U.S. in talks with Taliban
First meeting since American withdrawal focuses on aid & gov’t
The Taliban and the United States are talking again.
U.S. representatives and top Taliban figures kicked off two days of meetings in Doha, the capital of Qatar, on Saturday.
A Taliban official said the group that now effectively runs Afghanistan would not seek U.S. help on containing ISIS, which Friday launched a suicide attack that killed 46 Shiite Muslims and wounded dozens more as they prayed in a mosque in Kunduz.
“We are able to tackle [ISIS],” Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen said on Saturday.
This weekend’s meetings are the first face-to-face talks since U.S. forces withdrew from Afghanistan in August — ending a 20-year military presence — as the Taliban quickly ran roughshod over Afghanistan.
“We had a detailed discussion with the American delegation in Doha, and this discussion will continue all day today and into tomorrow as well,” Taliban spokesman Zabiullah
Mujahid said.
“During this meeting, discussions were made about the humanitarian assistance as well, and this discussion will continue,” he added.
U.S. officials say the talks are not a path to recognition of the Taliban.
Speaking after the discussions opened, Afghanistan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said the two sides agreed to uphold the terms of the Doha agreement signed in 2020, the BBC reported.
That deal requires the Taliban to take steps to prevent groups such as Al Qaeda from threatening the security of the United States and its allies.
Al Jazeera reported the Taliban came to Qatar seeking advice on dealing with governing, mounting security issues and economic difficulties.
The talks come after two days of discussions between Pakistani officials and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman that focused on Afghanistan. The Pakistanis urged the U.S. to engage with Afghanistan’s new rulers and release billions of
dollars in international funds to avoid an economic meltdown.
Muttaqi told Al Jazeera that the
Taliban asked the U.S. to lift its ban on the reserves of the Afghan central bank.
Pakistan is also urging the Taliban to respect human rights and minority ethnic and religious groups.
After Friday’s deadly bombing, Afghanistan’s Shiite clerics demanded greater protection at their places of worship. The ISIS affiliate claimed responsibility and identified the bomber as an Uyghur Muslim. The claim said the attack targeted both Shiites and the Taliban for their purported willingness to expel Uyghurs to meet demands from China.
It was the deadliest attack since U.S. and NATO troops left Afghanistan on Aug. 30.
Also on Saturday, the Taliban began busing Afghans who had fled from the insurgents’ blitz takeover in August and were living in tents in a Kabul park back to their homes in the country’s north, where threats from ISIS are mounting following the Kunduz attack.
There are up to 1.3 million Afghans displaced from past wars, and the Taliban lack funds to organize the return home for all of them, said a Taliban official.