Taliban update: Qatar may struggle to achieve its hyped revamped Taliban

As Taliban The closure of Kabul and the flooding of its airport by thousands of people was the first Gulf country Qatar to open its doors to evacuees and quickly established itself as the main channel of contact between the West and the organization known for harbouring Osama bin Laden.

Since then, the United States and the United Kingdom have moved their Afghan embassies to Doha, and U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Brinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin praised its key role-they are both visiting this week. However, if Qatar fails to provide the world with the new face of the Taliban it is trying to nurture, the relationships that have been carefully nurtured over the past decade may soon become a burden for Qatar. A kind that is more friendly to women and less friendly to escaped terrorists.

Qatar’s relations with the Taliban and other Islamic organizations have long been a source of tension with neighboring countries and concerns about its Western allies. With the departure of the last batch of American troops, the US-backed government collapsed almost immediately, and Western powers had few other ways to contact Taliban political representatives.

Qatar is keen to host talks with the Taliban, has a big background and dramatic lighting, and has won the trust of its political leaders. According to a diplomat based in the Gulf, about 500 to 600 Taliban members and their families live in the internationalized Doha. They include political faction leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who had held talks between skyscrapers in five-star hotels that did not strictly follow Qatar’s modest rules.

This provides a platform for the Taliban to reshape themselves to be more moderate and prepare for the government through the Al Jazeera TV channel in Qatar. While serving as the regional headquarters for US military operations, Qatar also skillfully promoted relations with Iran and Islamic organizations, which gave Qatar an opportunity to enhance its position with its most important strategic allies.

At a press conference in Doha on Tuesday, Brinken expressed his appreciation for Qatar’s help in Afghanistan. “For many years, at our request, you have promoted diplomacy between the Taliban and the Afghan government, trying to resolve the conflict peacefully,” he said.

However, it is not yet clear how Qatar will bridge the gap between the image-focused leaders it hosts and the Taliban’s military branch, which is closer to Pakistan, which is the long-term political broker next door and believes that it’s not needed. accommodate.

Western diplomats said that they did not agree with Pakistan. According to the diplomat, who asked not to be named, Qataris even found it difficult to deal with Baradar, who is at odds with the Pakistanis. Pakistan is not the only interested party. Inland Afghanistan is surrounded by powerful neighbors such as Iran and China. Compared with the distant Qatar, Afghanistan is more direct about its fate.

“Qatar is an important channel between the Taliban and the rest of the world, but it does not have as profound influence on the Taliban as Pakistan,” said Jian Jinningmeng, Middle East analyst of European Leadership Network. “Qatar’s relationship with the Taliban is mainly focused on mediation and international relations. Therefore, it affects a specific branch of the Taliban-those who want to contact the outside world and establish pragmatic relationships so that they can obtain aid and trade.”

responsibility

Western governments have stated that any contact with the Afghan regime will depend on it allowing safe evacuation from Kabul and the flow of humanitarian aid, rather than becoming a safe haven for terrorist organizations, respecting human rights and forming an inclusive government.

However, there is no evidence that Qatar can influence the Taliban’s approach to the education of women and girls, even though Qatar’s ruling family has made it a priority.

Although Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani stated that his country is cooperating with the Taliban and Turkey to restart operations at Kabul’s airport, it has not yet convinced the Taliban to accept foreign countries at the airport. Security personnel, this is a key sticking point.

The government of Qatar did not respond to a request for comment on its relationship with the Taliban.

Another person familiar with the situation, who asked not to be named, said that Qatar is aware of its own limitations and pays less attention to trying to change the attitude of the Taliban, and more attention to using its strong financial resources to buy influence in regions with strategic interests to the major powers. . Discuss sensitive issues.

As the world’s largest LNG exporter and one of the richest countries in the world, Qatar has the financial leverage that Pakistan lacks and the lobbying influence in Washington. This becomes even more important for the Taliban, because Western governments and international organizations are unwilling to support a regime that has not yet proven that it is different from the international untouchables of the 1990s.

If Afghanistan becomes a safe haven for terrorists again, Qatar’s relations may soon become a problem.

Saudi Arabia has been severely condemned for recognizing the Taliban regime in the 1990s, which was Al Qaeda’s own primacy before the attack on the United States on September 11, 2001, and was concerned about Qatar’s high-risk foreign policy.

“Qatar can easily feel embarrassed and may wish to keep a distance from the Taliban or at least some leaders of the Taliban,” Jinningmont said. “The language used by some Taliban members is internationally attractive, but it is not clear whether this newly discovered expressiveness is not just a rebranding.”