Biden State Department Still Thinks the Taliban Have Changed

By JIM GERAGHTY

U.S. State Department: The Taliban’s Conduct Is Different Now Than It Was a Month Ago

 
This past weekend, Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen told the Associated Press that there would be no cooperation with the U.S. government or its allies on containing the increasingly active ISIS terrorist group in Afghanistan. “We are able to tackle Daesh independently,” Shaheen declared.
 
This was something of an embarrassment for the administration, as Shaheen made his defiant announcement of noncooperation while U.S. representatives were meeting with senior Taliban officials in Doha, Qatar — and a representative of the U.S. Intelligence Community attended that meeting specifically to emphasize the importance of counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan.
 
Despite the Taliban’s public refusal to cooperate, after the meeting the State Department called the Taliban “candid and professional.” (Did you notice that Joe Biden and his administration speak much more harshly about unvaccinated Americans than about the Taliban?)
 
State Department spokesman Ned Price has one of the most difficult jobs in Washington, because his job is to regularly go in front of reporters and make the case that things aren’t as bad as they look, that the administration was completely prepared for that day’s bad news, and that all is well. (Imagine having to play the role of Kevin Bacon at the end of Animal House every day at your job.)
 

 
Tuesday afternoon, Price emphasized that the ongoing U.S. negotiations with the Taliban did not constitute recognition of the Taliban as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan, and, perhaps most surprisingly, he contended that the Taliban had changed their conduct in the past month or so:

QUESTION: But it hasn’t — their conduct has not been great, to say the least, already. And everyone agrees that. Like, you said that openly — they say it diplomatically; it hasn’t been encouraging. So I don’t quite understand, like, what it is that you guys are waiting. Are you inclined to — you also recognize the need for cash, and they need cash, and you’re committing for humanitarian aid and a number of things. So are you inclined to unfreeze their reserves to allow them some cash or not?
 
MR PRICE: This is not a static picture. The Taliban conduct a month ago, six weeks ago, is in some ways different from Taliban conduct today. We want to see to it that six weeks from now, six months from now, when any future Afghan government is formally announced, that government upholds the commitments that the Taliban has made, and importantly that the United States together with our allies and partners have confirmed will be the basis for our approach, for our engagement to the Taliban.
 
I should note that yes, there was a senior delegation in Doha, a senior U.S. Government delegation in Doha. Today, there was a meeting of the U.S. and EU partners with the Taliban. There is a difference between pragmatic, practical engagement on core national interests — and to us, those national interests are counterterrorism, they are safe passage, they are human rights, among others — and any sort of recognition or conferral of legitimacy on the Taliban or any future government of Afghanistan.
 
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What our approach looks like, what our set of incentives — sticks, carrots, everything in between — looks like with any future government of Afghanistan, that will be determined by the conduct of the Taliban in any future government.
 
In terms of Taliban conduct, there are areas that are woefully deficient, and we have made no bones about the fact that some of the actions that we have seen from the Taliban government, including when it comes to human rights, respect for all of Afghanistan’s citizens, some of that conduct is inconsistent with what the Taliban itself has pledged, what the international community has made clear it would like to see. We have made very clear where we stand on the composition of this caretaker government and what we would like to see in any future government of Afghanistan.
 
At the same time, we’ve also been very clear about our ability to safely facilitate the departure of many from Afghanistan. Just to give you the latest figures, as you know, there was another charter flight that departed from Kabul International Airport yesterday. In total, at least 129 U.S. citizens and 115 lawful permanent residents have departed Afghanistan with our assistance since August 31st. That includes charter flights, that includes overland routes as well. I also spoke to the fact that there are a couple thousand additional individuals who, since August 31st, have been able to depart. So we will continue to underscore the imperative of safe passage with the Taliban as one of those key metrics for judging our approach to any future government of Afghanistan going forward.

It is difficult to see or say how the Taliban are behaving differently now than they were a month or six weeks ago. Just this morning, CNN’s Nic Robertson reports that, “Despite soothing words, the Taliban are much as they were”:

As for the bright promises of August, there has been some “recalibration.” Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told CNN: “We have not decided about women’s affairs or rights yet, but we are discussing.” Different transport and teaching arrangements were necessary, he said.
 
So complete was the Taliban’s military victory that they have little incentive to compromise, nor bargain with Afghanistan’s warlords. They have moved quickly to snuff out dissent, whether from social activists, rebels in the Panjshir valley or Salafists who practice Islam differently from the Taliban.

 



 
Nor is there any indication that the Taliban are less brutal or violent than before. Foreign Policy magazine confirms that, “The Taliban’s Sharia is the most brutal of all. The Afghan government is imposing punishments that have no comparison elsewhere in the Islamic world.” Summary executions, stoning of women, and beheading and cutting off the hands of accused thieves have returned; court cases and juries are no longer part of the legal system.
 
Women’s activists and journalists fear being tortured to death, according to NPR:

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