Dialing in from Tokyo, where Qasim Wafayezada has taken refuge from the Taliban, the former acting minister of information of Afghanistan is urging the United States and the international community to hold the Taliban to the full terms of the Doha peace agreement. 

The Doha agreement, which was signed in February 2020 by America and the Taliban at Qatar, requires “a political settlement resulting from intra-Afghan dialogue and negotiations between the Taliban and an inclusive negotiating team of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.”

It also requires a “permanent and comprehensive ceasefire,” the withdrawal from Afghanistan of “all U.S. and Coalition forces,” and the prevention of “the use of Afghan soil by any international terrorist groups or individuals against the security of the United States and its allies.”

Instead of “everyone” remaining “silent,” Mr. Wafayezada argues, America and the international community should initiate this intra-Afghan dialogue “as soon as possible.” Whatever government comes of this process should then be treated as “the legitimate partner … for the international community.”

This is, after all, what the Taliban and the United States already pledged in the Doha agreement, Mr. Wafayezada says. He argues, moreover, that, if this doesn’t happen, another war is inevitable. 

“Afghanistan’s history shows that there’s no such a thing as lasting victory,” he says. “On average, if you look at the past half century, each government has lasted only five years. The last one was the longest because I think we were moving toward the right direction.”

“All of these conditions that exist now are conditions that existed … in the past 40 to 50 years,” Mr. Wafayezada continued. “These are the conditions that have been driving the armed conflict in the country. There’s no evidence to believe that this will stop here … if the other ethnic groups are frustrated and they don’t find any hope, of course they will rise, and Afghanistan will slip into a devastating civil war.”

Moreover, he argues, it is unconscionable for America and the international community to turn their backs on Afghanistan and do nothing. 

Before this all occurred, Mr. Wafayezada reflects, “I couldn’t imagine a situation where the guys on the black list of the United States could travel around while the forces of democracy, those who have fought for human rights, for women rights and who have been allies of the United States in the past two decades, cannot find a platform to gather and talk against the Taliban.”

The United States is responsible for Taliban rule, he says. “It is a fact that the government was weak and corrupt and had lost popular support, but Afghans yearned for a constructive peace process that could bring about a positive change and end the war and not hand over the country to the Taliban. That said,” he argued, “Afghanistan was not handed over by the Afghans. It was handed over in the Doha agreement.” The agreement, he states, “enabled the Taliban to regain power and … opened diplomatic doors for them.”

The United States remains responsible today, he argues, because it is propping up the Taliban with millions of dollars in assistance each week. 

“The Taliban,” Mr. Wafayezada says, “are surviving on the money that they’re receiving from the United States. If that stops, the Taliban government will collapse because the economy is not functioning.

According to the State Department, the U.S. sent $720 million in aid to Afghanistan between August 2021, when the Taliban took over, and March 2022. 

In September 2022, the Biden administration established a new entity, the Afghan Fund, to provide $3.5 billion in assistance to Afghanistan. The money for the fund is supposed to come from frozen Afghan central bank funds on deposit at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The international community is also bolstering the Taliban by engaging only with them, Mr. Wafayezada argued, and ignoring the rest of Afghanistan.

He pointed, with great concern, to the recent meeting between the deputy CIA director, David Cohen, and the Taliban’s intelligence chief, among others. He says he doesn’t know what agreements were reached, but it’s not just, “How are you? I hope you’re doing well.” His understanding, he notes, is “they have concluded some agreements on exchanging information on ISIS.” 

The question is, he wonders aloud, at what price?