MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th August, 2018) Kabul said on Thursday that it would not attend the multinational conference on the future of Afghanistan, set to be held in Moscow on September 4, claiming that the decision was not related to recent US refusal to take part in the event.
According to a source in the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Moscow conference will take regardless of Kabul's decision. The source claims that the absence of the United States and Afghanistan will not make the negotiations less efficient.
At least four high ranking leaders of the Afghan Taliban movement will reportedly attend the meeting.
Earlier on Thursday, Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Sibghatullah Ahmadi confirmed that Kabul would not attend the meeting on Afghanistan hosted by Moscow.
He said that Afghanistan had taken the decision "independently as a sovereign country," and that it had nothing to do with the US refusal to attend the conference.
"The peace process should be conducted exclusively under the guidance of Afghanistan, of the government of the Republic of Afghanistan. We already have our own peace board, we are working on the negotiations with Taliban. And we will surely continue them. Of course, we will be leading the peace process. By the way, we have very close ties with Russia, and Russia is a big and strong country in the region, and one of our friends," Ahmadi added.
Representatives of 12 countries, including the United States, have been invited to the Moscow consultations on Afghanistan. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the leadership of the Taliban political office in Doha has also been invited.
The United States refused to attend the meeting. A representative of the US Department of State told Sputnik that Washington believed that the conference was "unlikely to yield any progress."
"The decision by the US stresses yet again the false nature of Washingtons rhetoric regarding Afghanistan, where people over the past 17 years have had to endure and are still experiencing so much suffering and losses resulting from US policy toward this country," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The ministry went on to emphasize that the main objective of the meeting was to "enable participating countries to come together in order to facilitate the launch of national reconciliation in Afghanistan and put an end to a fratricidal war there," and that the US move proved that Washington's interests were lying "elsewhere."
TALIBAN MOVEMENT WILL HAVE SPECIAL STATUS
Nikita Mendkovich, an expert from Russia-based Center for Modern Afghanistan Studies, believes that if the Moscow conference is held without participation of Washington and Kabul, then the Taliban movement will have a special status at the meeting.
"In fact, this will be their major diplomatic debut � official or semiofficial communication with the representatives of other countries," Mendkovich said.
According to the expert, the Taliban movement representatives were initially expected to communicate with the Afghan authorities under mediation of other participants.
"And now, without official Kabul, the event will turn into Taliban's self-introduction to the international community, which will be quite a big failure for official Kabul," Mendkovich added.
He went on to say that the Taliban movement representatives would have an opportunity to initiate their "legitimization with no difficulty or loss."
"This is why I believe that Kabul should not refuse to take part in the conference now," Mendkovich added.
Mendkovich believes that if Kabul does not participate in the conference, Russia will not suffer a major reputational loss.
"If the international conference is held without the United States and Afghanistan, this will perhaps make it slightly less representative, but it will still be a serious legitimate event. In this case, official Kabul loses, and Taliban movement wins," he said.
The expert added that Russia was unlikely to cancel the conference.
