Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, March 28th, 2024

Afghan Taliban: Pursuing the Emarat Agenda

Afghan Taliban group is the result of civil war among different groups in Afghanistan. The civil wars in 1990s were apparently centered on the ethnic and religious discourses. What looks amazing about the main cause of these wars is the personal interest of Afghan political leaders in 1990s.
However, this trend looks as a constant political pattern among the Afghan political leaders including the Taliban; Taliban claim that they fight against the Afghan government because it is the US puppet. At the same time they claim they fight to liberate Afghanistan from the invasion of the US troops. As their political office is in Qatari capital Doha and their leadership Shora is in Quetta of Pakistan, and they get agendas for any political and military actions from out of country, how they claim they are an independent group? At the same time, there are US military bases in all Golf countries. All the Golf countries and Pakistan receive military and financial supports from the US, then why it is good for these countries, but it is bad for Afghanistan?
In fact, the politics is a paradoxical game in Afghanistan; for many Afghan leaders the base of whether something is good or bad, is not the national interest, but the personal gain.  The leaders of the golf countries or Pakistan favor their national interests to their personal interests. As a result, when they make a political decision, they assess it from different angles and dimensions. For example, in terms of the military presence of a country, they will apply a rational choice model. Based on this model there is nothing good or bad; but there are positive and negative impacts. If the military presence of a powerful country can ensure their security, create military balance between their countries and neighboring countries, provide a base for economic development and sustaining it, they will decide to give a military base to the concerned super power.
However, most of Afghan political leaders including the Taliban are not independent. These groups and their leaders are a means for proxy wars. Groups like the Afghan Taliban have been created to fulfill the Agendas of other countries; that’s why Minister for Parliamentary Affairs of Pakistan said victory of Afghan Taliban against the Kabul Administration in the peace talks was as the victory of Pakistan. The draft peace agreement between the US and the Taliban gave strategic leverage to Taliban against the Afghan government, though the Afghan government was sidelined from the process. The Taliban only looked to satisfy what Pakistan wanted from them and the political system that could ensure this demand was the Islamic Emarat and not the Islamic Republic system. Because in the Islamic Emarat Taliban could marginalize other ethnic and religious groups and give them no voice in the government. In the Emarat system people do not have religious rights, ethic rights, human rights, basic rights and freedom of opinion and press. In the Emarat system, there will be no democratic constitution to consider all the Afghan citizens, men and women, as equal citizens of the country.
Peace with the Taliban as a proxy group which pushes for Agendas of other countries is a challenging process for both Afghan government and the US. The best peace strategy with the Taliban is suppressing them harshly to the extent that they feel insecure both in Afghanistan and in their safe havens out of the country. Only in such a context they will really submit to set on the negotiations table and accept inclusion of other groups in the power.