Adding to the complexity of launching the talks, the Taliban on Wednesday claimed responsibility for a rocket attack that killed four American troops at Bagram air base.  In Berlin, President Obama acknowledged that “this is going to be a difficult process” but said the United States remains committed to moving it forward.  “They’ve been fighting for a very long time. There’s enormous mistrust,” Obama said. “We still believe you have to have a parallel political track to at least look at the prospect of some sort of global reconciliation.”  U.S. officials had worked for weeks with Qatar to have a clear understanding of what would be said during Tuesday’s Taliban press event, at which the insurgent group announced the opening of its Doha office and — in response to a U.S. demand — pledged not to launch attacks on outside countries from Afghan soil.  From Kabul, before the Taliban announcement, Karzai backed the talks in Doha as a necessary first step but said his government must soon play a role. The Taliban has repeatedly rejected any negotiation with the Afghan government, but Tuesday’s statement, at U.S. insistence, also included a vague reference to willingness to “hold meetings with Afghans.”  American and Afghan officials were taken aback, however, by two details of the Taliban event that had not been agreed on: The Taliban displayed the group’s flag during the event and spoke in front of a banner that proclaimed, in Arabic, “The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.”  Karzai insists that a Taliban political office in Doha be used only for peace negotiations and not as a base for an alternative Afghan government. To him, the banner and the flag violated that requirement.  “The president is not happy with the name of the office,” Aimal Faizi, a Karzai spokesman, told the Reuters news agency after Karzai’s office said it would suspend negotiations with the United States. “We oppose the title the ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’ because such a thing doesn’t exist.”  A senior Afghan official said Wednesday night that his government had sought written assurances from the Americans about the way the Qatar office would be unveiled.  “Unfortunately, the manner that the office was announced, including the title given to the office and the imagery on display were all in breach of the written assurances we received from the U.S. government,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to explain the Afghan government’s position.
A deadly Taliban attack at Bagram air base underscores the complexity of trying to negotiate a peace deal.