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US Secretary of State Pompeo and Taliban leader in Doha: surprisingly far-reaching cooperation
Photo: Ron Przysucha / US State Department
One day after the 19th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, direct peace talks between the warring parties in Afghanistan took place in the capital of Qatar.
Both sides claim the impossible for themselves: governance and the subordination of the other to their own political or religious-ideological system.
After all, the Afghan government and the Taliban are talking to each other - and negotiations usually begin with maximum demands.
The killing in the villages and towns continues: The Taliban do not want a ceasefire, but rather make profits to the end.
In the end there should be a kind of transitional government with a transitional president.
It is completely unclear whether there will be anything left of the fragile democracy, civil and women's rights - and if so, how much.
Invisible actors at the negotiating table
Negotiating a comprehensive peace in war is complicated.
It takes time.
Not only are the Taliban and Afghan government negotiators sitting at the table, but also many other actors.
Some of them do not even appear officially, like Afghanistan's eastern neighbor.
Nevertheless, Pakistan always sits invisibly in the front row.
Islamabad grants the Taliban a safe retreat on Pakistani territory during combat.
Now the country is demanding its dividend: Pakistan wants to influence the future government in Kabul through the Taliban.
The military wants to push back the Indian presence in Afghanistan or, ideally, to have it completely eliminated.
India and Pakistan are bitter enemies.
They have already fought three wars with each other.
Afghanistan, on the other hand, has so far cooperated closely with Delhi.
The white elephant in the room is the USA.
Washington has invested over $ 1 trillion in this longest war in American history.
Thousands of US soldiers have died in Afghanistan.
For what?
Now the superpower wants to withdraw, without a victory, without a trophy, just like that, so that "the Afghans can decide their own future," as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in Doha.
You could say that it doesn't pay off.
Unofficial part of the agreement
A photo in which the former CIA director Pompeo recently had himself relaxed and smiling with the Taliban's chief negotiator, after all the power that the United States had come to the Hindu Kush to drive out after 9/11, may provide some insight.
In Kabul security circles, there is talk of a
gentleman's agreement
, an informal agreement between the USA and the Taliban, not recorded in writing in the official peace treaty.
Accordingly, the US is visibly withdrawing its combat troops.
This reduces costs and minimizes the danger for the soldiers.
But the CIA still maintains its wiretapping systems.
Washington thus seamlessly intercepts communication between Moscow, Tehran, Beijing and Karachi.
The highly developed American weapons systems and ammunition are also said to continue to be stored in Afghanistan, in Baghram, Kabul and Kandahar.
In the event of a crisis with Iran or China, numerous combat troops could be brought into the country within a few days.
The USA has no other significant base in the Central Asian region.
Are the Taliban a better partner for the US?
Everything indicates that the Taliban and the Americans have found their "deal" under US President Donald Trump, a high-ranking security politician in Kabul explains to SPIEGEL.
Officially, the cooperation runs under the heading of counter-terrorism.
In the peace treaty, the Taliban finally undertook not to allow extremist terrorist groups to operate from Afghan soil.
The USA and the Taliban obviously want to cooperate.
Before the US election on November 3, Trump would also like to present the breakthrough for part two, the peace agreement between the Taliban and civil society.
Only what the Western Alliance fought for for almost twenty years, what Western soldiers, reconstruction workers and hundreds of thousands of Afghans died for, the new democracy and human rights, the guarantees for women - all of this still seems to be a problem.
Otherwise nothing stands in the way of a quick agreement.
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