Afghanistan’s Taliban leers agreed y wanted a deal with United States, but some were in more of a hurry than ors. Taliban negotiators were at odds with ir Council of Leers, or shura, about wher to travel to Camp David even before President Donald Trump abruptly canceled high-stakes meeting planned for last weekend. According to Taliban officials familiar with discussions, shura opposed trip to Camp David and chastised negotiators who were er to attend. 

Taliban held talks with US  

Taliban have been holding talks with U.S. for over a year in Qatari capital, Doha, where militant Islamic movement maintains a political office under banner of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman for Doha office, told Taliban Al-Emarah website on Tuesday that U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilz h invited Taliban negotiators to Camp David in late August. 

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Taliban accepted, only to delay, demanding deal be anunced first by Qatar. y also wanted a signing ceremony witnessed by foreign ministers of several countries, including Pakistan, Russia, and China. delay followed shura’s rejection and monishment of its negotiators.  

This wasn’t first disagreement between negotiators and shura, according to Taliban sources, who spoke on condition of anymity because y were t authorized to discuss internal debates with reporters. 

Shura opposed offer by Mullah Abdul Ghani Barar

Several months earlier, shura opposed an offer by Mullah Abdul Ghani Barar, chief negotiator and co-founder of Taliban, to give Americans 14 months to withdraw ir roughly 14,000 troops from Afghanistan. shura let Barar kw it wasn’t on board with timeline and that he could t make decisions independent of shura. 

Still, several Taliban officials familiar with both negotiating team and shura said that while opinions differed, Taliban leership debated every article of agreement and negotiating team eir got shura to agree or bowed to its decisions. 

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“What’s striking is how Taliban mobilized at highest levels to support negotiations with U.S.,” said Michael Kugelman, deputy director of Asia Program at Washington-based Wilson Center. “Senior Taliban officials didn’t only endorse talks; y helped le m.” 

“This suggests that Washington would have trouble exploiting fractures within Taliban in an effort to strengn its hand in negotiations,” he said. “re may be divisions within Taliban, but y presented a relatively common front in negotiating process. That’s more than one can say for Afghan government or even Trump ministration.” 

Earlier peace talks  

Barar, le negotiator, believed to be most influential of Taliban interlocutors, has been pushing a peace deal in Afghanistan even before U.S. was willing to enter talks. As far back as 2010, he h secretly opened peace talks with Afghanistan’s n-president, Hamid Karzai. When neighboring Pakistan found out, Barar was arrested in a raid jointly carried out with CIA. He spent eight years in a Pakistani jail — punishment for trying to sideline Islamab in peace talks. 

Karzai previously told Associated Press he asked both Pakistan and U.S. on at least two occasions to release Barar but was turned down. first secret contacts between Taliban and U.S., aimed at finding a way to talk, reportedly did t occur until 2013. 

 Even as Washington seeks an exit to its longest war, Taliban are at ir strongest since ir ouster in 2001 and hold sway over more than half country, staging near-daily, dely attacks across Afghanistan. 

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Khalilz’s year-long peace mission has been Washington’s most dedicated push for peace, focusing t just on Taliban, Afghanistan’s government and prominent Afghan powerbrokers but also on its neighbors, who are often blamed for outright interference in Afghanistan. 

meddlers include Pakistan and Russia, accused of aiding Taliban against Islamic State insurgents with deep connections to Central Asia, and also Iran, which has trained Afghan fighters kwn as Fatimayoun Brige that fought alongside Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in Syria. 

“One of my concerns is that if talks don’t start up again soon, tremendous progress that Zal (Khalilz) me in generating a strong ... regional consensus for peace in Afghanistan could dissipate, and (Afghanistan’s neighbors could) revert to destabilizing, hedging behavior,” warned Andrew Wilder, Asia Programs’ vice president at U.S. Institute of Peace. 

“If Pakistan feels U.S. is going to precipitously withdraw troops during next year ... Pakistan may decide that it’s more important than ever to support a proxy like Taliban to protect Pakistan’s perceived interests in Afghanistan,” which would be to keep India’s influence to a minimum, said Wilder. 

Meanwhile, Taliban have been unapologetic about ir relentless attacks that have killed scores of civilians — and which have been blamed for talks’ collapse. 

Trump claimed earlier this week that Taliban h later expressed regret. Shaheen, Taliban spokesman in Doha, seemed anything but repentant. He argued that U.S. has also continued its military campaign in parallel to peace talks, ding that “re was cease-fire and agreement was t signed.”Despite posturing, it appears two sides are still talking, even if it is just to ask or what it all means. 

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“We have contacted m (U.S. officials) and y too have approached us,” Shaheen said. “We have sought formal clarification from m about Trump’s decision. We are hopeful of response and are waiting for ir response.” 

U.S. still wants its troops out of Afghanistan. Even as Trump declared talks with Taliban “de,” he said American troops have become policemen in Afghanistan and that’s t ir job. He said Afghan ministration has to “step up” and take on that role. 

“ Taliban are in a good place right w,” said Kugelman. “y’ll remain open to renegotiating a troop withdrawal deal with U.S. in future, but unlike U.S. y’re in rush to get one.”