Early this morning, a group of Taliban gunmen launched a sophisticated attack on the presidential palace and a nearby CIA base in Kabul, infiltrating into one of the most fortified security zones in the Afghan capital and forcing President Karzai to cancel a planned news conference to discuss peace talks with the insurgents.
The brazen assault – the latest in a series of high-profile suicide bombings and spectacular attacks by the Taliban in recent weeks – is yet another indication that the terrorist group is insincere about peace negotiations, which have gained fresh momentum after the Taliban opened a political office in Qatar last week.
The office was meant to facilitate direct negotiations between all parties to end the war. But the process ground to a halt almost immediately as Kabul boycotted the talks, protesting that the Taliban used the opportunity as a publicity stunt to present itself as an alternative government in exile. At the inauguration ceremony, the Taliban hoisted their white flag and placed an “Islamic Emirate” banner outside its embassy-like building. Instead of pursuing peace, Taliban representatives appear to be using their presence in Qatar to raise funds in the Gulf region, spread propaganda through international media, and build closer ties with state and non-state actors in the Middle East. A senior Taliban delegation traveled from Doha to Tehran earlier this month, which the group praised as a PR victory on its website.
In past years, the Afghan government and its foreign allies have given many unilateral concessions to the insurgents to encourage them to join the peace process, such as releasing hundreds of Taliban prisoners and removing senior insurgent leaders from the UN sanctions list. But the Taliban has only stepped up violence, continued its close ties with al Qaeda, and refused to accept the Afghan constitution. Now that foreign troops are leaving, they have even less incentive to lay down their arms and make peace.
As my colleagues and I have written before (here, here, here, here, here, and here), the Taliban is using diplomacy not to end the conflict but to speed up US withdrawal, enhance its international credibility, and seek concessions from Kabul and Washington. The Taliban’s strategy is to wait out foreign troops and to try to topple the Kabul government after 2014. And Washington’s hasty exit is helping the Taliban to achieve that goal.
