DOHA – Providing neutral space for talks on ending Afghanistan’s 18-yearconflict has boosted Qatar’s international profile and helped it defy apainful embargo enforced by neighbours and former allies.
After quietly brokering dialogue between the warring sides in Afghanistan,Qatar is on the verge of reaping a major diplomatic dividend if a deal issigned in Doha this Saturday that would see the Pentagon withdraw thousandsof troops.
The negotiations have created incongruous scenes of Talibanfighters-turned-dealmakers rubbing shoulders with guests in revealingoutfits in the lobby of a luxury Doha hotel, to strains of pop classicsplayed by the resident pianist.
And Qatar has undertaken the ambitious project during a period of majorregional challenges.
Saudi Arabia, along with the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain cutties with Doha in 2017, closing their airspace, borders and ports, andsevering all trade.
Talks to resolve the wider rift have stalled, after a flurry of diplomacylate last year raised hopes of a breakthrough.
But if it all goes to plan, when the embargo hits the 1,000-day mark onSaturday, Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, will be ridinghigh on the success of the mediation efforts, at a time when he is shoringup alliances and forging new ones.——————————
*‘Trusted brokers’ *——————————
Tiny Qatar, a peninsula nation protruding from the Arabian desert into theGulf and better known for its gas riches and controversial 2022 World Cupbid victory, was a seemingly unlikely choice to host negotiations.
Located 1,800 kilometres (1,120 miles) from war-ravaged Afghanistan, Qatarnonetheless invited the Taliban to open a political office in Doha in 2013with Washington’s blessing.
“If they didn’t have that access, no one would have taken them seriously,”Colin Clarke, an analyst at the Soufan Center, said of Doha’s decades-longengagement with the group, adding that the Qataris were seen as “trustedbrokers by both sides”.
Read Top Stories
The deal, which Taliban and Afghan sources have said will be inked in Doha,is a historic accord slashing Washington’s military presence in Afghanistanin return for various security commitments from the Taliban.
The Qatar process got off to a rocky start, with controversy erupting soonafter the establishment of the “Taliban Afghanistan Political Office” whenthe insurgents raised their flag above the high-walled villa.
Together with the Taliban branding of their country as the “Islamic Emirateof Afghanistan” — the name they used during their 1996-2001 rule — itprovoked outrage in Kabul.
As well as the hotel venue, talks with the notoriously austere Taliban alsotook place at a prestigious members’ club where they mingled with USgenerals and suited State Department officials as well as members on theirway to the gym and spa treatments.
An intra-Afghan dialogue, which was bookended by US-Taliban talks, broughtthe Taliban together with powerful Afghans including government officials,women, civil society and media.
One member of the Taliban delegation took great pains to avoid encounteringfemale journalists at the club venue.
But the biggest hiccup came in September when President Donald Trumptorpedoed the ninth round of dialogue with a tweet, just as the processseemed to be reaching a crescendo.
Trump astonished many in Washington and around the world by announcing thathe had invited the Taliban to the US presidential retreat at Camp David,but then cancelled the extraordinary meeting.
The president’s famed unpredictability could yet see the Doha plansup-ended — he has said he would “put his name” on a deal if the partialtruce that precedes the signing goes well. – APP / AFP
