US Secretary of State Pompeo arrives in Kabul to meet up Afghan political rivals
23 March, 2020
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived on Monday in the Afghan capital, on a previously unannounced visit to greatly help salvage a historic deal between Washington and the Taliban, struck in February but marred by a political feud.
Pompeo will meet President Ashraf Ghani and longtime rival Abdullah Abdullah, who contests the consequence of a September presidential vote, raising the chance of parallel governments which has paralyzed selection of negotiating teams for talks.
His visit has been watched closely for clues to whether it could resolve the weeks-long political deadlock.
"We'll see if...that could mean things are negotiated plus they are ready for a final settlement," said a diplomatic source in Kabul.
Pompeo is scheduled to meet up the men separately and in addition hold meetings with both together on Monday.
A row over the release of prisoners and the politicians' rivalry have hampered progress in mediation between your Taliban and the Afghan government, that was not really a party to the US-Taliban deal, signed in Doha.
The deal signed on Feb. 29 aimed to pave the way for the Taliban to negotiate with the Afghan government, including a pact to withdraw foreign troops that could effectively end the United States' longest war.
However the Afghan government and the Taliban have not begun formal negotiation as planned, stymied partly by the bitter feud between Ghani and Abdullah, which includes stalled appointment of a negotiation team to represent the Afghan government.
Pompeo's visit comes at a time when much global travel has been stalled by the coronavirus pandemic, which includes infected a lot more than 300,000 and killed a lot more than 14,000 globally.
US Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad, who has spent much of his amount of time in Kabul because the deal signing, made a plea to both sides the other day to do something fast on the release of prisoners, a condition the Taliban have set for the talks.
Khalilzad said the pandemic added urgency for the release, illustrating the way the outbreak is affecting among US President Donald Trump's top foreign policy priorities.
With 40 infections in Afghanistan, fears are growing that the thousands returning home from neighboring Iran each day might fuel the outbreak in a nation with a public health network devastated by years of war.
The Taliban and the Afghan government held a "virtual" meeting on prisoner releases on Sunday, officials said.
In February, Afghanistan's Electoral Commission announced incumbent Ghani as the winner of the presidential election, but Abdullah said he and his allies had won and insisted that he'd form a government.
Source: www.thejakartapost.com