The Doha talks took place when US policymakers were disappointed with the previous Afghan government.
Analysts knew from the beginning that conversations have the main axis and a secondary axis. The main point was that if the Taliban commit to being one of the regional contractors of the United States and guarantee its interests, this group will replace the Afghan government and receive American aid. The sub-axis was that in order to elevate the Taliban from the level of a terrorist group to the level of a legitimate government, they must submit to some kind of inclusive government so that the cooperation of the United States with this group can be justified.
Realizing that the inclusive government is not the main goal for the American side, the Taliban did not value this task after coming to power and focused on the main task of rebuilding relations with other terrorist groups, eliminating rebellious circles and organizing the rest for long-term goals. Revealing the hiding place of Ayman al-Zawahiri and a number of other al-Qaeda leaders and also killing a large number of Salafi activists in different parts of the country were part of this cooperation.
The recent negotiations in Doha were for the Taliban to present a report of their one-year operation to the CIA and explain that they have carried out their industrialization well. Sooner or later the time will come to harm these countries due to their crooked relations with Iran, Russia and China, which is called fooling in English. The Taliban believe that if they can win America’s trust in the long term, they can both crush domestic rivals and share in the business Pakistan started four decades ago by managing naïve foreign fighters who can fuel proxy wars. Pakistan will not have a problem with this informal partnership as long as the program is in harmony with it, and Bajwa’s visit to the US is also in this direction. Of course, America continues to repeat the necessity of forming an inclusive government.
US policymakers will face limited challenges in the public opinion of their country, especially from human rights and women’s rights groups. Because cooperation with a terrorist group is considered against the official values of a democratic system and betrayal of the blood of thousands of soldiers who were killed by this group. Taliban leaders will also face limited challenges in their ranks; Because cooperation with a power that legitimized its destructive war for 20 years based on its hostility to it will demote this group from a liberating organization to a CIA mercenary in the eyes of its ideological warriors. These two prohibitions cause both sides to criticize each other at the level of slogans and media statements, and with these theatrical criticisms, they successfully advance the program of fooling without giving a strong excuse for enmity with other countries. Of course, after receiving billions of dollars from America and consolidating their foundations, the Taliban will go to these countries and leave the wages of political fools in their hands. Afghanistan will continue to be a field of bloody conflicts for a long time, its elites will be displaced and future generations will suffer terrible nightmares.