The US-Taliban peace deal seems rather like a marketing project aiming to attract customers from afar and ignoring the indigenous population. Doha, of course, has become a brand name now. US Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad shakes Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar by the hand in a lavish hotel in the Qatari capital to tell the world that the US has finally agreed to remove its troops from Afghan soil, which has been a long-standing Taliban demand. Baradar said after the signing the agreement that now Afghans will be able to live “under Islamic law”. For about two decades since the US and NATO forces landed in Afghanistan, Taliban have never agreed to sit with any Afghan government. In the long run-up to this accord, Khalilzad and world leaders tried their best to bring Taliban and Afghan representatives together but failed. Even Afghan elections were delayed last year as Taliban refused to talk to the government, claiming that it was a US stooge and they would talk only to the master.
While the world is happy as the global media is heralding the Doha Accord as a historic achievement for regional peace, there is a need to look into the situation carefully. Afghan Taliban were killing people and mistreating women in the name of maintaining “Islamic law”. The US rose to the occasion only after 9/11 and broke the back of Taliban. However, Taliban managed to sustain and inflict wounds on humanity throughout in the name of Islamic law. Now that the US is going back as per Trump’s election promise, Baradar has stuck to his guns. Qatar has replaced Saudi Arabia in the power game on Afghanistan but Pakistan has retained its position. It has been influential in the lengthy dialogue process between Taliban and the US. Pakistan’s role has been acknowledged in this regard. It is a cause of concern for India that in post-US Afghanistan, Pakistan will have an edge on it for all the mega investment ventures it has launched so far.
The atrocities against Muslims are also going to take a toll in the Indian foreign policy. If Afghans are able to live in peace through this agreement, it is a welcome move. And if they do not, it is yet another incident of the world failing Afghanistan. *