ISLAMABAD - Maulana Fazlur Rahman, the Chief of JUI-F, has appealed to all stakeholders of the Afghan reconciliation not to let pass by the window of opportunity created following the opening of the Afghan Taliban Office in Doha.
In a statement issued here by his Spokesperson, Jan Achakzai, the Maulana said that the Taliban feel that promises had been “broken” when they did agree to the office.
He said that he understands the sentiments of the Afghan Taliban as they want to be treated with respect and as genuine stakeholder in Afghan reconciliation process.
However, Fazl said that the Taliban had indeed created a big window of opportunity for all those who wanted to see reconciliation succeeded in Afghanistan.
He said that now it is the job of particularly the US to help facilitate the process by providing meaningful depth to the Doha process.
He said that meaningful depth could only be provided if the US quickly moved towards establishing CBMs. “ The big turnaround in reducing trust deficit between the US and the Taliban will be releasing the Gontanamo Taliban prisoners”, he added.
The Maulana warned that the Doha process is very delicate and there are many hiccups and spoilers who might be heavily invested in prolonging the conflict. “But the US as a decisive facilitator could help remove irritants and prevail upon spoilers hence it needs to heavily invest itself in the Doha process”, he observed.
The Maulana said that sustaining the Doha process is the only way forward for all stakeholders to pull off the goal of Afghan reconciliation as 2014 Withdrawal deadline looms.
He appealed to all stakeholders not let pass them selves of this opportunity otherwise, the peace and stability in the whole region will remain elusive.