The US State Department Spokesperson, Ned Price has acknowledged that the Doha Agreement has empowered the Afghan Taliban but it significantly weakened the United States and its regional allies. The American Diplomat noted that the Taliban did not honor their commitments, which they made to the US and the global community through the Doha Agreement. According to him, the Taliban hosted terrorists on their soil, and abandoned their commitment to political inclusiveness, civil liberties, and human and women rights in Afghanistan.
Three years after the signing of the historic Doha agreement between the United States and the Taliban then powerful anti-US armed resistance group in Afghanistan, the US authorities admitted the fact that the Doha deal not only paved the way for US withdrawal from Afghanistan but also weakened the US and its allies. Historically, Washington repeated the mistake made by the former Soviet Union and unilaterally pulled back its troops from Afghan soil without constituting a consensus political system in Kabul that not only provided the Taliban an opportunity to form a unitary government but pushed the South Asian nation into fresh violence, along with the economic and humanitarian crises.
The people of Afghanistan endured unimaginable miseries over the past four decades, so the international community and friendly nations including Pakistan wanted to form a broad base and consensus political system that can ensure peace and stop violence and instability in the war-hit nation. The global community also intended to preserve the gains made by the Afghan society during the US rule in terms of social, human, and women development, so the peaceful transfer of power and economic revival subsequently lead to the dignified return of millions of Afghan refugees currently residing in other countries in the region.
Unfortunately, the Taliban interim government could not comprehend a single dream of the global community over the past one and half years of rule in Afghanistan. The Taliban regime made no effort for political inclusiveness and economic revival, it imposed a ban on girls’ higher education and women’s employment and also restricted women’s travel without a male escort. Similarly, the Afghan interim government failed to uphold its commitment regarding the elimination of terrorism from Afghan soil, because a US drone strike killed Al-Qaeda’s top leader in the Afghan Capital while Afghanistan-based banned TTP ceaselessly carried out terrorist attacks inside Pakistan that not only killed thousands of innocent Pakistanis but also enraged longstanding ally of the Taliban. Ironically, the cleric regime blocked women’s education and employment in the name of Islam that definitely hurt Islam and denounced by the Muslim scholars across the globe.
The Afghan interim government has earned the utmost global censure for its narrow-sightedness that not only added to the sufferings of the Afghans but isolated the Afghan rulers as most of the world nations shut down their embassies in Kabul and no single country formally recognizes the regime so far. In fact, ruling the people using guns, dealing with friends like foes, and bulldozing people’s rights and liberties to satisfy self-esteem is counterproductive and could not fulfill Afghan interests. The Taliban must demonstrate responsibility and soberness because they are not a mere armed group, but rulers of the entire Afghanistan. The Taliban must understand that no nation can survive in isolation and no government could exist without public support thus they must work to grab public sympathy and forge good relations with their neighbors. Otherwise, an economically weak, diplomatically isolated, and unpopular Taliban government will collapse under the burden of its legacies.
