The US government signed a peace accord with the Taliban forces. However among the committeeman’s the US re-affirms its readiness to conduct operation against terrorist groups. It keeps an in-let for military interventions when required. Trump and his close civilian advisers may call it a milestone, the road to reaching durable peace will pass through bumps and potholes if the Afghans sitting across the table with Taliban have the will and want to sacrifices their individual interest for larger goods of the nation, at least.Discussing some of the key hurdles before peace process and talks from this point on is sanctimonious to draw attention and soften the ground for reducing tension around contentious issues during actual negotiation.

Lack of trust profoundly defines the views of both the Afghan government and the Taliban. It may not be difficult to establish trust, provided that the two sides see peace as priority for the country and its long suffered people.  Insulation of Taliban and of the government negotiation team against external influences is key to establishing trust and keeping the peace process and talk on course to a lasting settlement.

Among the key challenges in the next step in the process is unity among the Afghans who sit across the table with Taliban to discuss peace.  Taliban have so far played well and continue to maintain unity in their rank and file to negotiate. The commitment to reduction of violence and executing it is testimony to their unity. However, the Kabul. The two countries are playing serious role to weaken the Kabul team in intra-Afghan dialogue through flaring ethnic issues and representation.

Agreeing on peace agenda and items to negotiate is another major barrier.  President Ghani has been reading peace agreements and case studies and has some vague roadmap for peace; other political parties present in Kabul have no sense of what the agenda is going to be. They continue to create a narrative based of their “fear” of becoming irrelevant as a result of peace talk.  They will continue to be spoilers or at least snag.Ghani has many spoilers in his camp too.

Hundreds of thousands of people have died in the war in the past 18 years; however no side is talking about the victims. Thousands of suicide attacks across cities and bombardments of villages in rural parts of the country have destroyed families and left big mass of population in perpetual trauma.  How is the issue of “transnational justice” and “general amnesty” going to be included in the peace talks and how to address them are questions that remain untouched?War profiteers will strive to be part of peace talks and influence to seek protection against prosecution.  The government at least should not allow the human right violators to be part of the negotiation team. Justice must make an important element of the peace agenda and agreement.

Who will lead the team from Kabul, with what level of authority are key issues that may not be easy to overcome? The elected government must build an inclusive team of the peace-nick of all political parties including the Sikhs and Hindus of the country. It must have the authority to make decision around the negotiation table; however they must consult and share periodic update on peace talks with the people.  This team must know what are the “red-lines” or their limits when it comes to negotiation.

A more apolitical issue is the establishment of sub-groups to discuss technical solutions to some of the difficult elements during peace talks. Again it is important to have these teams ready to work on scenarios and solutions to keep the process smooth. 

Peace implementation and peace monitoring are very key to keeping the agreement on track. Peace implementations and monitoring must be carried out by a balanced mix of credible international and national actors to fairly and timely report to people. United Nations and Organization of Islamic Countries can be two good actors to monitor peace implementation. Locally, most of the civil society actors are extension of political societies which may make fair and timely monitoring and reporting to the  public difficult. The two sides must agree on genuine peace monitors, respect and act on their reports.

The two in peace talks can make it smooth, if they have desire for peace to come to Afghanistan and first work on trust and working toward peace as the largest goods of the country will make it easy for parties to agree on all contentious issues.Assuagingneighbor’sfears are important element and they must be assured that Afghanistan will not allow use of its land against them. International guarantors must be proactive role and keep the parties to conflict on short leash to reach an agreement and implement it too. NATO, OIC, UN and SCO must all provide to the peace process throughout the negotiation until its implementation.

View expressed in this article are of the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Pajhwok’s editorial policy.

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