U.S. Officials Continue Engagement with Taliban in July 2023
According to a statement by the U.S. State Department, Thomas West, the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan, and Rina Amiri, the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan’s Women and Human Rights, met with a Taliban delegation in Doha at the end of July 2023.
On July 31, 2023, Amiri explained her participation in the Doha meeting in a post on her Twitter account: “Having been urged extensively by Afghans and human rights defenders on the need to directly engage the Taliban on human rights, particularly the extreme restrictions on women and girls, I joined my colleagues in talks with the Taliban.”
Amiri’s statement and the U.S.–Taliban meeting prompted widespread reactions from Afghan activists, many of whom criticized the engagement.
In turn, Thomas West reaffirmed the Biden administration’s policy of maintaining dialogue with the Taliban. On July 31 and August 2, 2023, West published a series of posts outlining key aspects of U.S. policy toward Afghanistan and its continued engagement with the Taliban. These statements will be discussed below.
Table of Contents - Part II
1. Thomas West on Engagement with the Taliban
On July 31, 2023, he posted on his Twitter account:
1/2 Concluded two days of mtgs with senior Taliban representatives & Afghan technocrats in Doha re: critical interests in Afghanistan. We discussed the country’s economic situation, human rights, humanitarian needs, security commitments, inclusivity, & counter-narcotics issues.
He continued in another post on the same day:
2/2 Dialogue was two-way, detailed, candid, and needs to continue, in support of the Afghan people and to protect interests.
On August 2, 2023, West posted another series of messages on his Twitter account, including a statement that is difficult to reconcile with the Taliban’s record and policies:
3/5 For Afghanistan to stand on its own two feet, women must be educated and contribute to economy. If change to policies is made, it will be because Afghans have asked for it, not a result of foreign requests.
2. U.S. Engagement with the Taliban: The Regional Context
The meetings between U.S. representatives and the Taliban delegation in Doha have raised concerns and prompted criticism of Washington’s policy of engagement with the Taliban among many Afghans. As with previous engagements, the talks were held despite opposition from Afghan political and civil society groups, as well as mainly non-Pashtun Afghan activists.
At the same time, Thomas West claimed that the decrease in terrorist attacks against Afghan civilians was partly due to the Taliban’s efforts against Daesh (ISIS). He also stated that the United States had provided nearly $2 billion in humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people since August 2021. West acknowledged, however, that Taliban policies were making it very difficult for humanitarian organizations to deliver aid, saying: “Taliban policies making it very difficult for aid organizations to deliver.”
West also met with representatives from Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan as part of the #C5PlusUS session on Afghanistan in Astana. According to West, the meeting focused on their joint support for the Afghan people.
(Thomas West and Rina Amiri with representatives from the Central Asian republics. Picture source: https://twitter.com/US4AfghanPeace/status/1684567956062457856)The meetings also highlighted the Biden administration’s continued engagement with the Taliban despite the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. While Washington has not recognized the Taliban government, it has maintained diplomatic contacts with the group on issues ranging from humanitarian assistance and security to human rights and counterterrorism. The result is a remarkable transformation: a movement that the United States fought for two decades has become an interlocutor with whom Washington now conducts regular diplomatic dialogue.
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