Pakistani and Western media reported Thursday that officials from the United States, Afghanistan and Pakistan met in Islamabad to discuss negotiating with the Afghan Taliban. The first meeting of the Safe Passage Working Group, which was formed in April, discussed how to provide Taliban leaders safe passage to join peace negotiations. The group is currently focusing on logistical matters, such as the procurement of visas, and on choosing which Taliban officials should be guaranteed security.
Thursday's meeting indicated that stalled U.S.-Taliban talks may be moving forward after six months of inaction. In March, the Taliban suspended negotiations toward an eventual political settlement for post-NATO Afghanistan, saying they would resume only after Washington released five top Afghan jihadists from Guantanamo Bay. Media rumors have persistently suggested that U.S. President Barack Obama's administration would release the individuals in question; no such release has happened thus far.
After years of unsuccessful attempts, the U.S. government finally began substantive negotiations in mid-2011 with representatives of Taliban founder and chief Mullah Mohammad Omar. From the U.S. perspective, such talks are crucial to ensuring that Afghanistan will not descend into chaos after the drawdown of NATO forces, thereby making the southwest Asian nation a haven for transnational jihadists. The hope is that, in exchange for international recognition of their role as key stakeholders in a future Afghanistan, the Taliban will ensure that al Qaeda-style foreign fighters cannot use their country as a base of operations.
The most significant aspect of the Safe Passage Working Group meeting Thursday is that the United States for the first time publicly and substantively involved Pakistan and Afghanistan in negotiations with the Taliban. Afghan President Hamid Karzai last February publicly expressed his displeasure over the fact that the United States was directly negotiating with the Taliban. He said Washington could not speak on behalf of Kabul, which he argued should be leading such talks. Meanwhile, U.S.-Pakistani relations have only recently begun to improve after hitting rock bottom last November when a U.S. airstrike killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. Their shared misgivings about Washington have allowed Kabul and Islamabad to improve both bilateral relations and coordination on post-NATO Afghanistan.
Until a few years ago, Islamabad was the principal supporter of the Afghan jihadist movement. It now fears a Taliban comeback in Afghanistan because it could worsen the insurgency that has already claimed some 40,000 lives. This explains why, in early August, Islamabad for the first time granted Kabul access to some senior Taliban leaders in Pakistani custody.
Obviously, these shifting alignments are new and will need time to mature. What is clear from the Safe Passage Working Group meeting is that a convergence is beginning to take shape between Washington, Kabul and Islamabad. It bears watching how the Taliban, the central players in this dynamic, react to the developing U.S.-Pakistan-Afghan alignment.
