Michael Hughes: The Taliban stroked President Donald Trump’s ego with a love letter that directly led to the administration’s decision to accelerate negotiations, strike the Doha deal, and withdraw forces from Afghanistan, ending a 20-year conflict. However, the Trump 2.0 administration is dangerous because the man does not need to get re-elected. Trump does not
By Muhammad Murad via The Diplomat: In Trump, Afghanistan sees a familiar face – the man who threw them into this chaos. The de facto rulers of Afghanistan, however, see a different picture. Taliban leaders see a man who gave in to their demands and agreed to negotiate with them directly without considering the erstwhile
Afghanistan International: US President-elect Donald Trump has named Fox News host and military veteran Pete Hegseth as his secretary of defence. Hegseth was deployed to Afghanistan with the US Army National Guard between 2011 and 2012 and spent 10 months at Camp Julien in Kabul. In 2019, during Donald Trump’s first presidency, he called on
Ariana: John Sopko, the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), has called for the agency to be closed due to the Islamic Emirate’s takeover of the country and the reduction in assistance. Sopko has recommended to the Office of Management and Budget in the White House that SIGAR’s oversight operations be ceased on
Amu: Zalmay Khalilzad, the former U.S. special envoy for Afghan reconciliation, expressed optimism that Donald Trump’s potential return to the presidency presents an opportunity to fully enact the Doha Agreement, a deal aimed at facilitating a peaceful resolution in Afghanistan. “With Trump’s return to the U.S. presidency, there is an opportunity for full implementation of
Amu: Following Donald J. Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election, Taliban expressed hopes that his administration would adopt “realistic” policies toward Afghanistan. In a statement from the Taliban-run Ministry of Foreign Affairs, spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi voiced optimism about improving relations, calling for a new chapter of “mutual engagement” between the two countries. Click
8am: At first, Trump will likely adopt a stance of neutrality toward the Taliban, essentially disregarding the current situation in Afghanistan. If forced to engage, his most straightforward and effective option would be to approach the Taliban for negotiation. It seems unlikely that he would engage with the anti-Taliban forces; after all, when the Democrats
Fox News: While the wall-to-wall press coverage of what’s been called President Biden’s “Saigon moment” has largely quieted down, the Afghan diaspora living in the U.S. has not forgotten relatives in the homeland. Click here to read more (external link).
Ariana: Michael Kugelman, a US-based foreign policy expert and the Director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center, has said that Donald Trump, as president, would be less likely to focus on the state of women’s education and human rights in Afghanistan. He believes that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) might be
Ariana: The United States and its allies are making pretexts for resuming their military presence in Afghanistan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. Speaking at the Second Minsk International Conference on Eurasian Security in Minsk, Lavrov said that the US and its allies are trying to destablize the situation in Afghanistan. Earlier, Lavrov had said