WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The possibility of restarting peace negotiations with a weakened Taliban will improve by the fall of 2016, former Afghan Interior Minister Ali Jalali told Sputnik on Monday.
"I think Taliban, despite some tactical advances they had [in 2015], they have no future. They do not have a strategic opportunity to prevail," Jalali stated. "Therefore, I believe the prospects [of bringing them to the negotiating table] will improve by next fall."
Jalali acknowledged that during 2015, the Taliban seized on security gaps left when the international security forces pulled out of the country the previous year. "They made some inroads in the rural areas, but they were unable even to retain the areas they took."
Bringing the Taliban into a peace settlement will depend on the resilience of the Afghan government, Jalali explained in a speech to the Middle East Institute on Monday. "The longer the state continues to fight them, I think they less opportunity they will have to come back."
Jalali indicated that the Taliban would be less apt to enter peace talks if they are in a position of strength.
"The priority is to build the capacity of the [Afghan] government… so that this will force them [the Taliban] to the negotiating table," he said.
Throughout 2015, Afghan Security Forces faced a resurgent Taliban, despite official claims that that nearly 70 percent of the country had returned to government control.
US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper asserted in March that fighting in Afghanistan will be even more intense than in 2015, when the Afghan Security Forces suffered more than 6,500 casualties.
