KABUL - The much-talked about direct talks between Afghans in the Chinese capital of Beijing have been once again delayed due to some differences and may not be held, a reliable source said Sunday.
Chinese special representative for Afghanistan met with President Ghani along with some government figures and Afghan politicians almost three-month back in Kabul and visited the Taliban delegation in Qatar, suggesting intra-Afghan dialogue in his country.
Firstly, the Taliban accepted the invitation and said their delegation to be led by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar will take part in the huddle.
It was a planned meeting involving representatives of the Afghanistan government, Taliban, civil society and political groups.
The Beijing intra-Afghan talks were scheduled for December 28, but the Afghan government postponed the meeting.
However, a reliable source said the intra-Afghan meeting in China has been delayed again and unlikely to be held due to differences over agendas and some other issues.
The source, who wished to go unnamed, told Pajhwok Afghan News that the government did not select its delegation for the meeting and some other issues also existed in this regard.
The source added some administrative and operating works about the meeting were also yet to be addressed.
President spokesman Sidiq Sidiqi only said a date for the Beijing dialogue was yet be declared.
He told Pajhwok that the Afghan government supported all efforts at paving the ground for Afghan-owned and Afghan-led peace process.
He said consultations were underway with political figures on naming the list of participants for the China meeting.
He said, “The China meeting is like the pervious meetings held elsewhere for creating understanding and trust for intra-Afghan meeting, but not talks.”
Earlier, the National Security Council (NSC) had said the Afghan government will participate in the China meeting after considering all necessaries standards.
Two weeks back, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi briefed President Ashraf Ghani about the intra-Afghan meeting in Beijing.
Shahzadah Masood, a political expert, told Pajhwok that China did not well manage the Beijing meeting as did the Russian government and Doha meetings.
He said there were some differences over the list of participants and the list the government had prepared was not acceptable to anyone.
Another peace activist, Mushtaq Rahim, told Pajhwok there was no consensus between America and China on Afghan issues and both suspected each other.
He said the US and China had not been able to play a positive role in the Afghan conflict as their interests clashed in the region.
Another political analyst, Shafiq Hamdard, said the China meeting was delayed because the Taliban did not officially recognize the Afghan government.
He said on the other hand the Afghan government was not ready to take part in form of a group or individually.
Faiz Mohammad Zalan, a Kabul university instructor, told Pajhwok that the China meeting was linked to resumption of the stalled US-Taliban peace talks.
He said the National Unity Government (NUG) was so far unable to introduce a delegation to be acceptable to all and the issue negatively impacted the China meeting. (Pajhwok)