CNN
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Top Biden administration officers met in-person with the Taliban on Saturday for the primary time since al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed by the US in his house in Kabul in late July, two officers acquainted with the talks mentioned.
The administration despatched the CIA’s deputy director and the highest State Department official answerable for Afghanistan to the Qatari capital of Doha for the talks with the Taliban delegation which included their head of intelligence, Abdul Haq Wasiq.
After Zawahiri was killed in a strike, the US accused the Taliban of a “clear and blatant violation of the Doha settlement, “brokered by the Trump administration, which mentioned that the Taliban wouldn’t harbor terrorists if US forces withdrew from Afghanistan, which they did in August 2021.
After a US drone fired deadly Hellfire missiles at Zawahiri, American officers accused Taliban leaders from the Haqqani community of realizing about Zawahiri’s whereabouts whereas the Taliban angrily condemned the operation.
Since then, the US has continued to have interaction with the Taliban, together with negotiating the discharge of US citizen Mark Frerichs. But senior officers had not met face-to-face since a couple of days earlier than Zawahiri was killed on July 31.
The presence of CIA Deputy Director David Cohen and the Taliban’s Wasiq on the assembly on Saturday signifies an emphasis on counterterrorism. The White House final month referred to as cooperation with the Taliban on counterterrorism “a work in progress.”
Cohen was accompanied by the State Department’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Tom West, who has typically led engagement with the Taliban because the US withdrawal final 12 months.
Frerichs was launched virtually three weeks in the past after greater than two years in captivity, with assist from Qatar. Administration officers mentioned they mentioned spent months negotiating with the Taliban for his launch and had warned the Taliban after the strike about harming Frerichs. The finest approach to rebuild belief, they mentioned they informed the Taliban, can be to launch him.
At least one different American, a filmmaker named Ivor Shearer, is at present being held by the Taliban after being arrested together with his Afghan producer, Faizullah Faizbakhsh, filming within the space the place Zawahiri was killed, based on the Committee to Protect Journalists. Shearer had reportedly been summoned a number of instances by the Taliban for questioning earlier than his detention.
The CIA and State Department declined to remark.
While the Taliban maintains ties with al Qaeda, they’re dealing with an insurgency from the Islamic State offshoot referred to as ISIS-Okay. The group has routinely focused the Hazara ethnic minority in Afghanistan. At least 25 folks, primarily younger ladies, had been killed in a suicide assault final week at an training middle in a predominantly Hazara neighborhood in Kabul. No one instantly claimed accountability.
“The Taliban are struggling to prevent ISIS-K attacks, making them look feckless, particularly in Kabul,” says Beth Sanner, a former Deputy Director of National Intelligence who led Afghanistan evaluation on the CIA. Sanner can be a CNN contributor.
“[Cohen] is likely to deliver a firm message that we will conduct more strikes as we did against Zawahiri if we find that al Qaeda members in Afghanistan are supporting operations that threaten the US or its allies,” Sanner mentioned. “ISIS-K now poses an internal Afghan threat, to the Taliban and to sectarian stability given ISIS-K’s focus on killing Shias, but there is some reasonable concern that ISIS-K could ultimately turn its sights on external plotting if the Taliban is unable to contain them.”
Last month the Biden administration introduced it had arrange a $3.5 billion “Afghan Fund” with frozen Afghan cash to advertise financial stability. The funds have but to be launched as a result of the US doesn’t consider there’s a trusted establishment to ensure the funds will profit the Afghan folks, two officers informed CNN.
Instead it will likely be administered by an out of doors physique, unbiased of the Taliban and the nation’s central financial institution.
Administration officers have additionally repeatedly raised the plight of girls and ladies of their conversations with the Taliban. The United Nations rapporteur for human rights in Afghanistan final month referred to as the regression of girls and ladies in Afghan society “staggering.”
“In no other country have women and girls so rapidly disappeared from all spheres of public life,” Bennett mentioned. “Despite this, women and girls remain at the forefront of efforts to maintain human rights and continue to call for accountability.”