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The State Department said on Sunday that its meetings with the Taliban over the weekend were “frank and professional,” as the United States continues to face the consequences of its chaotic and deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan.
State Department spokesman Ned Price published an account of meetings in Doha, Qatar, with “senior Taliban representatives.” The statement said that the “US delegation focused on security and terrorism issues and the safe passage of US citizens, other foreign nationals and our Afghan partners, as well as on human rights issues. male, including the meaningful participation of women and girls in all aspects of Afghan society. . “
“The two sides also discussed the United States providing solid humanitarian aid, directly to the Afghan people,” Price added. “Discussions were frank and professional with the US delegation reiterating that the Taliban will be judged by their actions, not just their words.”
This is not the first time the Biden administration has used similar language to describe the Taliban since the United States was forced to abandon its embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said in a statement last month that the Taliban were “cooperative” in allowing the Americans to leave Afghanistan. She added that they “have shown flexibility and have been serious and professional in our dealings with them in this endeavor.”
Taliban soldiers march towards Afghans, shouting slogans, during an anti-Pakistani protest near the Pakistani embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan on Tuesday, September 7, 2021 (AP Photo / Wali Sabawoon)
(AP Photo / Wali Sabawaon)
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White House press secretary Jen Psaki defended this description of the Taliban in September.
“We are here to celebrate the return of American citizens who wanted to leave Afghanistan … In order to get these people out, we had to work with some members of the Taliban to pressure them and work professionally to get them out,” said Psaki.
The Biden administration has issued statements calling on the Taliban to treat women with dignity, not to oppress the Afghan people, and to crush terrorism. But the Taliban nonetheless excludes women from equal education, going “house to house” to kill people who have worked with the United States, and say they will refuse to work with the United States to fight ISIS.
President Biden has strongly defended his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan and his handling of the situation. He maintains that there is no way to withdraw from the country that would have gone well and said none of his advisers told him to leave troops in the country.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price holds a press briefing on Afghanistan at the State Department in Washington, DC on August 16, 2021. Price called US talks with the Taliban “frank. and professionals ”in a statement Sunday. (Photo by KEVIN LAMARQUE / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)
(Photo by KEVIN LAMARQUE / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)
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The president’s top military commanders contradicted this claim in a hearing late last month in which they said they advised him to leave 2,500 US troops in Afghanistan.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley also said – in comments not entirely congruent with the Taliban who allegedly displayed “professional” behavior – that “[t]he Taliban was and remains a terrorist organization and they still have not severed their ties with al-Qaeda. “
There will likely be several more hearings in the coming months on the handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, putting Biden’s White House, the State Department, the military and intelligence community under the microscope.
Brooke Singman, Jennifer Griffin, Jacqui Heinrich, Michael Ruiz and Associated Press of Fox News contributed to this report.
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