Top US officials hold first in-person meeting with the Taliban since the US killed al Qaeda’s leader in July

CNN
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Top Biden administration officials met directly with the Taliban on Saturday for the first time since al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed by the United States in his apartment in Kabul in late July, two officials familiar with the negotiations said.

The administration sent the deputy director of the CIA and the highest-ranking State Department official responsible for Afghanistan to the Qatari capital, Doha, for talks with a Taliban delegation, including the head of their intelligence agency, Abdul. Haq Wasiq.

After Zawahiri was killed in an attack, the US accused the Taliban of “a clear and flagrant violation of the Doha agreement”, brokered by the Trump administration, which said the Taliban would not harbor terrorists if US forces withdraw from Afghanistan. did in August 2021.

After a US drone fatally fired a Hellfire missile at Zawahiri, US officials accused Taliban leaders from the Haqqani network of knowing about Zawahiri’s whereabouts while the Taliban angrily denounced the operation.

Since then, the US has continued to engage with the Taliban, including negotiating the release of US citizen Mark Frerichs. But senior officials have not met face-to-face since a few days before Zawahiri was killed on July 31.

The presence of CIA Deputy Director David Cohen and Wasiq of the Taliban at Saturday’s meeting underscored the emphasis on counterterrorism. The White House last month called 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 often led skirmishes with the Taliban since the US withdrawal last year.

Frerichs was released almost three weeks ago after more than two years in captivity, with help from Qatar. Administration officials said they said they spent months negotiating with the Taliban to free him and warned the Taliban after the attack about harming Frerichs. The best way to rebuild trust, they say they have told the Taliban, is to free him.

At least one other American, a filmmaker named Ivor Shearer, is currently in Taliban custody after being arrested along with Afghan producer Faizullah Faizbakhsh who was filming in the area where Zawahiri was killed, according to the commission. Protect Journalists. Shearer is said to have been summoned several times by the Taliban for questioning before being detained.

The CIA and State Department declined to comment.

While the Taliban maintain ties to al Qaeda, they are facing an insurgency from Islamic State affiliates known as ISIS-K. The group regularly targets the Hazara minority in Afghanistan. At least 25 people, mostly young women, were killed in a suicide attack last week at an education center in the predominantly Hazara neighborhood of Kabul. No one came forward to claim responsibility immediately.

“The Taliban are struggling to stop ISIS-K attacks, making them look like nothing,” said Beth Sanner, a former Deputy Director of National Intelligence who led the analysis on Afghanistan at the CIA. especially in Kabul. Sanner is also a CNN contributor.

“[Cohen] Sanner said. “ISIS-K now poses an internal threat to Afghanistan, to the Taliban, and to sectarian stability given ISIS-K’s focus on killing Shias, but there are some reasonable concerns that ISIS-K ultimately could turn to outside plots if the Taliban are unable to contain them. ”

Last month, the Biden administration announced it had established a $3.5 billion “Afghan Fund” in frozen Afghan currency to promote economic stability. Two officials told CNN.

Instead, it will be administered by an outside agency, independent of the Taliban and the country’s central bank.

Administration officials have also repeatedly raised the plight of women and girls in their conversations with the Taliban. The United Nations rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan last month called the decline of women and girls in Afghan society “astonishing”.

“There is no other country where women and girls disappear so quickly from all areas of public life,” says Bennett. “Despite this, women and girls remain at the forefront of efforts to uphold human rights and continue to call for accountability.”