US trade, intel delegation to meet Taliban in Doha

WASHINGTON: A U.S. delegation will meet with senior Taliban representatives in Doha on Saturday and Sunday in their first face-to-face meeting at a senior level since Washington pulled its troops from Afghanistan and the hardline group took over the country, two senior administration officials told Reuters.

The high-level U.S. delegation will include officials from the State Department, USAID and the U.S. intelligence community, will press the Taliban to ensure continued safe passage for U.S. citizens and others out of Afghanistan and to release kidnapped U.S. citizen Mark Frerichs, the officials said.

Another top priority will be to hold the Taliban to its commitment that it will not allow Afghanistan to again become a hotbed for al Qaeda or other extremists while pressing the group to improve access for humanitarian aid as the country faces the prospect of a “really severe and probably impossible to prevent” economic contraction, U.S. officials said.

U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad will not be part of the delegation. The U.S. team will include the State Department’s Deputy Special Representative Tom West as well as topUSAID humanitarian official Sarah Charles. On The Taliban side, cabinet officials will be attending, officials said.”This meeting is a continuation of the pragmatic engagements with the Taliban that we’ve had ongoing on matters of vital national interest,” said a senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “This meeting is not about granting recognition or conferring legitimacy. We remain clear that any legitimacy must be earned through the Taliban’s own actions. They need to establish a sustained track record,” the official said.

The departure of U.S.-led forces and many international donors robbed the country of grants that financed 75% of public spending, according to the World Bank. While there was an improvement for humanitarian actors get access to some areas that they haven’t been in a decade, problems still persisted, the U.S. official said, adding that the U.S. delegation would press Taliban to improve. “Right now, we are facing some real access issues....There are a lot of challenges in ensuring that female aid workers are provided unimpeded access to all areas,” the official said and added that Washington needed to see an improvement by the Taliban on this front “if we are to contemplate even more robust humanitarian assistance.”

While the Taliban has promised to be more inclusive than when it led the country from 1996 to 2001, the United States has repeatedly said it will judge the new Taliban government based on its deeds not its words. “We will certainly press the Taliban to respect the rights of all Afghans including women and girls and to form an inclusive government with broad support,” the U.S. official said. He added that there were discrepancies between the Taliban’s promises of continued safe passage and implementation. “As a practical matter, their implementation of their commitments have been uneven. It is true that sometimes we receive assurances from certain levels but then follow through on those assurances has truly been uneven,” the official said.