CNN
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Top Biden management officers met in-person with the Taliban on Saturday for the primary time since al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri used to be killed through the United States in his condo in Kabul in past due July, two officers conversant in the talks mentioned.
The management despatched the CIA’s deputy director and the highest State Department professional answerable for Afghanistan to the Qatari capital of Doha for the talks with the Taliban delegation which integrated their head of intelligence, Abdul Haq Wasiq.
After Zawahiri used to be killed in a strike, the United States accused the Taliban of a “transparent and blatant violation of the Doha settlement, “brokered through the Trump management, which mentioned that the Taliban would now not harbor terrorists if US forces withdrew from Afghanistan, which they did in August 2021.
After a US drone fired deadly Hellfire missiles at Zawahiri, American officers accused Taliban leaders from the Haqqani community of figuring out about Zawahiri’s whereabouts whilst the Taliban angrily condemned the operation.
Since then, the United States has persevered to have interaction with the Taliban, together with negotiating the discharge of US citizen Mark Frerichs. But senior officers had now not met face-to-face since a couple of days sooner than Zawahiri used to be killed on July 31.
The presence of CIA Deputy Director David Cohen and the Taliban’s Wasiq on the assembly on Saturday signifies an emphasis on counterterrorism. The White House final month referred to as cooperation with the Taliban on counterterrorism “a work in progress.”
Cohen used to be accompanied through the State Department’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Tom West, who has steadily led engagement with the Taliban since the United States withdrawal final 12 months.
Frerichs used to be launched virtually 3 weeks in the past after greater than two years in captivity, with lend a hand from Qatar. Administration officers mentioned they mentioned spent months negotiating with the Taliban for his free up and had warned the Taliban after the strike about harming Frerichs. The easiest method to rebuild consider, they mentioned they instructed the Taliban, can be to free up him.
At least one different American, a filmmaker named Ivor Shearer, is these days being held through the Taliban after being arrested together with his Afghan manufacturer, Faizullah Faizbakhsh, filming within the space the place Zawahiri used to be killed, consistent with the Committee to Protect Journalists. Shearer had reportedly been summoned a number of occasions through the Taliban for wondering sooner than his detention.
The CIA and State Department declined to remark.
While the Taliban maintains ties with al Qaeda, they’re dealing with an insurgency from the Islamic State offshoot referred to as ISIS-Okay. The team has automatically focused the Hazara ethnic minority in Afghanistan. At least 25 folks, basically younger ladies, have been killed in a suicide assault final week at an training middle in a predominantly Hazara group in Kabul. No one in an instant claimed accountability.
“The Taliban are struggling to prevent ISIS-K attacks, making them look feckless, particularly in Kabul,” says Beth Sanner, a former Deputy Director of National Intelligence who led Afghanistan research on the CIA. Sanner may be a CNN contributor.
“[Cohen] is likely to deliver a firm message that we will conduct more strikes as we did against Zawahiri if we find that al Qaeda members in Afghanistan are supporting operations that threaten the US or its allies,” Sanner mentioned. “ISIS-K now poses an internal Afghan threat, to the Taliban and to sectarian stability given ISIS-K’s focus on killing Shias, but there is some reasonable concern that ISIS-K could ultimately turn its sights on external plotting if the Taliban is unable to contain them.”
Last month the Biden management introduced it had arrange a $3.5 billion “Afghan Fund” with frozen Afghan cash to advertise financial balance. The budget have not begun to be launched as a result of the United States does now not consider there’s a depended on establishment to ensure the budget will receive advantages the Afghan folks, two officers instructed CNN.
Instead it’s going to be administered through an outdoor frame, impartial of the Taliban and the rustic’s central financial institution.
Administration officers have additionally time and again raised the plight of girls and women of their conversations with the Taliban. The United Nations rapporteur for human rights in Afghanistan final month referred to as the regression of girls and women in Afghan society “staggering.”
“In no other country have women and girls so rapidly disappeared from all spheres of public life,” Bennett mentioned. “Despite this, women and girls remain at the forefront of efforts to maintain human rights and continue to call for accountability.”
