Leaked US diplomatic cables document how the latest US talks come after more than a decade in which the US hoped the Taliban might moderate. But at the same time, the Taliban said that "jihad" would be used to remove the US from Afghanistan. The office opened as the Obama administration was planning to end combat operations. The Taliban said they considered Qatar a "neutral" place to meet, an odd assertion considering Qatar is supposed to be a US ally and hosts a large US military base at Al-Udeid. "For years, the Afghan government and its Western backers were trying to contact the Taliban who didn't have a known address," the report said. The Taliban held secret discussions in Norway to pave the way to open their office in Doha, according to Reuters.Īccording to a BBC report, the Taliban had 20 representatives in the Qatari city.
Qatar, which poses as a broker of the new peace talks, enabled the Taliban to open an office in Doha in 2013.
Trump mocked the complexities of the conflict in Afghanistan in the first days of January, saying he had been shown evidence of the Taliban fighting ISIS and wondered why the US should be in the middle of it all. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is hard pressed today as the Taliban and other threats such as ISIS appear to grow. Afghanistan security forces have lost 45,000 men since 2014, according to a BBC report on January 25.
In 2017, there were 12,000 NATO troops, including 8,000 US forces in the country, even though combat operations were supposed to have ended in 2014. In August 2017, he was convinced by his generals to soldier on in the country, where more than 2,000 American soldiers have been killed. Trump considered withdrawing from Afghanistan after he was elected. It would have been unthinkable back then for the US to be talking to the Taliban. He had been the US Ambassador to Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005. Khalilzad was appointed Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation in September by the Trump administration. He thanked the deputy prime minister and foreign minister of Qatar. "Thanks to the government of Qatar for their constructive engagement and their facilitation of this round of talks," he said. US Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad tweeted on Saturday that meetings in Doha had been "more productive than they have been in the past." Significant progress was made. Today, the US appears to be on the verge of a deal with the Taliban that may let Washington leave Afghanistan after 18 years of war without the US admitting defeat. "We assure you we will not compromise our jihad's main goal of forcing the US to leave Afghanistan," they told Newsweek. They were open to negotiations with the US after years of war. In 2012, the Taliban, who had been defeated by the US invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11, sought to open an office in Doha, Qatar.
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