In the two months that Donald Trump became president, the Taliban intensified his efforts to approach the American administration, and it seems that he is aware of an opportunity to restore official relations and the presence of an American, according to people familiar with the American talks with the group, which is still known as a terrorist organization.
“There is a positive way, and if they go this way, we will also go to it.”
“I will not ignore negative things either,” the official said, stressing that the normalization of relationships will not be expected in the short term.
In the talks last month with US officials in Kabul, to ensure the release of an American prisoner, Taliban representatives again raised the possibility of the United States to realize the group as the official Afghanistan government.
The officer and the second person said that the Taliban also submitted a request to open an office in the United States to deal with issues related to Afghan society. The office will not necessarily be an embassy and the site can be somewhere outside Washington, as suggested by Taliban officers.
The establishment of official diplomatic relations with the Taliban will lead to a profound change in relations between the United States and Afghanistan after the group was taken by the group after the United States removed its forces from the country in 2021. This happened after nearly two decades of fighting, which led to the death of nearly 2,500 American soldiers.
This was the first year of Trump in the first period in which he reached an agreement with the Taliban, which stipulated the total withdrawal of American forces in 2021, which means that this will happen during the era of President Joe Biden.
When the Afghan security forces collapsed and allowed Taliban to seize power in August 2021, the Biden administration withdrew the chaotic, with exciting scenes of desperate Afghans working behind the clouds at Kabul Airport.
Nearly 200 Afghans and 13 American military personnel were killed by an Islamic statesman at the airport door.
After a meeting last month on the issuance of the American mechanic by the aircraft George Glizmann, the Taliban and the former envy of Trump to Afghanistan, Zawassi Khalilzad, who traveled to Kabul to save him, the procedure was a “good gesture.”
Galzman’s launch was mediated by Qatar, where Taliban officials have been hosted for years. After the launch of Glezmann, The Taliban released the American Faye Hall after less than two weeks, again without asking any prisoners to exchange.
In January, the group postponed the release of two other Americans until after that Trump takes officeTo allow him to receive credit instead of Joe Biden. In this case, a drug -convicted Taliban member was returned in the United States.
“They realize that this is step by step,” the second person said. The group is “keen to please Trump” and understand that they need to provide something to the American president, known as his factories.
The procedures are not only on the Taliban side.
After Glezmann, the United States removed millions of dollars from the rewards of three members of the Haqqani Network, which for years has performed deadly attacks against American forces and is still being appointed as a foreign terrorist organization. One of them, Soldinne Haqqani, is the Minister of Interior for Taliban.
An American officer said the three kept their names in the United States as terrorists, but the rewards are magazines.
Another American officer said after the release of Galzmann:
The March meeting in Kabul led the American side by Adam Bouhler, who took over the officials of the detainees worldwide. He sat next to Khalilzad, who had no official role, but led negotiations with the Taliban during the first period of Trump on the American withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Before Trump took office, the Taliban not only requested normal relations, but also the release of the United States’s prisoners in Guantanamo. “They also wanted to be billions of dollars unable.
The former officer said: “I told them that unconditional versions (meaning) great relationships with Trump. Cleaning your detention cells will be free to work with you,” adding that they also warned: “Wait for the Americans: Wait for marine flight missiles.”
Taliban admired Trump, the former official continued, and the apparent force he presents.
Trump also praised the group’s fighters in the past, describing them as “good fighters” and “really smart” in an interview with Fox News during Biden’s presidency.
During his first term, Trump secretly called on the Taliban to Camp David to talk about the removal of American forces from Afghanistan and a peace agreement with the Afghan government before the anniversary of September 11.
The decision divided his team and Trump rejected the plans, claiming that he canceled the negotiations after the Taliban attack, which killed an American soldier.
When this became public, there was a great cry, including from the then member of Congress Mike Walz, who is now working as a national security adviser Trump.
Although he agreed with the American withdrawal in early 2020, Trump has repeatedly attacked Biden on the catastrophic way how the withdrawal occurred and made it an essential issue in the election campaign last year.
Last week, Trump once again raised the possibility of demanding the return of American military equipment, accusing Biden of abandoning billions of dollars in equipment. The Taliban has so far refused.
The group was not mentioned in the annual report published by the intelligence community recently on the global threats of the United States. But the ordinary enemy was: the Islamic State Khwrasan, which the report called the “most capable arm” for the Islamic state.
According to the terms of the agreement signed in 2020, the Taliban should prevent another terrorist group from re -organizing al -Qaeda. However, the relations and in 2022 the Biden administration had been targeting and killing al -Qaeda leader Iman Al -Zawahiri, with a missile fired from a drone against his house in Kabul.
No country recognized that the Taliban is the official government of Afghanistan, but the group is progressing on the diplomatic theater.
The Taliban are now ambassadors in China and the United Arab Emirates, as well as a long political office in Doha. The regime also established diplomatic jobs all over the world and sent diplomats to occupy them.
In Washington, the Afghanistan embassy is still closed, but reopening it under the Taliban government will undoubtedly be a major achievement.
“You must be transparent and bear the risks,” is what the Taliban was informed at the March meeting in Kabul, according to the informed person. “Do this, you are likely to open the door for a better relationship.”
