After years of isolation, the Taliban are about to establish two tracks of talks with their opponents, one with the United States to be held in Qatar, and another with the Afghan government to happen in Saudi Arabia.
It is essential that these two sets of talks do not clash. The Taliban should not be allowed to play the Americans off against the Afghans. The United States has an overriding interest in ending the fighting, and a secondary interest in making sure that eight years of war are not wasted.
The Afghan government has a completely different set of priorities when it starts a detailed conversation about planning the future of Afghanistan with a political body that claims to be the representatives of millions of Pashtun Afghan citizens.
It is also unclear at what level either track will operate, and it also unclear how the two sets of talks will be coordinated. But it is clear that success will require senior figures from all three sides to take part. In addition, the talks should be expanded in time to include all Afghanistan's neighbours, so that they can all commit to helping bring peace to Afghanistan.
