ISLAMABAD – The intra-Afghan talks in China have been postponed again overobjections at the composition of the Afghan government delegation.
Sources told Daily Times that Kabul has included ministers and seniorofficials in a list of 28 people that annoyed the Taliban political officein Qatar.
The talks were scheduled to be held in Beijing on Nov.21-22, according todiplomatic sources. They said China’s Special Envoy on Afghan AffairsAmbassador Deng Xijun had also shared dates with the Pakistani officialsduring his meeting in Islamabad on Nov. 13.
The meeting was scheduled to take place on October 29 and 30 but waspostponed following a request from the Afghan government amid tensionbetween President Ashraf Ghani and his political rivals over electionresults.
Taliban, who had earlier announced to send a big delegation to Beijing, hasnow criticized the Kabul administration’s list. Taliban do not opposeinclusion of the lower level officials in the Kabul team, according toTaliban officials. “Kabul has included ministers in the list ofparticipants that is not acceptable to us,” a Taliban official told DailyTimes on Sunday.
He rejected Kabul’s notion of Afghan-led and Afghan-owned process and alldelegates are Afghans and that the Taliban do not accept the presidentialpalace’s concept of the Afghan-owned and Afghan-led process. He saidTaliban will attend the Beijing conference if the list is changed.
Chinese diplomats have continued efforts to hold the talks between theTaliban and the Afghan political leaders.
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Chinese ambassador in Kabul Wang Yu met acting Afghan Foreign MinisterIdrees Zaman on Sunday and “discussed the details of intra-Afghan peacedialogue due to be held in Beijing, China,” the Afghan Foreign Ministrysaid.
“The meeting focused on issues of mutual interest, including peace efforts.The Foreign Minister thanked the government of China for their continuedsupport towards peace process in Afghanistan,” a statement said.
A senior Afghan government official said earlier this month that thegovernment has finalized the list of participants for the China meeting onintra-Afghan peace talks.
The president’s senior adviser for strategic affairs, Wahid Omar said at anews conference that the list has representation of all groups of Afghansociety. However, he had not disclosed names of the participants to avoidcontroversy.
China had planned the meeting at a time when the peace process between theTaliban and the US was stalled after President Donald Trump abruptly calledoff the peace process in early September following a suicide bombing inKabul that killed an American soldier.
