The deadly attack on Kabul airport has underlined the
realpolitik facing Western powers in Afghanistan: Engaging with the
Taliban may
be their best chance to prevent the country sliding into a breeding ground for
extremist Islamist militancy.
اضافة اعلان
Almost two weeks after the Taliban’s surprise return to
power, officials in Europe are beginning to acknowledge that their pragmatic
option is to put aside distaste for the country’s new leaders and work with
them instead.
“It is clear: The Taliban are reality in Afghanistan now,”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said this week.
“This new reality is bitter,
but we have to work with it.”
A senior European Union official said it is not enough for
G7 powers to take the moral high ground and adopt an aggressive stance towards
the Taliban, not least because that would hand China and Russia greater say
over the future of the country.
He said that in recent days, Pakistan and Turkey have urged
Western nations “not to corner the new regime too quickly,” to hold off
imposing sanctions on Kabul and keep channels of discussion open to avert a
security and migration meltdown that could have ripple effects across the
globe.
Aid will be an important part of that outreach given the
humanitarian crisis in a country beset by conflict and drought, with 5.5
million of its 40 million people internally displaced.
The EU said this week it would increase its support for
Afghans still in the country and those fleeing it to over 200 million euros
from over 50 million euros.
The United States is taking steps to allow humanitarian work
to continue but has not reduced sanctions pressure on the Taliban, which it
designates a terrorist organization.
Washington does not appear to have come around to the view
held in European capitals that the Taliban is the least bad option.
‘Morale boost for radicals’
The United States’ unruly retreat from Afghanistan after 20
years trying to bring it stability and democracy has been, in the words of
former US ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker, “an enormous morale boost for
(Islamist) radicals everywhere”.
The suicide bombings outside Kabul airport on Thursday,
which were claimed by Daesh, an enemy of the West and the Taliban alike, were a
reminder that extremist militants could gain a foothold if the country was allowed
to implode.
US officials believe Daesh Khorasan, an Afghan affiliate of
Daesh with a reputation for extreme brutality, was behind the attacks.
They say
it has used the instability that led to the collapse of the Western-backed
government this month to strengthen its position.
“The issue is not that the Taliban control the country right
now, it’s that the Taliban really don’t control the country and nobody does,”
Crocker told CNN.
“That is a breeding ground for these kinds of actions and for
these kinds of people to come back and take root. And that is what brought us
September 11, we’ve now got the same dynamic.”
Thomas Ruttig, co-director of the Afghanistan Analysts
Network, said there may be no appetite in the West to “cosy up” with the
Taliban, which ruled Afghanistan with an iron fist from 1996–2001, but
“confronting and lecturing” them from the outset will not help vulnerable
Afghans.
Germany in particular appears to be taking that approach.
Its former envoy to Afghanistan, Markus Potzel, is in talks
with the Taliban representative in Doha to keep Kabul airport operating for
evacuations after the August 31 cut-off date.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas will travel to the region
for talks in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Turkey, and Qatar on “how the
international community can handle Afghanistan now,” according to a letter from
his ministry to parliament.
“There is no way getting around striking agreements with the
Taliban,” the letter said. “... Not only to facilitate a safe departure of
people in need of protection, but also to safeguard the most important
achievements of the past two decades.”
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