Talks with the Taliban and the Doha Process seem to have already become history. During the recent Islamabad visit of the US Secretary John Kerry, the issue of Taliban talks seems to have stirred a new idea floating around. They now admit the Doha track is effectively dead, and proposals for relocating the meetings have been making the rounds.

The Karzai Administration has been updated about the idea of a new location to kick-start the process, however it is not clear where will the new location be and whether the Taliban would agree to continue. New names include Dubai and Istanbul, as confirmed by the Pakistani Foreign and National Security Advisor Sartaj Aziz in a Pakistani newspaper report.

The US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Ambassador Dobbins, has said it’s up to the Taliban to agree to met with the US and High Peace Council (HPC) officials to restart the Doha Process. In his briefing to President Karzai about Secretary Kerry’s Islamabad visit, Ambassador Dobbins have updated the Administration about the new options to jumpstart talks with the Taliban. He said the new civilian government in Islamabad is honestly willing to cooperate, but Taliban is unwilling to the join the process.

While talking at the press conference in Kabul, he talked uncertainly: "on reconciliation and the Doha office, I cannot predict the future, much depends on whether the Taliban is ready to sit down and begin discussions with the US and with the High Peace Council (HPC) on the conditions that were set by the government of Qatar for the opening of their office there. They have not been willing to do so for the last few weeks. But we have not given up and we will continue to pursue that."

The huge fuss created by the Karzai Administration after the Taliban inauguration of their office in Doha caused the deadlock. Despite the fact that no genuine progress will be made from these talks, the root of problem is lack of a clear vision by the Karzai Administration. The HPC and all efforts to reach out to the Taliban have utterly failed, and they have no roadmap. When there are initiatives such as the Doha Process, the Administration has failed to play any constructive role or come up with any successful imitative of its own that should work.  The two-year solo drive for peace efforts has failed and there is no chance it would succeed anytime soon.