The Afghan Presidential office and the High Peace Council (HPC) seem to be getting calmer in a reaction to the news of Taliban office in Qatar. Soon after there were reports of Taliban office in Qatar, the Afghan government, especially President Hamid Karzai, was very much annoyed, thinking that Afghan government was kept out of any reconciliation process being planned by US with the Taliban.

The Afghan ambassador to Qatar was summoned in order to have proper analysis of the situation and it was recommended that it would be better if such an office was established in Saudi Arabia or Turkey. However, now they have mentioned that they would not have any objection if a Taliban office is established at Doha, the Qatari capital but they have emphasized that this office must serve for the purpose of negotiation alone.

HPC has mentioned, "The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is in agreement regarding the opening of an office for the armed opposition, but only to move forward the peace process and conduct negotiations." Regarding the controversy of where the office should be situated, a government official has mentioned, "We are saying Saudi or Turkey are preferable, we are not saying it has to be there only.

The only condition is, it should be an Islamic country." Nevertheless, it seems very much evident now that there have been endeavors by US and Germany for the reconciliation process in Qatar. It is quite possible that already there have been discussions between the US officials and Taliban representatives – most probably on this occasion the Taliban representatives were real.

Afghan government, however, have set certain conditions for the negotiations. The HPC's note in this regard contains almost 11 conditions among which the most important are; Taliban must stop militancy and deadly assaults against the people of Afghanistan, they must cut ties with Al-Qaida and must accept the constitution of Afghanistan with guarantee of adherence to basic civil rights and liberties, among which the most important one is the rights of women.

Another important point that has been mentioned in this regard is the support of Pakistan, which is considered very much important for long lasting peace and tranquility. The set conditions, in the perspective of Afghan government, are not very much strict and will not hinder the talks.

A government official in this regard has mentioned, "We don't think it's a deal breaker. We are quite optimistic." However, too much of optimism can only spoil the process; rather the government officials, in this regard, have to be very much realistic as they have not been able to comprehend and handle the peace process appropriately so far.

In fact, this process has made them suffer instead of making them achieve something worthwhile for security and development of the country. Even the international allies of Afghanistan have not been able to deal with it appropriately and they have committed serious mistakes in its pursuit.

It would, in no way, be inappropriate to mention that the reconciliation process with Taliban has been a troubling issue for both Afghanistan and its allies. There have been many efforts made in this regard and almost all of them have failed.

Starting from the establishment of High Peace Council to today when US is reportedly seeking establishment of Taliban diplomatic office in Qatar, the reconciliation has not been able to make any important achievement; rather there have been occasions when Afghan government and it allies have been fooled by fake Taliban representatives. Throughout the process, Afghanistan has paid a heavy price.

Instead of gaining anything from the process, they have been sacrificing both financially and in the form of precious human lives. Taliban as a response have been more aggressive. They have never given their full consent for the negotiations.

They even went to the extent of targeting the Council chief Burhan ud din Rabbani. After the demise of High Peace Council chief Burhan ud din Rabbani, president Karzai commented that it would be inappropriate to seek negotiations with Taliban; rather it would be better to negotiate with Pakistan.

His tone definitely seemed sarcastic, suggesting that Pakistan has not been doing much in the war against terrorism. US, on the other hand, after the attacks on US Embassy and NATO headquarters in Kabul, declared vehemently that Haqqani network that was blamed for the attacks has been backed by Pakistan's spy agency.

The further blow to the reconciliation process came in the form of the worst relations between US and Pakistan after the attack on Pakistani military check post within the Pakistani border that killed 24 soldiers. US has, on many occasions, mentioned that dialogue and cooperation from Pakistan are needed to win a comprehensive war against the terrorism and better relations must be maintained with them to remove the misunderstandings.

Moreover, US mentioned that it is even ready to have dialogues with Taliban, even the Haqqani network, which was about to be listed as a notorious terrorist organization as the network was thought of being very much lethal and responsible for targeting key US and Afghan personalities.

US has so much interest in arranging talks with Taliban that now with the indications of negotiations, there are reports that US is ready to transfer some of the Afghan prisoners from Guantanamo Bay military prison to Doha as a prelude to the talks. All these measures depict that US has been striving to be able to arrange for some political reconciliation before it withdraws most of its forces by 2014.

It now feels the vacuum of a strong strategic endeavor for political reconciliation. And it should never be forgotten that Political reconciliation has always been an important factor and only political solution may last for long in Afghanistan after the international troops withdraw considerably.

Most importantly Afghanistan must, in every way, be a part of such a political reconciliation and it is important that all such efforts must be made as transparent as possible; not only to the Afghan authorities but also the Afghan people who have been suffering largely as a result of disorder in the country. Unilateral decisions by US in this regard can not prove fruitful and will further strengthen distrust.