Little by little, a deal to bring an end to Afghanistan's decadeslong conflict has begun to take shape. A little over a month ago, the Afghan government struck the first major peace deal of the war with a small militant outfit known as Hizb-e-Islami Gulbuddin. The group agreed to lay down its weapons in exchange for amnesty and a place in Afghan politics. Kabul's decision to pardon the group's members and its leader, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (whose brutal tactics during the Afghan civil war earned him the nickname "The Butcher of Kabul"), has created controversy to say the least. Yet it is just one of the many concessions the Afghan government will need to make to achieve a lasting peace. And, should the deal prove successful, it could give authorities a template to use in reeling in a much larger foe: the Taliban.
The Taliban's recent battlefield victories might seem to suggest that the prospects for peace in Afghanistan are dim. Nevertheless, the Taliban have made it clear that they are interested in dealing with Kabul. Over the past two months, the group reportedly hosted a delegation of Afghan officials, including intelligence chief Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai, at its political office in Doha, Qatar. A Taliban leader tempered expectations by announcing that the talks were inconclusive — a statement not entirely unexpected, since neither Kabul nor Washington has budged on meeting the Taliban's demands for the complete withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan. Moreover, the Taliban have engaged in negotiations with Afghan officials before without success, so a new round of talks might understandably appear to be a non-starter.
But in choosing to hold negotiations at the Taliban's political office, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani broke with his predecessor, Hamid Karzai, who refused to do so for fear of lending legitimacy to the group's claims that its office represents "the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan." (This was the name the Taliban gave to Afghanistan when they ruled it from 1996 to 2001.) Coupled with Ghani's ability to coax the Taliban to the table in the first place — something the Quadrilateral Coordination Group comprising the United States, China, Afghanistan and Pakistan failed to achieve earlier this year — this marks an important step forward in the negotiations.
