The Approach of Key Players in Afghanistan: Challenges against ‎Peace Talks with Taliban

Entering the second decade of the Afghan war and presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan, the two sides in Afghan conflict found out that continuation of military approach will be useless and without a winner. Therefore, the foreign players have expressed their will for a trend shift from military to political through negotiation. But the results of the political process are not only in the hand of radical elements and the government in Kabul tied with foreign troops. The approach of regional players and in particular Iran, India, Pakistan, Russia and China is of great importance. Increasing the number of trans-regional players involved and their different approaches is an important obstacle for the process of peace-making in Afghanistan. The present article, reviewing the history of peace talks in Afghanistan, will explain the approaches of the key players involved. The author would assume that despite the fact that domestic players in Afghanistan have reached to necessity of negotiation, diverse and conflicting approaches of other actors play an important role to halt these talks.