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Afghanistan
Taliban in Qatar see no early peace talks with US
2013-04-19
DOHA/KABUL: Taliban leaders living in Qatar have held no Afghanistan peace talks with US officials in the Gulf state for more than a year and see no prospect of any soon, Taliban sources say.

A team of envoys from the insurgent group flew to Qatar in early 2012 to open talks with the US government, which has laid a greater emphasis on negotiations before a handover of security to Afghan forces in 2014.

Among the most prominent members of the delegation in Doha is Tayeb Agha, the former chief of staff to the TalibanÂ’s reclusive leader Mullah Mohammed Blinky Omar. But more than a year later, the negotiations held in March 2012 have not been followed by further meetings, Taliban sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Many of the Taliban leaders living in Qatar now appear to spend their time pursuing private family activities. Many can be seen at the shopping malls of the gas-rich Gulf Arab state with the little women, pushing trolleys loaded with merchandise and with their children in tow.
Domestic life in Qatar has to beat being a guerrilla in the hills outside of Kandahar...
“There has been no contact from the US with us at all this year,” said a Taliban source on the condition of anonymity. No date had been set to restart the talks, he said, declining to give any further details.
Doesn't sound like the leadership wants any talks, either, as long as Qatar keeps filling the shopping carts...
Talks among the United States, Pakistan and the Taliban about a possible Afghan settlement have made scant progress in the past few years. The Taliban suspended the talks in March 2012, saying Washington was giving mixed signals on the nascent Afghan reconciliation process.

“Taliban had asked for the exchange of prisoners and recognition as a group, but as far as I know there have been no more talks,” said Mohammed Himat, counsellor at the Afghan Embassy in Doha, told Reuters.
Posted by:Steve White

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