A US delegation held talks with Taliban representatives in Doha. This is the first face to face between the two sides since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. State Department spokesman Ned Price called the talks “frank and professional”. The US has reiterated that the Taliban will be judged for their actions, not their words.
The US delegation “focused on concerns related to security and terrorism, on safe transit for US citizens and other foreign citizens and our Afghan partners, as well as on human rights – reads a note – including significant participation of women and girls in all aspects of Afghan society ”.
The Taliban: the US will provide humanitarian aid
The Taliban said the meeting with the US “went well” and that the US will provide humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen told The Associated Press that the interim foreign minister has assured the US that the Taliban is committed to ensuring that the country will not be used by extremists to launch attacks on other countries. The Taliban delegation was led by Amir Khan Muttaqi, current foreign minister of Afghanistan, Suhail Shaheen told Bloomberg News.
The full implementation of the agreement ratified in Doha would be the best way to solve the current problems and “rebuild diplomatic relations for a better state,” said Khan Muttaqi, in a comment re-launched on Twitter by Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid. The minister refers to the agreement signed in 2020 between Trump and the Taliban militant groups for the withdrawal of American troops. After the return to power at the end of August 2021, the Taliban are threatened by the blitzes of the Islamic State, with an escalation of attacks that raises fears of the outbreak of a civil war between the two factions. It is estimated that at least 40 people were killed in an attack on 8 October in a mosque in the town of Kunduz.