In the accord that former President Trump negotiated with the Taliban in February 2020, the group agreed to “not allow any of its members, other individuals or groups, including Al Qaeda, to use the soil of Afghanistan to threaten the security of the United States and its allies.”But that agreement now seems to have little value, and many doubted at the time that the Taliban would or could keep its promises on that score. Others, especially in Washington, believe that the Taliban is almost certain to repeat its encouragement of Islamist terrorist groups and think that the chances of another attack on the United States and its allies are much higher now. Nathan Sales, former State Department coordinator for counterterrorism and a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, argues that “the terrorism risk to the United States is going to get dramatically worse.” With the Taliban back in power, he said, “it is virtually certain that Al Qaeda will reestablish a safe haven in Afghanistan and use it to plot terrorism against the United States and others.’’Other experts are less sure. “We went into Afghanistan to address the terrorist threat, and it will be a critical measure of whether what we have is just a bad situation or a truly awful one,” said John Sawers, former head of Britain’s foreign intelligence service, known as MI6. “To have a friend of terrorists, which Taliban have been, running a whole country is not a good thing.”

Source: International New York Times August 17, 2021 08:38 UTC