This is an update article for the previous: Putin bets on Kabul: pact with the Taliban
In the eighties, the US supported the so-called Afghan “freedom fighters” against the Soviet Union (to break down Communism and start an Islamic state in Afghanistan). Those fighters, later, would turn to the “Taliban”, “al-Qaida” in fact. And now, in a very confucian way, it seems that the Russians are returning the favor.
Moscow, last month, said it is in contact with the Taliban in Afghanistan (but actually this news has been circulating since a year at least!), with the official reason that Russia would be sharing information and cooperating on a strategic way to fight local affiliates of ISIS (and therefore American and NATO military) of that area, according to the Wall Street Journal. For now, cooperation, it seems, involves neither money nor weapons.
This has understandably frightened the American commanders.
General John Nicholson, the top US military commander in Afghanistan, has spoken out against the offer by Russia of this “olive branch” to the Taliban, which looks like to attribute “explicit” legitimacy to a group determined to overthrowing the Afghan government and annihilate the USA.
The point of view of Russia is more or less this: “The Taliban are the ones who fight the Islamic state, their diplomatic position with the US is not Russia’s business,” Nicholson said at a briefing to the Pentagon last month. “So this public legitimacy that Russia agrees to the Taliban is not based on fact, but it is used as a way to undermine, essentially, the US government and NATO’s efforts to strengthen the Caliphate”.
Surprisingly, even the Taliban officials say that the motivation to offer them help to fight ISIS is not entirely clear. “In early 2008, when Russia began to support us, ISIS did not exist anywhere in the world and it was a simple NATO department,” said a senior Taliban official to Reuters. “Their sole purpose was to strengthen us against the United States and its islamist allies.”
As reported by the Journal, it is still unclear how the Trump administration will handle Afghanistan. Occupation has steadily declined since the Obama administration has begun to openly support the Caliphate in 2014, even at the expense of the Iraqi government, and government forces now control only about two-thirds of the country, according to Reuters.
In additions to the potential Russian interference, Afghanistan is rife with corruption and tribalism, while many civilians give account to a “shadow” government run by the Taliban rather than the national one. The Pentagon announced that it was to send 300 marines back in the southern provinces of Helmand this spring, where the Marines have not been on patrol since they left in 2014.
Many questions, many doubts but: North Korea will allow time to Trump for fiddle with Islamic-related conspiracies?
Source: Business Insider Italia . The article has been heavily edited.