The Afghan Taliban movement announced on Thursday that it was suspending recently launched negotiations with the United States over what it described as the “shaky, erratic and vague standpoint” of the U.S. leadership.
Analysts say the move is yet another PR stunt by the Islamist group, which is intended to garner political points from growing anti-American sentiment in the Afghan street.
Late last year, U.S. officials and the Taliban agreed to open an office in the Gulf state of Qatar to begin negotiations in what was widely seen as an important step towards future peace talks designed to end decades of violence in Afghanistan.
However, the Taliban publicly stepped back on Thursday after a series of incidents involving U.S. troops in Afghanistan brought popular discontent with the NATO-led coalition to its highest level in recent months.
In a statement published on its Voice of Jihad website, the Taliban said they had decided to “suspend all talks with Americans taking place in Qatar from today onwards.” The talks would only resume when the U.S. officials “clarify their stance on the issues concerned” and “show their willingness to carry out their promises instead of wasting time,” the statement said.
Omar Nessar, who heads the Moscow-based Center for the Study of Modern Afghanistan, said the Taliban’s decision to suspend the talks was a “political trick.” The Islamists movement “understands very well that any reports of ongoing contacts with the United States are not to their benefit now,” he said.
Sunday's massacre of 16 Afghan villagers by a U.S. soldier in a house-to-house shooting spree in the southern province of Kandahar was the latest in a series of incidents that infuriated Afghans. Last month, thousands took to the streets across the country demanding foreign troops leave Afghanistan immediately following reports that coalition soldiers burned copies of the Quran at a U.S. military base in Bagram.
As top NATO commanders and U.S. President Barack Obama rushed to apologize for the incidents, promising to punish those responsible, the Taliban vowed revenge, threatening to behead the "sadistic troops in every corner of the country."
Since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, the United States has suffered many setbacks in its struggle to secure the support of the local population in its fight against Taliban insurgents. Now that the level of anti-American sentiment in Afghan society has reached "record levels," it would be a "sin" for the Taliban not to use it to boost their image, Nessar said.
He also suggested that the Islamist movement would in fact continue their contacts with U.S. officials, but “in a different, more confidential manner.”
In its Thursday statement, the Taliban downplayed its contacts with the United States, saying it “has not discussed any other issue” with Washington officials apart from the establishment of the Qatari meeting office and the release of Taliban prisoners captured by foreign troops.
Nikolai Zlobin from the Washington-based World Security Institute said the Taliban “is very skillful in turning any mistakes by the coalition to their benefit.” He also said he believed the Islamist group was much less interested in talks with the United States than President Obama, who is facing strong criticism from his Republican opponents over his Afghan strategy amid an ongoing presidential campaign.
On Thursday, President Hamid Karzai urged international troops to pull out from the Afghan countryside to their main bases. Media reports quoted him as saying after talks with visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta that “Afghan security forces have the ability to keep the security in rural areas and in villages on their own.”
“Many believe that the Taliban will return to power once international troops have left Afghanistan,” Zlobin said. “That’s why they are trying to use any opportunity to limit their talks with the United States without halting them. They are trying to secure the image of a responsible political force, which has internationally recognized diplomatic experience and is able to confront the United States.”
Rampant corruption in the Afghan government and its failure to improve economic conditions in the country has also played in the hands of the insurgents, he said. “Unfortunately, the Americans are losing in this situation.”
