Zalmay Khalilzad, the special representative of the US Department of State for Afghan peace, left for a trip to Afghanistan a few days ago. In Doha, alongside the Qatari officials, they met with both teams separately.
Khalilzad said, one of the advantages of the agreement between the US and the Taliban is that, for the first time after 40 years, the Afghan side is open to talks.
Khalilzad added: “The truth is that war has been going on in Afghanistan for the past 43 years, so it does not mean that the situation will worsen after our departure.” Despite our presence in Afghanistan, the Taliban have made gains in the last few years. If we had not agreed with the Taliban, they would not have sat down to talk among themselves, and this is the first time in the past 43 years that the Afghan sides of the war are being discussed at the same table.
Zalmay Khalilzad arrived in Uzbekistan at the moment, where he said in an interview with the media that their military pressure on the Taliban in the past years did not work, so he called talks the best way.
On the other hand, the political analyst Weis Naseri says that Khalilzad’s trips are not for the end of the war, ceasefire and political agreement, but for the safe withdrawal of America from Afghanistan.
Nasiri added: “Khalilzad’s trips were not for the purpose of ending the war, ending the killings, announcing a ceasefire and political agreement for the Afghans, and no steps can be taken in this regard.” Unfortunately, Khalilzad’s mission was to get America out of Afghanistan safely.
Khalilzad’s visit comes at a time when only five percent of the foreign forces, whose number is less than a thousand, remain in Afghanistan.
In addition to this, the Taliban captured a number of districts in two months and intensified the war, which has cast a negative shadow on the intra-Afghan talks.
Zalmay Khalilzad considers the only way out of the current situation to be the way of understanding between the Afghan sides.
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