News: Delegations of the Taliban and Afghan political officials gathered in Tehran today to discuss Afghanistan issues.
Analysis:
As for the Taliban today, some believe that this group is the same group 20 years ago with the same ideology and the same goals, and has changed its discourse only to return to power without any change in nature. On the other hand, some believe that there is a fundamental difference between the Taliban today and the Taliban 20 years ago, and of course they infer this from the group’s new positions, views and approach in dealing with the international community.
Regardless of which of these two perspectives is closer to the reality of the Taliban’s existence, the fact is that today the group has sent representatives to Tehran to talk to those in power in present-day Afghanistan. This means that at least the Taliban today, unlike their predecessors, does not shy away from negotiation and engagement. At the same time, the presence of Afghan political negotiators at the Tehran summit shows that they, like in the past, do not consider the Taliban to be hard-line elements, otherwise they would not have been present in fruitless talks.
Some believe that even if the intellectual and elite of the Taliban today is different from the Taliban 20 years ago, the body of the Taliban is still loyal to the original ideology, so trying to soften things in Afghanistan and solve the problems facing the country is futile. Others argue that the ousting of the United States from Afghanistan as an important achievement, along with the Afghan nation’s exhaustion from the two-pronged wars and destructive unrest, necessitates the possibility of inter-Afghan dialogue. Accordingly, the recent congregation does not consider this path to be ineffective.
It seems that in view of some internal realities in Afghanistan, both Tehran’s efforts today should be commended and such efforts should be developed, first, the contemporary history of Afghanistan shows that in this ethno-religious rainbow, one group can never rule alone, second, the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, even if implemented in practice and as promised by September, does not mean that the US will give up on the Afghan people. Evidence suggests, however, that US forces will take control of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan after withdrawing from new bases in Afghanistan. However, his presence in some countries in the region is not far from the same goal.
The third fact is that before leaving Afghanistan, the United States provided proxy arrangements in the country on behalf of ISIS and other terrorist groups, and it is natural that the new groups – even assuming the Taliban win in Afghanistan – will not bow to this new regime.
In the light of such circumstances, it seems that the only way left and, of course, untying the knot is to focus on inter-Afghan dialogue with the aim of securing the interests of all groups, ethnicities and religions in Afghanistan. Obviously, no matter how successful such efforts are, we can expect the United States to become an uninvited guest again and, of course, imposed on the Afghans in the not-too-distant future, albeit with new excuses and repeated gender insecurity and instability in Afghanistan.