to exchange their views,” said Wahid Muzhda, a political analyst in Kabul.
The talks planned for Oct. 28 and 29 will be the first meeting between Taliban and prominent Afghan politicians since a July round of talks held in Doha, where the Taliban maintain a political office.
US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and EU envoy Roland Kobia, among other representatives from the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United Nations, met in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss peace in Afghanistan.
A statement from the group acknowledged that “a sustainable peace can only be achieved through a negotiated political settlement,” and, to achieve this, the US and European representatives pledged support for talks between the Afghan government, the Taliban and other Afghan political and civil society leaders.