(MENAFN- Ahmadzai) Afghanistan’s peace talks originally began in 2010 with the Quadrilateral Coordination Group. The U.S. started the talks again in October 2018 under President Donald Trump. Trump enlisted the support of Zalmay Khalilzad who took office in September 2018.
In 2010, several countries were involved in the peace talks including China, Afghanistan, US and Pakistan. The talks collapsed after former President Barack Obama left office, but at the time no connection was established between the Taliban leaders and the US government.
When Trump came to office in 2017, talks were postponed for one and a half year which made the Taliban to take over Helmand and Kunduz provinces in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the American government was busy with ISIS in Syria. In 2017, there were about 8000 US forces in Afghanistan.
In 2018, Trump enlisted the support of Zalmay Khalilzad former US diplomat to Iraq. Khalilzad has made some progress that is to sit down with the Taliban leaders at table in Qatar. He has failed in negotiations so far because Afghan people still have no peace which seen no improvement on the ground. These talks are not including the Afghan people, but in fact, it only invites diplomats and embassy delegates to the meetings.
It has been almost a year since these talks began and so far, the fighting has not stopped. President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani has said that about 50 Afghans dies each day. We can assume from this number that about 50,000 people have been killed in the war since 2017 to present. The number of US soldiers killed in Afghanistan is quoted to be around 2,500 since 2018 to date.
President Trump will send more troops to Afghanistan as long as the US-Taliban peace talks continue to fail. If Trump really wants to put an end to the US-Afghan war, he should talk directly with Afghan civilians and tribal elders.
Written by Meladul Haq Ahmadzai, political analyst based in Canada. Visit his website at www.ahmadzai.ca
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