The National
From the very earliest days of US attempts to negotiate with the Taliban, there was much fear in Kabul that the Afghan government would be cut out of the process. The Taliban refused to recognise – let alone speak to – Afghan officials. “Intra-Afghan dialogue”, as prospective bilateral talks between Kabul and the Taliban are called, looked to be a distant dream.
There was also much scepticism in those early days from the US's international partners – particularly around the question of who exactly the Americans thought they were dealing with. Was the Taliban a cohesive entity, capable of speaking about deals with a single voice and signing them with a single mind? READ MORE