Symposium on “Intra-Afghan Dialogue: A New Hope?”

The United States-Taliban peace agreement signed in Doha, despite its significance, cannot be deemed substantial enough for creating sustainable peace in war-ravaged Afghanistan. Afghanistan is home to various ethnicities and has witnessed a history of insurrections and presently, lack of cordial relations exist amongst different political entities of the country with no common agendas to converge on. Afghan soil has also been used as a hotbed of proxy warfare by India which could very well jeopardize the intra-Afghan dialogue.

These were some of the conclusions of the Symposium on “Intra-Afghan Dialogue: A New Hope” organized by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute here in the capital today. Eminent speakers included former Pakistani ambassadors and diplomats. The speakers highlighted peace in Afghanistan may not suit New Delhi’s ambitions for regional hegemony and can cause them to continue intervening in the politics and decision-making of the country. The diplomats cautioned that Afghan politicians must be wary of issuing irresponsible statements which may derail efforts to find a solution to this 20-year old conflict. An intra-Afghan dialogue is the only hope for millions of citizens as well as the refugees hoping to return to their homeland. Such a scenario still seems implausible, but is not entirely impossible.