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Trump pushing Afghan president to close Taliban office in Qatar, sources say
Source: The Guardian
Trump pushing Afghan president to close Taliban office in Qatar, sources say
Exclusive: Mission in Doha had been channel for dialogue for more than six years but Trump is said to be hostile to keeping it open
Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Rome, Sune Engel Rasmussen in Karachi and Julian Borger in Washington
Tuesday 26 September 2017 09.08 BST
Donald Trump is pushing the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, to close a Taliban mission in Qatar, which has been a channel for dialogue for more than six years, according to several sources familiar with discussions between the two countries.
Ghani is expected to agree to the closure, but a final decision has not yet been reached. The issue was raised at a meeting between the two leaders on Thursday.
The Afghan leadership sees the 36-strong informal delegation in Doha – which the Taliban calls its ‘political office’ – as doing nothing to facilitate peace talks, merely conferring political legitimacy on a group Kabul views as no more than a tool of Pakistan.
Trump is said to be hostile to the maintenance of the Taliban office for several reasons. He portrays it as a failed initiative of his predecessor that had not led to the peace negotiations Barack Obama had hoped for. Meanwhile, the Saudi and Emirati monarchies have been pressuring for its closure since its inception, seeing it as a symbol of Doha’s diplomatic prestige and US-Qatari ties.
-snip-
Exclusive: Mission in Doha had been channel for dialogue for more than six years but Trump is said to be hostile to keeping it open
Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Rome, Sune Engel Rasmussen in Karachi and Julian Borger in Washington
Tuesday 26 September 2017 09.08 BST
Donald Trump is pushing the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, to close a Taliban mission in Qatar, which has been a channel for dialogue for more than six years, according to several sources familiar with discussions between the two countries.
Ghani is expected to agree to the closure, but a final decision has not yet been reached. The issue was raised at a meeting between the two leaders on Thursday.
The Afghan leadership sees the 36-strong informal delegation in Doha – which the Taliban calls its ‘political office’ – as doing nothing to facilitate peace talks, merely conferring political legitimacy on a group Kabul views as no more than a tool of Pakistan.
Trump is said to be hostile to the maintenance of the Taliban office for several reasons. He portrays it as a failed initiative of his predecessor that had not led to the peace negotiations Barack Obama had hoped for. Meanwhile, the Saudi and Emirati monarchies have been pressuring for its closure since its inception, seeing it as a symbol of Doha’s diplomatic prestige and US-Qatari ties.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/26/trump-afghanistan-taliban-qatar
