Doha Agreement between Taliban and the United States took place in a time when the Covid-19 Pandemic was spreading in China, and, in Kabul, the disputed result of Presidential Election, 2019, resulted in political Chaos and instability, engaged all the political and government stakeholders.
It has been two and half months to US and Taliban Doha Agreement that the delay in exchange of prisoners and intra- Afghan dialogue has created hurdles in implementation of the agreement.
The US is reluctant on withdrawing its troops before the kicking off the intra afghan dialogue; on the other hand Taliban has conditioned intra-afghan dialogue with the release of its 5000 prisoners.
Both aforesaid components of the agreement are Afghani and are out of US’ complete control.
The Taliban consider the implementation of Doha agreement, its priority, but the Afghan government considers itself involved in all of them; Covid-19, the political crisis and peace process, however, the priority of the Afghan government is Covid-19, Pandemic.
Waheed Omer, President Ghani's advisor and director general of the Office of Public and Strategic Affairs, in the middle of March, during a consultative meeting said, that “peace is second priority keeping in view the spread of Covid-19, Pandemic”. It is an easy choice for the government to prioritize and legitimize the Covid-19, Pandemic, as the international community has already prioritized the ‘Covid-19, Pandemic.
The US and its allies, including majority of world’s countries, are busy with taking control over the health and economic crisis being emerged with the outbreak of Covid-19, Pandemic. The United Nations demanded of Taliban and all other stakeholders to announce ceasefire and utilize their energy in preventing the spread of Covid-19, Pandemic. But it provided an opportunity to Afghan government to use this as an instrument for delaying the process of release of Taliban prisoners, to put pressure on US and Taliban, that is tantamount to challenge the agreed time table between US and Taliban, making them feel that everything is not going on in accordance to their wishes.
The situation created by Covid-19, Pandemic, has helped the Afghan government in the whole process. One of the important part of the Doha Agreement is the initiation of Intra-Afghan dialogue, which is interconnected with the formation of system for the future of Afghanistan.
The controversy of this round can be assumed from the ongoing differences over the appointment of negotiating team. The Afghan government, Taliban and leading politician of Afghanistan has been trying hard, for the last several months, to form a negotiating team, but failed time and again. Every stakeholder wants to limit the influence and representation of each other.
The political turmoil in the wake of disputed result of presidential election, 2019, has engaged all the internal as well as external stakeholders in reconciliation between Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah. The sudden outbreak of Covid-19, pandemic, has reduced the possibility of Intra-Afghan dialogue in near future. The government is reluctant in releasing the prisoners, because it fears that a suitable atmosphere for intra- afghan dialogue may take longer to take place.
Last week, the National Security Council of Afghanistan (NSC) warned that, if Taliban did not discard their policy of cooperating with ISIS and Al-Qaeda militants, the Afghan government would stop the gradual release of Taliban prisoners.
The process of reduction of US troops, on the basis of February agreement, should be implemented in 135 days, which has not kicked off till date, due to spread of Covid-19, Pandemic and delay in Intra-Afghan dialogue, But the US officials announced that it will bring down its troops number to 8,600 by July 15th of 2020 and abandon five bases. Apparently, Taliban have remained committed to their agreements to US’.
But due to the circumstances created by Covid-19, in and outside of the country and delay in release of Taliban prisoners by Afghan government, are all against the expectations of Taliban and has dimmed their hopes for victory and supremacy over US and its allied forces, and if, this situations remain continued, they will, definitely expedite their attacks on Afghan security forces.
