Former US Official Advocates Setting Aside Doha Agreement & Exploring New Alternatives

Lisa Curtis, a former White House official, said that Washington should discard the Doha agreement and explore alternative ways for conditional engagement with the Taliban.

In an interview with Afghanistan International, she criticised the Doha agreement as being notably weak.

Curtis, a senior policymaker in Donald Trump's administration during the signing of the Doha Agreement in February 2020, contributed to shaping the United States' policy towards Afghanistan at that time.

She stated that the Doha agreement greatly favoured the Taliban, as it did not require the group to cut ties with terrorist organisations.

According to her, the agreement merely urged the Taliban to refrain from permitting attacks on US interests by terrorists.

She said that this agreement has, in fact, bolstered the fragile Taliban.

Curtis expressed that, it is time to set the Doha agreement aside and explore new approaches in engaging with the Taliban. She advocates for a form of conditional engagement that exerts pressure on the Taliban to uphold the rights of women and girls.

This former White House official underscored that the Doha Agreement failed to secure US security interests in Afghanistan and the region. Additionally, she noted an intensification of terrorist threats within Afghanistan, pointing to the increasing strength of the Khorasan branch of ISIS as a global threat, along with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and some Central Asian terrorist groups operating in Afghanistan.

According to her, after the signing of the Doha Agreement, the US is "not safer" and is not in a better position.

She stressed that the international community is not exerting sufficient efforts to hold the Taliban accountable for their actions.

The Doha Agreement between the US and the Taliban was signed on February 29, 2020. The agreement was reached after eighteen months of negotiations involving the US delegation led by Zalmay Khalilzad and the Taliban delegation led by Mullah Baradar.