President Joe Biden’s national security adviser said, “it’s hard to put a label on it,” when asked whether the Taliban are enemies of the United States.
Jake Sullivan appeared on MSNBC on Tuesday, when he was asked to define America’s relationship with the Taliban, including whether they were now a “frenemy,” an adversary, or an enemy.
“Well, it’s hard to put a label on it, in part, because we have yet to see what they are going to be now that they are in control — physical control of Afghanistan,” Sullivan said. “They will, in the coming days, announce a government. That government is going to go around seeking diplomatic engagement, even recognition from other countries, including the United States. In fact, the Taliban spokesman today said he was looking for positive relations on behalf of the Taliban, especially with the United States.”
Sullivan added: “We’re not just going to grant positive relations to the Taliban. They’re going to have to earn everything from the international community through actions, not words. That begins with safe passage for Americans and Afghan allies, and that also includes them living up to their counterterrorism commitments, including that Afghanistan can never again be used as a base with which to attack the United States or our allies.”
US ARGUES IT HAS ‘ENORMOUS LEVERAGE’ OVER TALIBAN
The U.S. has labeled the Taliban a specially designated global terrorist group, but the Afghan Taliban are notably not designated as a foreign terrorist group, even though its Haqqani network and al Qaeda allies are, as well as its Pakistani counterpart, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.
The Taliban gave al Qaeda safe haven in Afghanistan for years before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and continued to protect Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda after the U.S. invasion in late 2001. The Taliban and al Qaeda fought alongside each other in the now-successful insurgency against the U.S. in Afghanistan, where more than 2,400 U.S. service members were killed.
The Taliban’s top spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, falsely claimed last week there is “no evidence” bin Laden was behind 9/11.
CENTCOM Commander Gen. Frank McKenzie described the U.S. evacuation effort on Monday, saying: “We had gone from cooperating on security with a longtime partner and ally to initiating a pragmatic relationship of necessity with a longtime enemy. … The Taliban had been very — very pragmatic and very business-like as we have approached this withdrawal.”
He added: “I can’t foresee the way future coordination between us would go. I would leave that for — for some future date. I will simply say that they wanted us out. We wanted to get out with our people and with our — and with our friends and partners. And so for that short period of time, our issues — our view of the world was congruent, it was the same.”
Sullivan cited Mckenzie’s remarks and said Tuesday the Taliban have “been business-like in their approach with us, not because they’re nice guys — they’re not — but because they’ve had an interest along with us to make that evacuation mission run smoothly” and that “going forward, I think they’ll have an interest in responding to our requests because we have an enormous amount of leverage over them.”
Administration officials have all emphasized the “leverage” they believe the U.S. has over the Taliban.
Biden said Tuesday he believed between 100 and 200 Americans who had wanted to get out of Afghanistan had been left behind.
Rep. Michael McCaul, ranking member on House Foreign Affairs, Rep. Mike Rogers, ranking member on House Armed Services, and Rep. Devin Nunes, ranking member on House Intelligence, were clear that they believed the Taliban are an “enemy” of the U.S. in a letter sent to Sullivan this week, in which they lamented that “the administration is relying upon a sworn enemy of the United States” to get Americans out of Afghanistan and said that they are “skeptical the Taliban can be relied upon to support any post-retrograde repatriations.”
Dr. Amin al Haq, bin Laden’s security chief at the battle of Tora Bora, where the al Qaeda leader escaped U.S. bombardment, publicly returned to Afghanistan this week in a video where he was accompanied by a convoy of Taliban fighters.
A House GOP aide told the Washington Examiner that House Armed Services Committee Republicans filed dozens of amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act in looking for answers related to the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, including attempting to require the Biden administration to designate the Taliban as a foreign terrorist organization and restricting any U.S. tax dollars from going to them.
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Republican Study Chairman Rep. Jim Banks said that “designating the Taliban will make it easier to block material support and technical assistance to the group by both Americans, as well as by Russia and China.”
The so-called peace agreement between the U.S. and the Taliban, signed in February 2020 during the Trump administration, said the U.S. was “committed to withdraw from Afghanistan all military forces” within 14 months, while the Taliban would “prevent any group or individual, including al-Qaeda, from using the soil of Afghanistan to threaten the security of the United States and its allies.”
The Taliban, the Haqqani network, and al Qaeda are deeply intertwined in Afghanistan, and the Taliban have integrated Haqqani network leaders and fighters with al Qaeda links into their command structure.
The State Department insists that the Haqqanis and Taliban are “separate entities,” but Anas Haqqani, Sirajuddin Haqqani’s brother, bluntly said over the weekend: “We are the Taliban.”
