Taliban hopes for “a new chapter of relations” with US after Trump election victory

The Taliban “expresses hope” that “the incoming US administration will adopt a pragmatic approach to ensure tangible advancement in bilateral relations, allowing both nations to open a new chapter of relations grounded in mutual engagement”, the Taliban’s foreign ministry spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi said Wednesday.

The spokesman noted that the Doha Agreement signed in 2020 between the Taliban and the US during Trump’s first administration had “led to the end” of what he called “the twenty-year occupation” of American forces in Afghanistan.

He also urged Trump to take “a constructive role in ending the current conflicts” in the Middle East.

The Taliban’s sudden seizure of power across the country in August 2021 sparked a chaotic Western withdrawal and brought to a crashing end the United States’ two-decade mission in the country.

In September 2021, the Taliban announced the formation of a hardline interim government for Afghanistan. Four men receiving senior positions in the government had previously been detained by the United States at Guantánamo Bay and were released as part of a prisoner swap in 2014.