The naive fools never for a moment expected that the Taliban would
act like...the Taliban. "Taliban Pulls a Fast One in Doha, Claiming
Rebirth of Califate, Humiliating Karzai," by Lori Lowenthal Marcus for
the
Jewish Press, June 20 (thanks to Bob):
The Taliban surprised and angered the US and Afghanistan
with a poster proclaiming its new office in Doha was for the Islamic
Emirate of Afghanistan, rather than a political office for peace talks.
The move may have scuttled the talks.
Day One, dealing with the Taliban as if it is just another player on the world stage.
Whoops.
On Tuesday, June 18, the Taliban and the United States were set to
engage in historic peace talks in Doha, Qatar, the goal of which is to
begin to wind down the war that has been dragging on in Afghanistan.
The U.S. is on the threshold of withdrawing from the region. The goal is
to have Afghanistan and the Taliban work things out nicely together.
But the ceremonial opening of the office in Doha by the Taliban, was
to have announced “the political office of the Taliban in Doha,” as had
been agreed – or so the U.S. and Afghanistan had understood. Instead,
it featured a large poster reading “the opening of the political office
of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in Doha.”
The difference is huge – the name on the poster is what the
Taliban called Afghanistan during the era it was in control, between
1996 and 2001, and was popularly understood by al Qaeda and other
Islamic terrorists to have been the nascent rebirth of the Global
Califate.
In the State Department’s daily press briefing on Wednesday, this was
the first item discussed by the Spokesperson, Jen Psaki. She explained
that Secretary of State John Kerry had spoken with Afghan
President Hamid Karzai, who had immediately denounced the Taliban’s move
as a deliberate provocation.
The Qatari government issued a statement clarifying that the name of
the office is the Political Office of the Afghan Taliban and had the
sign with the incorrect name in front of the door taken down.
Nonetheless, the Afghan government issued a statement suspending the
U.S. bilateral security talks because of the Taliban’s efforts to
portray itself as, once again, a sovereign nation within Afghanistan.
In addition, feelings were ruffled in Kabul because the initial talks
in Doha were scheduled to take place between the U.S. and the Taliban,
rather than between Karzai and the Taliban.
The press conference became testy as media representatives suggested
that what happened is that the U.S. is in a hurry to get out of
Afghanistan, it has failed to ensure that the Afghan government is
situated to assume control of the situation, and that what had originall
[sic] been a precondition for talks – the Taliban agreeing to stop
terrorism and to cut ties with al Qaeda, suddenly became a future goal.
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