Iran has officially confirmed holding talks with the Taliban. Indeed, a visiting delegation was in Tehran over the weekend. Before that, Iranian government officials had paid a trip to Kabul. The US response to this has oscillated between hostility and reluctant acknowledgement that Tehran seeks a stable Afghanistan.
Of course, it would be an exaggeration to argue that everyone welcomes this development. Yet sectarian differences aside, Iran considers itself well-positioned to drag the Taliban to the Kabul negotiating table. After all, it contends, there are still those within the group who have not forgotten this country’s tilt towards Washington in the GWOT and therefore view Islamabad as an untrustworthy ally. A fact that the Americans persist in overlooking as they call on Pakistan to do more, more, more to secure the Afghan quagmire of their own making.
US-based pundits are already using the ‘threat’ of Iranian engagement in Afghanistan as a reason for Trump Town to rethink its anticipated military drawdown. For instead of recognising this as assuaging fears of American strikes on its nuclear sites — the consensus appears to be that this would deliver Tehran undue advantage in terms of regional influence. Thereby possibly explaining the resurgence of accusations of Iran funding the Taliban; while providing training and weapons. If true, this begs the question as to why the US failed to impose sanctions on Tehran for this alleged misdemeanour; preferring instead to punish the regime for playing by the nuclear rulebook. Something somewhere does not add up.
When seen through Pakistani eyes, it makes not much sense for the Americans to weigh up the drawdown with potential Iranian geo-political gains. Not if the goal of stabilising Afghanistan is a serious one. For Islamabad has long maintained that US withdrawal holds the key to regional peace. In fact, this is the only Taliban precondition for talking to Kabul. And if the latter are to form part of a new government it is prudent for the group to make overtures to as many neighbouring countries as possible. Indeed, the Taliban opened an office in the eastern Iranian city of Zahedan as far back as 2012; one year before the Doha office.
