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The humanitarian situation and the implementation of the 2020 U.S.-Taliban agreement agenda was held in Doha.
According to the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan, senior Taliban officials and US representatives discussed the issue of “opening a new chapter” in relations between the two countries when they began their talks in Qatar.
The face-to-face meeting that began in Doha on Saturday was the first since the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan in August (which ended its 20-year military presence) and the Taliban came to power.
The Afghan Acting Foreign Minister Mullah Amir Khan Muttaqi said that the focus of the Afghan delegation is humanitarian assistance and the implementation of the agreement signed by the Taliban and Washington last year to pave the way for the final withdrawal of the United States.
The minister said that the Afghan delegation has asked the United States to lift the ban on the reserves of the Central Bank of Afghanistan. He added that the United States will provide Afghans with a vaccine against COVID-19.
The Taliban delegation will meet with EU representatives later.
A spokesperson for the US State Department said on Friday evening that the talks were not about recognizing the Taliban or legitimizing them as Afghan leaders, but about the continuation of pragmatic talks on US national interests.
He said that the top priority is to allow Afghans, U.S. citizens and other foreign nationals to continue to leave Afghanistan safely, adding that another goal is to urge the Taliban to respect the rights of all Afghans, including women and girls, and form a broadly inclusive Sexual government. support.
The US State Department did not disclose who will go to the capital of Qatar from the US side.
Since the Taliban came to power, the Islamic State ISKP (ISIS-K) in Khorasan Province has stepped up attacks on the organization and ethnic and religious minorities.
On Friday, an ISKP suicide bomber was killed At least 46 minority Shia Muslims And dozens of people were injured in the deadliest attack since the U.S. withdrawal.
Natasha Ghoneim of Al Jazeera said that the Taliban delegation in Doha hopes to deal with governance difficulties, increasing security issues and economic difficulties.
“It seems that one of the main topics discussed today is the distribution of humanitarian aid,” she said.
She reported in Doha that expectations for a breakthrough in the talks should be “moderated” because there is still a considerable “gulf” between what the United States wants and what the Afghan transitional government wants.
Ghoneim added that it is worth noting that Zalmay Khalilzad is absent, who has been a key figure in the negotiations between the United States and the Taliban for many years.
Ghoneim said: “The Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs stated that Afghanistan is seeking the help of the international community to resolve its financial difficulties. What you see is a country that relies heavily on international aid and the local humanitarian crisis is evolving.
“It asks the United States to lift economic restrictions, unfreeze its assets or lift restrictions on the National Bank of Afghanistan. It says it needs to be able to pay employees’ salaries and be able to provide services to the Afghan people,” she added.
Threat of terrorism
The 2020 U.S.-Taliban agreement negotiated by the Trump administration requires the Taliban to sever ties with “terrorist organizations” and guarantee that Afghanistan will not again harbor “terrorists” who can attack the United States and its allies.
Before the talks, the Taliban ruled out the possibility of cooperating with the United States to deter Afghan armed groups and warned Washington not to carry out any so-called “out-of-the-horizon” attacks on Afghan territory from outside Afghanistan.
Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen told the Associated Press that it will not cooperate with Washington in combating the country’s increasingly active ISIL affiliates.
When asked whether the Taliban would cooperate with the United States to contain ISKP, Shaheen said: “We can deal with ISIS independently.”
Since the U.S. withdrawal, the Biden administration has raised questions and complaints about the slow pace of U.S. assistance in evacuation from Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
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