US, Taliban hold first talks since Afghanistan withdrawal

AJ-9 Oct 2021

The discussions in Qatar’s capital, Doha, will revisit the agreement the Taliban signed with the US last year.

The meeting on Saturday and Sunday will be the first since US forces withdrew from Afghanistan in August

Senior Taliban officials and United States representatives have discussed “opening a new page” in their countries’ relationship as they kicked off talks in Qatar, according to Afghanistan’s acting foreign minister.

The in-person meetings that began in Doha on Saturday are the first since US forces withdrew from Afghanistan in August – ending a 20-year military presence – and the Taliban’s rise to power.

Mullah Amir Khan Muttaqi, Afghanistan’s acting foreign minister, said the focus of the Afghan delegation was humanitarian aid, as well the implementation of the agreement the Taliban signed with Washington last year which paved the way for the final US withdrawal.

The minister said the Afghan delegation had asked the US to lift its ban on the reserves of Afghanistan’s central bank. He added that the US would offer Afghan people vaccines against COVID-19.

The Taliban delegation will later meet representatives from the European Union.

A spokesperson of the US State Department said on Friday evening that the talks were not about recognising or legitimising the Taliban as Afghanistan’s leaders, but are a continuation of pragmatic talks on issues of national interest for the US.

He said the priority was the continued safe departure of Afghans, US citizens and other foreign nationals from Afghanistan, adding that another goal was to urge the Taliban to respect the rights of all Afghans, including women and girls, and form an inclusive government with broad support.

The State Department did not disclose who would travel to the Qatari capital from the US side.

Since the Taliban took power, the Islamic State in Khorasan Province, ISKP (ISIS-K), has ramped up attacks on the group, as well as ethnic and religious minorities.

On Friday, an ISKP suicide bomber killed at least 46 minority Shia Muslims and wounded dozens in the deadliest attack since the US departure.

Al Jazeera’s Natasha Ghoneim, reporting from Doha, said expectations of a breakthrough at the talks should be “tempered” because there is still quite a “chasm” between what the US wants and what the transitional government in Afghanistan wants.

“The Taliban is describing its delegation as high level and is being led by its acting foreign minister,” she said. “On the US side, there will be diplomats from the state department, members of USAID and of the intelligence department.”

Notably absent, Ghoneim added, is Zalmay Khalilzad, who has been the US’s point person in talks with the Taliban for years.

Terrorist threat

The US-Taliban agreement of 2020, which was negotiated by the Trump administration, demanded the Taliban break ties with “terrorist” groups and guarantee Afghanistan would not again harbour terrorists who could attack the US and its allies.

The Taliban has said it does not want US anti-terrorism assistance and warned Washington against any so-called “over-the-horizon” attacks on Afghan territory from outside the country’s borders.

The Biden administration has fielded questions and complaints about the slow pace of US-facilitated evacuations from Taliban-ruled Afghanistan since the US withdrawal.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES