Karzai suspends US talks in row over Taleban office

KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai yesterday broke off crucial security talks with the United States, angry over the name given to a new Taleban office in Qatar that is meant to facilitate peace negotiations.
The ongoing Afghan-US talks must reach an agreement if Washington is to maintain soldiers in Afghanistan after a NATO combat mission ends next year.
Karzai’s decision to suspend the talks threatens to wreck US efforts to start a dialogue with the Taleban, which President Barack Obama had welcomed as an important step toward ending 12 years of war.
The prospect of peace received a further reality check yesterday when the Taleban claimed an overnight rocket attack that killed four US troops at the largest US-led military base in Afghanistan.
Explaining the suspension of the security talks, Karzai’s spokesman Aimal Faizi told AFP: “There is a contradiction between what the US government says and what it does regarding Afghanistan peace talks.
“The president suspended the BSA (Bilateral Security Agreement) talks with the US this morning.”
The row centers on the Taleban office using the title “Islamic Emirate Of Afghanistan” — the formal name of the Islamist movement’s government from 1996 until it was toppled in 2001.
“The president is not happy with the name of the office. We oppose the title the ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’ because such a thing doesn’t exist,” said a palace official who declined to be named.
“The US was aware of the president’s stance.”
It was the latest incident to underline the troubled relations between Karzai and his American allies, which have degenerated into public spats in the past.
Many Afghans reacted with skepticism to news that the Taleban were opening an office in Qatar and could be ready to enter peace talks.
“It is a historic mistake by the US government, recognizing and giving legitimacy to a terror network who are killing every single day Afghan civilians, women and children,” Shukria Barakzai, a moderate female lawmaker told AFP.
Karzai has previously opposed direct Taleban-US talks, but had appeared to embrace the new office, which opened in Qatar on Tuesday.
He said he had ordered envoys to Qatar to try to negotiate with the Taleban as US officials said their own talks with the group could begin this week, though he stressed that any dialogue should move from Doha to Afghanistan as soon as possible.
On Tuesday NATO formally transferred responsibility for security to Afghan forces. About 100,000 foreign combat troops, 68,000 of them from the US, are due to withdraw by the end of next year.
But a continued American military presence is considered vital to support the US-backed Kabul government amid an ongoing Taleban insurgency.
Just hours before the Taleban’s attack on the Bagram airbase, Obama welcomed the planned talks as an “important first step,” although he warned of a bumpy road ahead.