When a heavy blast rocked an area of Afghanistan's capital Kabul on Saturday afternoon, the startling number of casualties reminded of the world that achieving peace and stability is still a difficult task for the country, especially when the High Peace Council (HPC), the president-appointed body responsible for negotiations between the Afghan government and Taliban, conducts business in the area nearby.

There was little movement toward peace talks or the re-establishment of direct official contact between the Afghan government and the Taliban in 2017. However, on December 6, 2017, the HPC announced that the Afghan government was willing to allow the largest insurgent movement in the country, the Taliban, to open a political office in Kabul. Permission was granted in order to start peace negotiations and for the Taliban to put forward a “mechanism” for how to best conduct talks. 

Under Karim Khalili, head of the HPC and vice president of Afghanistan during the administration of former President Hamid Karzai, the HPC has organized a number of gatherings in order to encourage peace talks between the local government and Taliban. The HPC has also sought support from other Islamic nations to reject the Taliban’s religious justification of war and to declare the Taliban’s ongoing war with the Afghan government religiously illegitimate. However, Afghanistan's peace negotiations have continued slowly. 

First, the Afghan government continues to see Pakistan as the main adversary in the conflict and the driving force behind the Taliban, believing that it cannot act without the support. Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani, for example, when addressing a joint session of the Afghan parliament in April 2016, said Taliban leaders seeking shelter in Pakistan were “slaves of Pakistan.”

Second, the Taliban also has shown little flexibility or wiliness to negotiate with the Afghan government. Apart from their insistence on the recognition of their Qatar office, the Taliban did not react to Kabul’s proposal to present a “mechanism” for talks. The Taliban’s defiance may be related to its internal rivalry and competition after the killing of Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Akhtar Mansur, a “moderate leader” inside the organization, by a US drone in May 2016.

Third, both the Afghan government and Taliban are still escalating the war against each other. Following the withdrawal of most Western combat troops by the end of 2014, the Taliban launched a campaign of ground attacks to take over large areas in southern Afghanistan. Even the important strategic city of Kunduz in northern Afghanistan, which used to be far from the Taliban's influence, was temporarily captured in early 2016. Meanwhile, the Afghan government and the US increased the number of airstrikes and targeted killings against Taliban militants in retaliation for its expansion and military offensives. The tit-for-tat strategy held by both the Taliban and Afghan government makes peace negotiations impossible to sustain.

Although the Afghan government and Taliban have continued to occasionally entertain the idea of peace talks, the last blast in Kabul shows that their positions ultimately have remained rigid. A political breakthrough for the peace and stability in Afghanistan is still not in the horizon.  

(The author is a PhD candidate – School of Political Science, University Haifa; and research fellow – Syria Research Center, Northwest University. The article reflects the author's opinion, and not necessarily the view of CGTN.)