Taliban sources inform Al Jazeera that US officers assured them throughout a gathering in Doha.
Doha, Qatar – The USA has assured Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers that Washington won't fund any armed teams or non-state actors within the nation, Taliban sources have instructed Al Jazeera.
The assurances have been welcomed by the Taliban as Tajik armed teams, which have been backed by the West prior to now, proceed to problem the group’s management – even because it has managed to include the Tajik-dominated Nationwide Resistance Entrance and different teams aligned with the previous Western-backed authorities because it returned to energy in August final 12 months.
The assurances got throughout a gathering between US Division of State officers and Taliban representatives in Doha earlier this month.
Whereas few particulars concerning the assembly within the Qatari capital can be found, Taliban sources instructed Al Jazeera its members met with members of a excessive stage US delegation, together with CIA deputy director.
This assembly was the primary since July when the US stated it killed al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in a drone assault on his hiding place in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul.
Al-Zawahiri’s presence in Afghanistan led the West to accuse the Taliban of violating the 2020 Doha Settlement, during which the Afghan group agreed to not present secure haven to al-Qaeda and different armed teams.
The Taliban swept into energy final 12 months in a lightning offensive however violence by armed teams reminiscent of ISIL affiliate ISKP has surged in latest months, posing a safety problem to the group.
Taliban reject US plan for Afghan property
Within the assembly, the Taliban additionally conveyed its rejection of the US announcement that it will switch $3.5bn in frozen Afghan central financial institution property right into a Swiss-based belief, in accordance with the Taliban sources, who've data concerning the conferences.
Final month, the Taliban stated the US choice to place a part of almost $10bn in Afghan property – which it froze final August in an try to hold the Taliban from accessing it – into belief was “unacceptable and a violation of worldwide norms”.
The US announcement had stated the fund will likely be managed by a world board of trustees and used for debt funds, electrical energy, meals, printing new foreign money and different important wants and providers.
The Afghan group has repeatedly known as for the lifting of sanctions and the discharge of frozen funds, together with worldwide help that was suspended after the Taliban takeover, to assist its dying financial system. Sanctions that had been positioned on the Taliban throughout their first interval of rule that resulted in 2001 got here again into drive with them taking energy final 12 months.
The Taliban’s isolation
Greater than half of Afghanistan’s 39 million individuals want humanitarian assist and six million are prone to famine, the United Nations stated in August.
No nation has recognised the Taliban’s self-styled Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, and its diplomatic and monetary isolation has exacerbated the humanitarian disaster within the nation, which has suffered from many years of battle, together with the final 20 years underneath US occupation.
The worldwide neighborhood has urged the Taliban to respect human rights, together with permitting ladies entry to colleges and workplaces. However the group has put in place rising curbs on human rights, additional angering the worldwide neighborhood and dashing any hopes of recognition.
Nonetheless, the revelations concerning the Doha assembly present the US continues to interact with the Taliban regardless of the rift.
A state division spokesperson confirmed the Doha conferences to Al Jazeera.
“As we’ve made clear, we’ll proceed to interact the Taliban pragmatically concerning American pursuits,” she instructed Al Jazeera.
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