A delegation from Washington was Qatar today to try to take out oil.
But the Taliban, even before sitting on the negotiating table, gave explicit samples of not being willing to fold to the requirements of some US with less power of influence in Afghanistan, for the benefit of their geopolitical rivals.
With the Islamic state hitting with increasing virulence, the fundamentalist movement warned the White House that it is not open to cooperation against this threat.
It was the first meeting between representatives of the Biden administration and the newly proclaimed Islamic Emirate.
Doha, the chosen place, was an old scenario of dialogue and the conclusive signing of a US-Taliban pact, in February 2020 and under Mandate from Donald Trump, who sat the bases for the replication of international troops and, indirectly,
for the ascent to the power of the Islamists.
He drew attention as Zalmay Khalilzad, the American negotiator, was absent.
“This meeting is the continuation of pragmatic contacts with the Taliban in issues of vital national interest,” CNN chain a senior US government official, as justification of a controversial appointment, for occurrence while the Taliban continues to be imposed every day.
New prohibitions to women and committing human rights violations, according to allegations of activists inside and outside the country.
The conversations will continue tomorrow with a wide range of issues on the table.
One of them is the fight against the one named Daesh, one of whose members, a combatant of the Ethnic Chinese minority Uigor was, according to the same organization, responsible for the massacre of 46 Faithful Shiites in a mosque last Friday.
Before the Westerners could request the Taliban to persecute the attackers in their country, these were denied around.
“We can deal with the DAESH independently,” Associated Press Agency Suhail Shaheen, the spokesperson that the Taliban have in his Qatari office, from where, for months, gather with numerous diplomats from all over the globe.
Other topics to be addressed during these days, according to US sources to the same agency, are the possibility of prolonging the evacuations of Afghan citizens endangered and the distribution of humanitarian aid at the decime of Afghanistan.
“Given that Afghanistan faces perspectives of severe economic contraction and a possible humanitarian crisis, we will pressure the Taliban to allow humanitarian organizations free access to areas in need,” said a CNN official.
As for evacuations, aircraft have come out in the country’s dropouts since the end of evacuations.
There are still “dozen” Americans in Afghanistan “who wish to leave,” according to the US.
These negotiations are marked by the delicate balance of Kabul.
The Taliban need international aid to alleviate the pressing poverty and thus stabilize its government, but until now they have not been willing to renounce their political draconians that cause rejection in the West.
At the same time, China and Russia also approach them to achieve a favorable balance.
Moscow has invited the Taliban on October 20 to maintain high-level conversations.
In the meantime, Pakistan, a decisive support of fundamentalists, continues asking its support and recognition for the Afghan Islamic Emirate.
The US, one of them, does not seem to make asks to having relations with the new Afghan rulers.
But an American source clarified CNN that Doha’s appointment “is not about guaranteeing recognition or conferring legitimacy.”
“We are clear that any legitimacy should be earned through the actions of the Taliban,” she sentenced.
In this regard, despite everything, a representative of the movement stressed the media that his training “offered” yesterday in Qatar “to the US opening a new page [of relations] between Kabul and Washington”, although insisting the government of
Joe biden in “respect the sovereignty of Afghanistan and not interfere in his internal affairs.”
Pragmatism, then, governs difficult ground and, above all, lethal for thousands of Afghans.
Those who still dream of leaving poverty behind and the fear of extremist repression or who fear dying in this new era of war between violent factions.