How Qatar came to host the Taliban
The Taliban chose Qatar for the office because they saw it as a neutral location
After
nearly 12 years of bloodshed in Afghanistan, long-awaited peace talks
with the Taliban are set to begin. But why and how have these
negotiations ended up taking place in the Gulf emirate of Qatar? The BBC
World Service's Dawood Azami has this assessment from Doha.
Taliban representatives secretly arrived in Qatar about three
years ago to talk to Western officials. They knew that the Americans in
particular were eager to secure a peace deal that would allow Nato a
dignified exit from Afghanistan and leave the country more stable and
peaceful. In March 2012, the Taliban suspended initial talks with the US focused on prisoner exchanges.
They wanted the release of five Taliban figures held at Guantanamo Bay in exchange for the freedom of US soldier Sgt Bowe Bergdahl, believed to have been held by the Taliban since 2009.
But the number of Taliban representatives and their activities in Qatar have gradually increased. There are now more than 20 relatively high-ranking Taliban members who live here with their families.
Over the past two years, they have sent representatives from Qatar to conferences on Afghanistan in Japan, France and Germany - most recently sending a delegation to Iran.
Those in Qatar represent only the Taliban in Afghanistan, the main insurgent group led by Mullah Mohammed Omar. There are no representatives of the Pakistani Taliban.
Shopping encounter Nearly all members of the Taliban office are said to have come to Qatar through Pakistan. A few have reportedly commuted between Qatar and Pakistan over the past two years.
While in Doha, the Taliban have in general been careful about their activities and appearances.
But it is not a big city and there are about 6,000 Afghan labourers and businessmen who live here. Several told me that they had occasionally seen Taliban representatives driving, walking the streets, or inside shopping centres and mosques.
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