Paris conference: Afghan Taliban top negotiator faces UN travel curbs

Taliban top negotiator, Shabuddin Dilawar, nominated to represent the movement in an international conference on Afghanistan future in France later this month faces UN travel curbs and is likely to miss the event. However Taliban officials say that they are in touch with the concerned quarters to grant Dilawar temporary waiver to facilitate him to proceed to Paris.

Maulavi Dilawar, a member of the Qatar stalled dialogue process with the United States, has been nominated by the Taliban leadership to lead a two-member delegation to the Paris moot, scheduled to be held on December 20-22.

“The name of Maulvi Shahabuddin has not yet been cleared for travelling to France and we are in contact with the concerned quarters,” a Taliban leader said, who wanted not to be identified.

Dilawar has served on senior diplomatic positions in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and was Deputy of High Court under the Taliban 2009-2001 regime.

The Foundation for Strategic Research Paris, a think tank, will organize the conference to transform military opposition to political process, security after 2014 endgame and the presidential elections.

“If the name of Maulvi Shahabuddin Dilawar was not cleared for travelling, then we will nominate other representatives and their names will be shared with the media,” the Taliban leader said.

The United Nations had earlier provided a limited waiver to a senior Afghan Taliban leader, Agha Jan Motasim, allowing him to travel to Turkey for treatment. Motasim, who once headed the Taliban powerful Political Affairs Committee, was critically injured in an assassination attempt in Karachi in August 2010.

Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States had agreed in April on a “Safe Passage Mechanism” for those Taliban who want to enter into intra-Afghan dialogue. But it is not yet clear if the three governments will play any role to facilitate Maulvi Dilawar to go to France. Dilawar has held series of talks with the United States in Qatar.

Islamabad and Kabul agreed last week last month to jointly work for the removal of Taliban names from the UN sanctions list to push the peace process forward.

Senior leaders of the Northern Alliance, the Afghan political opposition groups and members of the government-backed Afghan High Peace Council will also attend the conference, which will be a one of the biggest gatherings of Afghan leaders ahead of the endgame.

The Paris conference has assumed importance as the Taliban will sit face-to-face with bitter rivals for the first time since 2001, although the Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid ruled out possibility of talks with the Afghan government and the opposition in an earlier interview.

Despite Taliban refusal to talk to the Afghan leaders in the conference, analysts believe that the delegates may discuss certain points that could be useful for the future peace talks.

“Afghan delegates will express their own views but there would be strong possibility of unanimity on some points,” an Afghan analyst Waheed Mujda said from Kabul.

This is second time Taliban representatives will be attending an international conference, which the Taliban spokesman said is aimed at interacting with the world to ‘defend and explain their position at international forums’.

Taliban had attended a conference in Japan last year in June. The conference was organized by the Doshisha University in Kyoto city.

Afghan sources say that Masoom Stanekzai, a senior official of the Afghan High Peace Council and Haji Din Mohammad, adviser to President Hamid Karzai will also attend the conference.

Senior leaders of the Afghan political opposition, Younas Qanooni and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah will also attend the conference.

Hizb-e-Islami, led by former Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, will also send a three-member delegation to the conference, the Hizb leader, Dr Ghairat Baheer, says.

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Posted by Tahir Khan on Dec 12 2012. Filed under Latest News, Pakistan, Politics, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.