The Taliban on Saturday announced their refusal to participate in long-awaited peace talks with the Afghan government in the absence of several preconditions, according to a statement released by the group, APA reports quoting Anadolu agency.
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Achin and Shinwar are among a number of districts in the remote mountainous regions along the Pakistan border that were overtaken by ISIS loyalists in recent months.
Analysts who follow Afghan development already doubt such talks in March and believe that Taliban wish to impose Shariah and Quran as constitution while sitting Afghan government wishes to retain prevailing system and constitution and talks are possible only when Afghan government disbands current political structure and asks foreign troops to leave Afghanistan.
Although direct peace talks are slated to begin next week, the Taliban said they would not participate as long as U.S.-led foreign forces remained on Afghan soil.
“President Barack Obama told President Ghani that he is impressed by Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) performance and courage to fight terrorism”, the ARG Palace said.
The anticipated talks would also test the influence of Pakistan – the Taliban s historic backers – over the insurgent movement.
The Taliban announcement comes as a blow as senior Afghan government officials have characterized the meeting as the first real step in a peace process to end more than 14 years of war.
Afghan analysts have also been anxious that the presence of the USA and China in the QCG would push President Ghani to accept more and more concessions toward the Taliban, even though they have been unable to bring enough pressure to bear on Pakistan to use those “levers”.
The Taliban have stepped up their offensive against the Afghan government with a winter offensive, outside the usual fighting season.
“This is just public bargaining on the part of the Taliban”, said an official close to Mr. Ghani of Afghanistan, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the subject is a delicate one.
Many suspect that Taliban could reappear on the negotiating table as factional infighting and leadership division has deepened in the group since the death of Omar.
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The much-anticipated peace negotiations could suffer another setback if the HeI is left out, especially after the Taliban have publicly refused to join the planned dialogue.
