In a latest development targeted to pave the way for intra-Afghan negotiations, a three-member Taliban delegation has held talks with Afghan government on prisoners' swap, a condition which was agreed in U.S.-Taliban peace deal signed on February 29, 2020 to release each other's prisoners prior to the start of dialogue between them.
The first ever face to face interaction between Taliban and the Afghan government took place in Kabul on Tuesday after the Afghan peace process started in 2018 in the aftermath of a renewed call by United Nations for all the Afghan leaders to work together for sustainable peace in Afghanistan.
"Afghanistan appears to be reaching a defining moment. Almost two decades after the start of the coalition intervention, the question for the Islamic Republic now is: can its leaders rally together to engage in meaningful talks with the Taliban to achieve a sustainable peace?" asked Ingrid Hayden, Officer-in-Charge at the UN mission in Afghanistan in a statement on Tuesday.
She said that the choice is made stark by the all-encompassing threat of COVID-19, which poses grave dangers to the health of Afghanistan's population and, potentially, to the stability of its institutions. She also urged the Taliban to give representation to Afghan women in their delegation engaged in the peace process.
The Tuesday' meeting of the technical teams on prisoners' exchange of the Taliban and the Afghan government was confirmed by both the sides on Wednesday. "The three-member technical team of the Islamic Emirate [Taliban] 'prisoners' commission' is working with the Kabul administration technical team to verify [prisoners' lists] and release of the prisoners. The process is being facilitated by the Embassy of Qatar, which also involves the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for other matters," said Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban's spokesperson for its Doha political office, in a tweet.
In a video statement, a spokesperson for the Afghan National Security Adviser, Javid Faisal also confirmed the talks between the technical teams of the two sides, saying that Afghan government's technical team hosted Taliban's technical delegation in Kabul on Tuesday. He said that the face to face meeting of both the sides discussed the issue of prisoners' release and decided to continue the discussions. He further said that ICRC officials also attended the meeting.
As per the February 29 peace deal, the Afghan government and the Taliban were required to release each others prisoners [5000 Taliban and up to 1000 Afghan government's prisoners] prior to the start of intra-Afghan negotiations by March 10, 2020.
However, this could not happen following Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's reservations on the condition of the prisoners' swap, saying that the understanding was reached between the US and the Taliban and not with the Afghan government.
"Now as the talks at the technical level have begun and confirmed by both the sides - Afghan government and the Taliban - the two sides would verify the lists of the prisoners to be exchanged," said Tahir Khan, analyst and expert on Afghan affairs. He said it is a technical level talks, yet one can hope that the hindrance in peace process to proceed would be removed once the two sides reach an understanding on release of the prisoners which would be followed by the intra-Afghan negotiations.
The Taliban on March 27, rejected the Afghan government's 21-member team, headed by former chief of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) Masoom Stanekzai, for the intra-Afghan negotiations, citing the 'reservations' expressed by other Afghan groups over the team announced by Ghani administration.
Khan, however, pointed out that President Ghani's rival Abdullah Abdullah and Hizb-e-Islmi of Gulbadin Hekmatyar initially expressed reservations on the team constituted by the Afghan government. "Now as both Abdullah and Hekmatyar have withdrawn their reservations over the President Ghani's team, the Taliban are yet to explain their position," he added.