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Asian Angle | Peace deal is a leap of faith for the US, but one day the Taliban may win a Nobel Peace Prize
- The Doha peace deal is a step towards the Taliban’s goal of being accepted as a political entity, after it shifted stance on ruling Afghanistan and on women
- But many will struggle to see the Taliban as an ally against Islamic State
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This weekend, the world will be treated to the grand spectacle of US and Taliban representatives signing a peace deal in Doha. With it, the war between the West and the militant Islamist group sparked by the September 11 terror attacks will be all but over, and the Taliban will have taken a major step towards being accepted as a mainstream political entity.
Not so long ago, it was unthinkable that the Taliban could be accepted, much less welcomed, as a peacemaker by world powers. For global audiences conditioned by black-or-white media coverage of the “war on terror”, it is a lot to swallow.
As far as members of the public are concerned, the Taliban and al-Qaeda remain synonymous, although it is a well-established fact that the 2001 attacks on the US were not planned in Afghanistan, and that the Taliban was deceived at the time by Osama bin Laden and its other “guests”.
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It will take a big leap of faith for people to come to terms with the Taliban’s forthcoming role as a front-line ally against the so-called Islamic State’s regional affiliate, or that it has committed to verifiably preventing foreign terrorists from operating from the half of Afghanistan that it either controls or contests with government forces.
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The Taliban’s leaders have subtly shifted their policy stances on key issues over the past few years in their quest to achieve political legitimacy.
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