lThe international community no longer knows how to deal with Afghanistan. Three years after regaining power in Kabul, the Taliban regime is continuing its policy of erasing women from society by reducing them to silence and social invisibility. This rural and nationalist theocracy does not care about the recriminations of the world and denounces external interference.
Major powers, the UN and regional neighbours are divided on the attitude to adopt towards the Afghan Islamists. Some limit themselves to humanitarian aid, others believe it is necessary to support the country’s development and the most conciliatory maintain polite relations without taking the step of official recognition.
After a chaotic exit from Kabul in the summer of 2021, the United States first cut diplomatic and security ties with those who had persecuted them. Then, quietly, Washington resumed an intermittent dialogue with the Taliban. Since then, the relationship has stabilised. The American authorities seem to consider that it is for their security, but also for their regional influence, to consolidate their ties with the Islamist regime.
In fact, from a financial point of view, Washington has never abandoned Kabul. At the end of July, the special inspector general for the reconstruction of Afghanistan (Sigar), charged by Congress with monitoring the use of American funds, recalled that the United States “They allocated or made available 20.7 billion dollars [18,5 milliards d’euros] aid “ since the withdrawal of its forces. This amount includes humanitarian aid, development support, care for Afghan refugees and Afghan state assets, frozen by Washington and transferred, at the end of 2022, to the Afghan Fund created by the US Treasury to stabilise the country’s currency. The Taliban’s sworn enemy remains its main financial backer.
American diplomatic shift
However, for the moment, the Americans, unlike the Chinese, the Russians, the foreign ministries of Central Asia or some Gulf countries, have no intention of reestablishing their presence in Kabul. Meetings between Washington diplomats and Taliban leaders are taking place in Doha, Qatar. Nor are contracts signed, as with Beijing, on the exploitation of extracted raw materials or on the organisation of regional trade conferences, as in Iran or Russia. However, neither Beijing, nor Moscow, nor even Islamabad, the historically close neighbour of the Taliban, have officially recognised the Kabul regime.
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