![\"\"](\"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Screen-Shot-2020-02-25-at-5.44.24-PM.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Federico Pieraccini
\nStrategic Culture Foundation<\/p>\n
Nineteen years after September 11, 2001 and 17 years after launching its war against the Taliban in Afghanistan, the U.S. seems ready to\u00a0cut a deal<\/a>\u00a0with the Taliban in order to freeze out its Eurasian rivals.<\/p>\n The central government in Kabul has in recent years granted a leading role to\u00a0Moscow<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Beijing<\/a>\u00a0in efforts to pacify the country by bringing all parties to the negotiating table. A successful outcome would allow Afghanistan to reap the benefits of its geographical position vis-a-vis Sino-Russian infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n The entry into Afghanistan\u2019s dynamics of China\u2019s economic power and Russia\u2019s military weight promises to spark a\u00a0multipolar revolution<\/a>\u00a0in the country and beyond that would spread to neighbors like India, Pakistan and Iran.<\/p>\n Moscow had even\u00a0initiated<\/a>\u00a0historical negotiations with Taliban representatives, culminating in a visit to\u00a0Moscow<\/a>. U.S. sources at the time voiced doubts about the success of any peace plan and tensions between the U.S. and Iran were high, with sanctions imposed on Iran and pressure placed on U.S. allies in the region like India to boycott Iranian oil.<\/p>\n Moscow and Beijing must have seen it as opportune to renew extended talks on Afghanistan that included regional countries but excluded the U.S.<\/p>\n Washington\u2019s countermove took place shortly thereafter, calling into service the Taliban, an old geopolitical\u00a0tool<\/a>\u00a0of theirs. This faction of Afghan politics served as a handy expedient to justify Washington\u2019s initial invasion of Afghanistan and will now be employed to obviate Washington\u2019s exclusion from any peace accords.<\/p>\n The CIA wielded the Taliban as a weapon against the USSR, arming and supporting it since the 1980s. The blowback from this strategy came 20 years later with the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 that was carried out by al Qaeda with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan giving them aid and comfort, or so the State Department has officially been\u00a0telling us<\/a>.<\/p>\n As geopolitics never gets boring, Washington will now, 20 years after entering the country, try and use an agreement with the Taliban to\u00a0scupper the regional plans<\/a>\u00a0of Kabul, Moscow and Beijing as well as to justify its continued existence in the country.<\/p>\n The Taliban (influenced<\/a>\u00a0by the Muslim Brotherhood, whose military strength lies in Turkey and economic strength in Qatar) entering into negotiations with the U.S. means\u00a0betraying<\/a>\u00a0its initial determination to remove any foreign presence in Afghanistan. But this has not stopped it from unofficially negotiating with Washington in\u00a0Qatar<\/a>\u00a0for more than a year.<\/p>\n Washington\u2019s primary goal is to remain in the country militarily in order to position itself in what is a geopolitically strategic location, the intention always being to slow down the integration and economic union of Eurasia, in the knowledge that Afghanistan is a central pivot both for China\u2019s Belt and Road Initiative and Russia\u2019s North-South corridor to connect Moscow and New Delhi. Afghanistan is also the gateway and intersection between North Africa, the Middle East, the Persian Gulf and South Asia.<\/p>\n It is therefore not surprising that Afghanistan is a country that attracts great-power competition involving the likes of the U.S., Russia, India and China.<\/p>\n Washington\u2019s deal with the Taliban may be based on the avowed need to fight against the terrorist threat posed by\u00a0ISIS<\/a>. We must pause for a moment to point out that the presence of ISIS in Afghanistan is quite recent, leading to\u00a0all sorts of questions<\/a>\u00a0as to how they came to be there in the first place and of what assistance they may have received from foreign intelligence agencies in getting there. ISIS in Iraq and Syria has been used by\u00a0foreign powers<\/a>\u00a0opposed to the central government in Damascus as a bludgeon with which to devastate the country.<\/p>\n It seems the same modus operandi will be applied to Afghanistan, with the putative struggle between ISIS and the Taliban serving as the perfect blessing for this strange marriage of convenience between the U.S. and the Taliban and a\u00a0justification<\/a>\u00a0for a continued presence by the U.S. in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n Washington\u2019s continued presence will not only destabilize Afghanistan but also neighboring countries like Pakistan and India that have suffered from the consequences of U.S. military occupation in the region for 17 years.<\/p>\n Washington\u2019s agreement with the Taliban will only further cement the role of the U.S. in the valiant fight against international terrorism, reflecting similar roles played by Saudi Arabia and Turkey in Yemen and Syria respectively, the former a U.S. ally and the latter a prominent NATO member.<\/p>\n The aim of China, Russia and Iran is to drive the U.S. out of the Middle East and Eurasia and thereby bring about peace, stability and prosperity to the region. Afghanistan and Iran are two countries critical in the expansion of the Belt and Road Initiative and all that it entails for Western Asia. The possibility of expelling Washington from the heart of Eurasia is an opportunity that Russia and China cannot afford to waste.<\/p>\n