US vows to isolate Taliban if they take power in Afghanistan by force
- US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad warns Taliban a military takeover of Kabul will guarantee they’d be global pariahs
- Zalmay and others hope to persuade Taliban leaders to return to peace talks with the Afghan government as US, Nato forces finish their pull-out from the country
Zalmay Khalilzad, the US envoy, travelled to Qatar, where the Taliban maintain a political office, to tell the group there was no point in pursuing victory on the battlefield because a military takeover of Kabul would guarantee they’d be global pariahs.
Zalmay and others hope to persuade Taliban leaders to return to peace talks with the Afghan government as American and Nato forces finish their pull-out from the country.
The insurgents have captured five out of 34 provincial capitals in the country in less than a week. They are now battling the Western-backed government for control of several others, including Lashkar Gah in Helmand, and Kandahar and Farah in provinces of the same names.
After a 20-year Western military mission and billions of dollars spent training and shoring up Afghan forces, many are at odds to explain why the regular forces have collapsed, fleeing the battle sometimes by the hundreds. The fighting has fallen largely to small groups of elite forces and the Afghan air force.
The success of the Taliban blitz has added urgency to the need to restart the long-stalled talks that could end the fighting and move Afghanistan towards an inclusive interim administration.
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Taliban seizes Kunduz, 4 other provincial capitals as fighting escalates with Afghan forces
The new pressure from Zalmay follows condemnations from the international community and a similar warning from the United Nations that a Taliban government that takes power by force would not be recognised. The insurgents have so far refused to return to the negotiating table.