KABUL: US envoy James Dobbins arrived in Afghanistan yesterday for talks with President Hamid Karzai, as the US worked to put peace efforts back on track after a dispute over the rebels’ new office in Qatar.
The opening of the office last Tuesday was a first step towards a peace deal as the US-led Nato combat mission winds down 12 years after the Taliban were ousted after the 9/11 attacks.
Dobbins, the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, landed in Kabul a day after the Afghan government said a written agreement with the US about how the Qatar office should operate had been broken.
The US embassy said that Dobbins and Karzai would discuss “the reconciliation process which President (Barack) Obama and President Karzai agreed is the surest way to a lasting peace”.
Kabul, which said it was committed to the peace process, insisted the Qatar office must only be used for direct negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government.
“After these meetings (with Dobbins), our information will be complete and we can decide whether to send our delegation to Qatar,” Ismael Qasimyar, a senior member of the Afghan peace negotiators, said.
Dobbins, a veteran diplomat who re-opened the US embassy after the 2001 fall of the Taliban, is also likely to try to revive talks on an agreement that would allow the US to maintain soldiers in Afghanistan after 2014.
Karzai, who has so far refused to send representatives to Qatar, broke off talks on the Bilateral Security Agreement in reaction to the Taliban office.
On Saturday, Kerry attempted to placate Afghanistan by warning that the US could call on the Taliban to close the office if they failed to live up to their side of peace efforts.
About 100,000 foreign combat troops, 68,000 of them American, are due to withdraw by the end of 2014, and Nato formally transferred responsibility for nationwide security to Afghan forces last week.
French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was also in Kabul to meet Karzai. About 850 French soldiers are still deployed in the city, mainly at the airport and hospital.
Agencies
