Najibullah Ali Khil, former Afghan ambassador to Islamabad, has stated that following the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan in 2021, the political and security balance in the region has shifted, with regional actors adopting new approaches toward Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
According to him, in 2001, regional countries including Russia, China, Iran, and Pakistan supported the US military presence, but over time they viewed Washington’s prolonged presence as a threat to their own interests. He claims that this change in perception led these countries to adjust their policies and engage with the Taliban in order to pressure the US to withdraw.<\/p>\n
Ali Khil further emphasized that during those years, the previous Afghan government lacked a clear understanding and coherent analysis of the developments and failed to build the necessary domestic and regional consensus to ensure peace; a weakness that, in his view, affected the political fate of the country.<\/p>\n
The former diplomat said that in the past five years, Russia, China, Iran, India, and Central Asian countries have pursued a policy of engagement with the Taliban to maintain their influence. He added that Pakistan, by continuing its long-term policies, could pave the way for new scenarios regarding Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
Ali Khil also noted that Western countries are currently preoccupied with other crises and that Afghanistan is not a priority in their foreign policy. He believes that maintaining close relations with neighboring countries, focusing on the economy, and avoiding geopolitical games are essential lessons for Afghanistan\u2019s stability.<\/p>\n
He further claimed that Iran and Pakistan supported the Taliban during the two-decade republic period and used the group in accordance with their own interests, an allegation previously raised by some political figures.<\/p>\n
While the Taliban administration has sought to expand its regional relations after returning to power, critics argue that without establishing a responsive government, respecting citizens’ rights, and forming an inclusive structure, regional engagements alone cannot guarantee lasting stability in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former Afghan ambassador Najibullah Ali Khil discusses regional shifts and new policies towards Afghanistan following the 2021 US troop withdrawal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-important-news","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}