During the 2008 presidential campaign, then senator Barack Obama said his future administration would enter into talks with Iran and other rogue regimes “without preconditions.” Obama’s approach was widely criticized at the time, including by his chief Democratic rival Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who said he was “irresponsible and frankly naïve.” More than three years into the Obama administration, various furtive attempts at negotiations with the mullahs have produced nothing positive.
It now appears the Obama administration is inching closer to negotiations “without preconditions” with the Taliban. Actually, that’s not quite true. While the American side has dropped its substantive preconditions, the Taliban side has its own.
Five senior Taliban leaders held at Guantanamo have agreed to be transferred out of American custody to Qatar. And, after months of discussing the possible deal, the Obama administration is still considering it.
Why?
The Taliban demands their release as a precondition to peace talks that even State Department officials think are a long shot.
Last month, Taliban spokesman Zahibullah Mujahid explained (emphasis added):
Those are the Taliban’s preconditions, and some in the Obama administration are apparently willing to acquiesce to at least one of them: transferring the Taliban five. Note that the “confidence building measures” are, according to the Taliban, entirely the Americans’ responsibility.
In the meantime, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who openly derided Obama’s approach to negotiation with the Iranians “without preconditions” in 2007, has walked away from America’s preconditions for the Taliban.
As the New York Times previously reported, Clinton “first signaled the opening for talks by recasting the administration’s longstanding preconditions: that the insurgents lay down their arms, accept the Afghan Constitution and separate from Al Qaeda.” What were once necessary preconditions are now, in Clinton’s words, “necessary outcomes.”
But the Taliban has openly rejected these one-time preconditions, now goals for the peace talks.
In a statement released online earlier this year, the Taliban’s spokesman said his group will not “surrender from Jihad” and does not accept “the constitution of the stooge Kabul administration.” Al Qaeda was not mentioned in the Taliban’s statement, but there is no evidence that the Taliban is willing to separate itself from al Qaeda in any meaningful way. All five of the senior Taliban leaders who may be transferred from Guantanamo to Qatar have substantive and longstanding ties to al Qaeda.
Throughout all of this, the Taliban has agreed to only one reported concession – and it isn’t really a concession at all. The Taliban has agreed to open a “political office” in Qatar to facilitate the talks. It sure doesn’t sound like the Taliban is thinking about peace, however.
In its statement announcing the decision to open the office, the Taliban explained it was “utilizing its political wing alongside its military presence and Jihad in order to realize the national and Islamic aspirations of the nation and its martyrs.”
Even Democratic senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is worried that the Obama administration is prematurely acquiescing to the Taliban’s demands.
“Like a number of other members of the committee, I’ve expressed some real concern about the reports that the administration is considering transferring some Taliban detainees from Guantanamo to Qatar,” Levin said during a hearing last month. “I’ve expressed this both publicly and to the administration—privately.”
Levin explained that “such transfers would be premature and should only be considered after the Taliban has engaged in positive discussions on reconciliation,” which they have yet to do.
There is “real concern by many members of this committee” about the possible transfers, Levin stated, as well as the “absence of a real showing of good faith” by the Taliban.
The top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee added that “even though they may be contained in Qatar” he was worried the five Taliban commanders “nonetheless would have an effect on the battle by some control, [or] by some propaganda that they might utilize and in other ways.”
The choice of Qatar is especially problematic, as it is a hotbed for terrorist fundraising.
A leaked State Department cable authored on December 30, 2009, nearly one year into President Obama’s tenure, includes a summary of the problem. The cable reads (emphasis added):
The same cable repeatedly “emphasize[s] the need to prevent the Taliban from using the cover of reconciliation talks to raise funds.” This is from the same State Department that is currently leading the effort at peace talks with the Taliban.
It is no wonder that the Taliban five have agreed to be transferred to Qatar, where the Taliban’s coffers are routinely filled and the security services are more worried about appearing to be “aligned with the U.S.” than stopping “known terrorists.”
Thomas Joscelyn is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
