The Taliban administration has called on the United States to reopen its embassy in Kabul and invest in various sectors across Afghanistan, including mining and infrastructure, as it seeks to reduce its international isolation.<\/p>\n
Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban administration\u2019s acting foreign minister, told The New York Times that Afghanistan wants a new relationship with the United States based on \u201cmutual respect.\u201d He claimed that the \u201cchapter of war\u201d has ended and that Washington could resume its diplomatic presence in Kabul.<\/p>\n
According to Muttaqi, the US could also invest in Afghanistan\u2019s mines, dams and roads. At the same time, he rejected any return of a US military presence in Afghanistan, saying Afghans would not accept foreign troops on their soil.<\/p>\n
The request comes as the Taliban administration has in recent years sought to expand diplomatic and economic ties with regional countries. It has strengthened relations with Russia, Uzbekistan and several other countries in the region, while also holding talks with some European governments on the return of Afghan migrants.<\/p>\n
Michael Kugelman of the Atlantic Council said Afghanistan\u2019s mineral wealth could be attractive to Donald Trump\u2019s administration, particularly because of its focus on economic interests. However, previous US efforts to develop Afghanistan\u2019s mining sector did not produce tangible results.<\/p>\n
Between 2004 and 2021, the United States spent nearly $1 billion developing Afghanistan\u2019s mining sector, but a later US government watchdog concluded that the efforts had not led to significant progress. The Taliban administration has since signed mining and investment deals with companies including those from China, Iran and Qatar.<\/p>\n
Robin Raphael, a former US diplomat, said renewed Washington engagement with Afghanistan could give the United States greater access to the country\u2019s mineral resources and stronger ties with Central Asia. However, she added that such a goal would be difficult without a practical US presence in Kabul, an issue she said still faces opposition in Washington.<\/p>\n
The United States closed its embassy in Kabul after the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in 2021 and has since maintained its diplomatic presence from outside the country. Reopening the embassy remains one of the sensitive issues in relations between Kabul and Washington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Taliban has urged the US to reopen its embassy in Kabul and invest in Afghanistan\u2019s mining, roads and dams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19635,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19636","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\/19636","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=19636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}