Afghan Taliban says first talks with US ‘went well’. US called them ‘candid and professional’
- First direct US-Taliban talks since US withdrew from Afghanistan
- Taliban says US agreed to give aid, but US statement was less definitive
The US has agreed to provide humanitarian aid to a desperately poor Afghanistan on the brink of an economic disaster, while refusing to give political recognition to the country’s new Taliban rulers, the Taliban said.
The statement came Sunday, at the end of the first direct talks between the former foes since the chaotic withdrawal of US troops at the end of August.
The US statement was less definitive, saying only that the two sides “discussed the United States’ provision of robust humanitarian assistance, directly to the Afghan people”.
The Taliban said the talks held in Doha, Qatar, “went well”, with Washington freeing up humanitarian aid to Afghanistan after agreeing not to link such assistance to formal recognition of the Taliban.
The United States made it clear that the talks were in no way a preamble to recognition of the Taliban, who swept into power August 15 after the US-allied government collapsed.
State Department spokesman Ned Price called the discussions “candid and professional”, with the US side reiterating that the Taliban will be judged on their actions, not only their words.