Afghanistan Peace CampaignIt also reads that the Islamic Emirate leadership prefers de facto engagement and displays of diplomatic respect to de jure legitimacy.
A Foreign Policy opinion piece by Jens Vesterlund Mathiesen, Adam Weinstein, and Galina Mikkelsen says that the new US administration led by President-elect Donald Trump and the West will face renewed opportunities and challenges in their approach to Afghanistan.
Referring to the discontinuation of the position of the US special representative for Afghanistan in October, and the closing of Afghan embassies in Europe, the piece says that Donald Trump will inherit nearly “deadlocked US relations” with the Islamic Emirate.
The piece called for coordinated US-European diplomacy on Afghanistan and suggested that the West should accept the current reality of Afghanistan rather than hoping to fracture the ‘Taliban’ from within.
It also reads that the Islamic Emirate leadership prefers de facto engagement and displays of diplomatic respect to de jure legitimacy.
“There’s no shortage of engagement with the Taliban by non-Western powers. Aaron Zelin of the Washington Institute has meticulously tracked all Taliban diplomatic meetings since August 2021, nearly 2,000 in their first three years in power, with meetings accelerating year on year,” the article reads.
The writers criticized the Western strategy of non-recognition and questioned the US’s and Europe’s distancing from Afghanistan while regional countries benefit from their engagement with the country.
The piece said that regional countries have achieved much from their engagement with Kabul.
The abandonment of Afghanistan by the West would be a mistake, the writers said, who encouraged face-to-face interaction with the current Afghan authorities rather than engaging from a distance.
“The United States and Europe could move beyond occasional engagement in Doha and sporadic meetings in Kabul to take a long-term approach by meeting with the Taliban and the Afghan people inside Afghanistan. By following the example of regional states in demonstrating respect through dialogue, Western diplomats can leverage the power of face-to-face interactions, recognizing that effective diplomacy is rooted in building personal relationships,” the article said.
Although the Islamic Emirate has repeatedly said that Daesh has been defeated in Afghanistan, the writers in the Foreign Policy piece wrote that the Islamic Emirate can be a counterterrorism partner of the West against their “shared” threat, ISKP.
The piece said that Donald Trump, as the architect of the Doha agreement, should pursue a forward-looking diplomacy, rather than return to the mistakes of the past.
This comes as the former US special envoy for Afghan peace, Zalmay Khalilzad, on X wrote that the reelection of Donald Trump is an opening for full implementation of the Doha agreement, and as Kabul is urging the president-elect to open a new chapter in US-Afghan relations.