President Hamid Karzai will visit Doha this weekend along with a number of High Peace Council (HPC) members that might include its head Salahuddin Rabbani. During his travel to Doha President Karzai will meet top Qatari leaders, including Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani to discuss bilateral issues. However, the main purpose of the visit will be discussing issues pertaining to opening of an office for Taliban in Qatar and revival of the peace talks that remain stalled hitherto.

For peace negotiation to take place, it is crucial that the Afghan officials meet the Taliban leaders directly. However, the Taliban have always said that they will not be sitting with officials of the Afghan government at one table. They say that President Karzai is Western puppet who has no authority to take decision on anything, such as resolving the Afghan war through peaceful means.

The Afghan government, however, has been willing to talk directly with Taliban representatives preferably somewhere inside Afghanistan or if not here somewhere in Islamic countries like Turkey, Saudi Arabia or Qatar. It remains unknown whether President Karzai or his companions will be able to meet the Taliban leaders in Doha, albeit the Taliban have rejected any possibility of talks with Afghan side. For Karzai’s visit to Qatar, no appointment has been set to talk with Taliban.

Despite positive gesture shown to Taliban by Afghan government, they have escalated their terror activities around the country and have launched at least five coordinated terror attacks in capital Kabul since the beginning of 2013. The Afghan government has released hundreds of Taliban inmates over the last few months. On its request, the Pakistani government also set free more than two dozen of Taliban prisons a few months back. The Karzai government has also offered Taliban asylum in any other country, job opportunities and monetary rewards, if they join the peace reconciliation process.

According to some experts, President Karzai’s recent remarks which created much fuss among Afghan and US authorities were made to show to Taliban that all is not in hand of US or any other country and Afghan government enjoys much liberty to take ‘big’ decisions. In spite of all these, the Taliban remain rigid and have shown no true intention for talks. President Karzai’s visit to Doha will be considered a successful visit, if direct talks with Taliban happen and a liaison office for them can be established.