Hundreds of Afghan delegates to meet Taliban in Doha

Afghanistan published a lengthy list of delegates who will meet with the Taliban in Doha this week, including government officials, in what could become the highest-level dialogue between the sworn enemies in years, reports confirmed on Tuesday.

A massive roster published by the presidential palace comprises 250 names, including President Ashraf Ghani's chief of staff, Abdul Salam Rahimi, as well as his election running mate, Amrullah Saleh, the former head of Afghan intelligence.

Other delegates named on the list come from many walks of Afghan life including youth leaders, tribal elders and - significantly - 52 women.

The last time the Taliban met with the Afghan government was at secretive talks in Pakistan in 2015, which were quickly derailed by the news that Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar had died.

The three days of talks in Qatar, scheduled to start on Friday, come amid a months-long push led by Washington for peace nearly 18 years after the US invasion, and as fresh violence rips across Afghanistan.

Talk of talks had been gridlocked between the two sides, as the insurgents view Ghani as a US stooge and his government as a puppet regime, with the Taliban refusing to speak with Kabul directly.

They have insisted that any government officials attending this week's talks will be doing so only in a "personal capacity".

Previous talks that were due to be held in Saudi Arabia were cancelled by the Taliban because of Riyadh's insistence to meet the Afghan government.

"The problem is that leaders of Saudi Arabia and the (UAE) wanted us to definitely meet the Afghan government delegation, which we cannot afford to do now, and we have cancelled the meeting in Saudi Arabia," the Taliban said at the time, requesting the talks to be held in Qatar instead, where the group operates a political office.

The US, which has cited significant progress after holding direct talks with the militants in Doha several times since September, is not expected to attend. 

President Donald Trump wants a major scale-back of Washington's involvement in Afghanistan, where 14,000 US troops operate as part of a NATO peacekeeping operation. 

The war in Afghanistan is Washington's longest overseas military intervention and has cost the country close to a trillion dollars.

Trump wants to withdraw American troops from the country and establish a peace deal with the Taliban in time for Afghanistan's presidential and parliamentary elections, due early to mid-2019.

The elections have been viewed as a litmus test for the future security of the country.

Meanwhile, the militants have not announced a final list of who is headed to Doha, and distanced themselves from a report that suggested their delegation might also include women.

The peace process thus far has been widely criticised for a lack of female representation, and US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has pushed for greater inclusivity.

While the Taliban previously met with Afghan representatives and politicians in Moscow in February, those talks did not include members of Ghani's government.

The spokesman for former president Hamid Karzai, who was at the Moscow talks, said Karzai supported the "intra-Afghan" conference in Doha but would not be attending.

Kabul has also been left out of the talks with the Khalilzad and the US delegation, prompting concerns the Afghan government is being sidelined in its own peace process and underscoring the importance of this week's meetings in Doha.

This month, the United Nations said it had lifted travel bans for 11 Taliban delegates so they could attend talks. 

That list includes Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the Islamist movement and its top political leader, as well as Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the Taliban's chief negotiator and former deputy minister of foreign affairs.

The Taliban was overthrown but launched an insurgency against US-led NATO forces and the Afghan government.

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