The Taliban\u2019s entry into a new level of relations with the United States has direct consequences for its relations with neighboring countries.<\/p>\n
Zakir Jalali, an official from the Taliban\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while Zalmay Khalilzad was visiting Kabul and meeting with Amir Khan Muttaqi, emphasized that there is no particular complexity between the US and the Taliban and highlighted the ‘significant’ role of the United States in important infrastructure projects, including Kandahar Airport and the Kajaki Dam in Helmand province.<\/p>\n
Jalali\u2019s remarks, both technical and meaningful, officially unveiled part of the depth of the Taliban\u2019s relationship with the United States and demonstrated Washington\u2019s direct role in various areas of engagement with the group.<\/p>\n
However, he cleverly avoided commenting on the impact of these interactions on the Taliban\u2019s relations with neighboring countries.<\/p>\n
The disagreements between the US and regional countries are such that they cannot align on regional strategic issues, and weaker powers, unable to balance friendship with both sides, are forced to side with one of the powers.<\/p>\n
According to the Doha Agreement, the Taliban, in exchange for gaining power and territory, pledged not to engage in serious cooperation with America\u2019s enemies. For this reason, their relations with neighbors, especially US rivals\u2014China, Iran, and Russia\u2014have been tactical and cautious (likely with US approval during Doha negotiations) to avoid potential opposition.<\/p>\n
Now that the Taliban believe they have solidified the foundations of their governance, the phase of shifting from tactical interactions with neighbors to strategic engagements with the US has arrived.<\/p>\n
This decision by the Taliban was inevitable because Afghanistan\u2019s neighbors cannot bear the costs for the Taliban as the US does.<\/p>\n
From the Taliban officials\u2019 perspective, who share no fundamental differences with the US, siding with America and turning their back on regional powers is a careful political strategy to ensure survival.<\/p>\n
The main question remains whether the US will also demand from its ‘payroll ally’ to threaten the interests of its adversaries. It seems that this too will happen soon.<\/p>\n
Seyed Ahmad Mousavi, Correspondent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Taliban is moving from cautious dealings with neighbors to a deeper alliance with the US, impacting its regional relationships and strategic choices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","category-top-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4481","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=4481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}