Mr. Karzai reacted in fury after an apparent diplomatic breakthrough on Tuesday — the opening of a Taliban peace office in Qatar — instead became a publicity coup for the Taliban. In televised images that horrified many Afghans, the Taliban introduced what appeared to be an embassy, raising their flag, speaking in front of a sign declaring the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” the name of their former government and seeking international exposure.

First, Mr. Karzai broke off long-term security talks with the United States, accusing the Americans of failing to deliver on promises to keep the Taliban from grandstanding. Soon after, his office announced that the government delegation would stay away from the talks until the insurgents removed their symbolic displays of being an alternative government.

The president’s gambit appeared to work: In a turbulent 24 hours of nonstop diplomatic moves, Secretary of State John Kerry called Mr. Karzai three times and successfully pushed the Qatari government to get the Taliban to take down the sign and flag, American and Afghan officials said.

“The office must not be treated as or represent itself as an embassy or other office representing the Afghan Taliban as an emirate government or sovereign,” said the State Department spokeswoman, Jennifer R. Psaki.

However, there was much to repair from the events of the past two days, and many Afghan political figures expressed a sense of having been betrayed by both the Americans and the Taliban.

Through it all, Mr. Karzai again showed his willingness to halt American initiatives unilaterally when his allies displeased him, as he did earlier this year in forcing them to hand over detention operations and banning American Special Operations forces from a strategic district.

 However, the American response was much faster and complied unambiguously with Mr. Karzai’s demands this time, in part because they struck directly at two of the most critical parts of the Obama administration’s long-term vision for Afghanistan: entering peace talks with the Taliban to help curb the insurgency as Western troops withdraw and reaching an agreement to allow a lasting American military force past 2014.

At the same time, it became increasingly apparent that the Taliban, at little cost in binding promises or capital, were seizing the peace process as a stage for publicity and giving the Americans a stark lesson in the complications that could be posed by the diplomatic overtures.

The rapid-fire developments Wednesday came a day after the American military formally handed over control of security in all of Afghanistan to Afghan forces, followed hours later with the three sides’ announcement that peace talks would begin in Doha.

The opening was hailed by American officials as a breakthrough after 18 months of stalled peace efforts, though they cautioned that a long road remained ahead.

Meanwhile, the Taliban played to the cameras.

The insurgents opened their Doha office with a lavish ceremony that included a ribbon-cutting and the playing of the Taliban anthem, with the Qatari deputy foreign minister in attendance. The Taliban said they intended to use the site to meet with representatives of the international community and the United Nations, to interact with the news media, “improve relations with countries around the world” and, almost as an afterthought, meet “Afghans if there is a need.” They did not mention the Afghan government.

Some of the other language the Taliban used closely followed the American framework for peace talks. The insurgents appeared to agree — as they have in the past — to distance themselves from Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, saying the Taliban’s aims were only within Afghanistan and that they did not support the use of Afghan soil to plot international attacks.

 Still, it was the insurgent presentation of themselves as a government that angered Afghan officials, and they clearly felt they were being sidelined in the peace process. Indeed, Afghan officials had been worried enough that the Taliban might act out that they had demanded, and received, a letter from President Obama guaranteeing that the office would not look like an embassy and confer legitimacy, said Aimal Faizi, the Afghan president’s spokesman. 

The White House would not confirm or deny the letter. But an administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed that Mr. Obama had sent one offering such assurances. 

Later Wednesday, at the comfortable new villa housing the Taliban office in the West Bay district of Doha, evidence of the American diplomatic scramble could be seen: the white Taliban flag and the Islamic emirate sign had both been taken down. And Qatari police forces were stationed outside.

But one former Afghan official in Doha, an adviser to Burhanuddin Rabbani, the Afghan government peace envoy killed in 2011 by a Taliban assassin, said the insurgents had already won an important battle.

“Through those pictures of the Taliban flag waving in the air and the banner on the office, it took people to see two countries, two flags, two legitimacies. The damage is already done,” he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of concerns for his safety.

As for the Taliban office, he said he expected it would remain open, and that that had been the aim of the Taliban all along. “One of the reasons they did it was to rehabilitate the Taliban, to make them palatable enough for elections,” he said.

American officials said the initial discussions with the Taliban that had been planned for Thursday in Doha had been called off. But some American officials had traveled to Qatar, and officials expressed hope that after the scramble on Wednesday, the talks could be resumed soon with the Afghan government delegation taking part as well.

In describing the Taliban’s initial overture, American officials said it as relatively sudden, signaled by Qatari officials toward the end of May. That timing, too, was surprising: Taliban forces in Afghanistan had been stepping up their attacks as summer neared, bloodying Afghan Army and police forces who have been taking the lead in security operations as American troops stepped back to a support role.

Almost as a reminder that the Taliban, too, could borrow a page from the “fight and talk” American road map in Afghanistan, insurgents struck within hours of the Doha office opening. Militants tripped a deadly ambush on an American convoy near the Bagram Air Base north of the Afghan capital, killing four American soldiers, Afghan officials said.

 

 

Source: The New York Times (www.nytimes.com)