Biden won't let Taliban 'have its ways' in Afghanistan, says ex-Pakistan envoy to the US

Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani said that the Joe Biden administration will not let the Taliban have its way as the price for ending the war in Afghanistan. Opposed to former US President Donald Trump’s policies that had charted the roadmap of Afghan national reconciliation and complete withdrawal of US and NATO troops from the region, emboldening the Taliban. Biden’s US Afghanistan policy will not cede to Taliban negotiations to put an end to deteriorating security and nearly two decades of war between conflicting parties in Afghanistan. Haqqani further alleged, that despite Trump brokered the US-Taliban deal reached in Doha, al Qaeda has entrenched in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, gaining strength, and the Taliban “refused to respect the gains for the Afghan people.” 

In an opinion piece for DC-based newspaper The Hill, the director for the South and Central Asia at Hudson Institute said, Biden administration has grounds to believe that the Taliban has failed to keep the promise made in the Afghan peace deal, which was predicated on the latter's promise to cut off ties with Al-Qaeda. Calling the signing of the US-Taliban deal a ‘non-starter’ Haqqani said in the interview that the Taliban “acted as if it was talking, as victors of a civil war, to other Afghan factions about a power-sharing agreement, albeit on the Taliban's terms,” as cited by news agency ANI. 

[In November 2020, Taliban's peace negotiation team meet with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo amid talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government, in Doha, Qatar. Credit: AP/file]

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To ‘re-evaluate’ Taliban’s compliance

Biden will ‘maintain a military presence in Afghanistan indefinitely’, as he had committed to “end forever wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East” during his election campaign trail, with a mission-focused “on al Qaeda and ISIS”, the former Pakistan ambassador to US noted. But Haqqani stressed, that Biden, however, might not “completely walk away” from Trump administration’s regional diplomacy, breaking new ground, as the sitting US President  had vowed to “bring the vast majority of our troops home from Afghanistan.” After a phone call held last week between US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and his Afghan counterpart, Hamdullah Mohib, Biden administration gave mixed signals about US’ Afghan policies in the press, stating that the administration plans to ‘re-evaluate’ the Taliban’s compliance. 

Meanwhile, the Biden administration also expressed willingness to work with Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad for future intra-Afghan talks. Even as the White House has provided uncertainty over Biden’s robust stance on Afghan policies, Haqqani said, Biden administration will provide full support to the government of Afghanistan in seeking a settlement with the Taliban. "Even Pakistan, which facilitated US dialogue with the Taliban and has long provided sanctuary to the group's leaders, now seems to support such an approach while describing a hasty US withdrawal as 'unwise'," he wrote. 

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