Improving ties with the US is key to bringing Afghanistan back into the international fold, Washington's former envoy to the country has said.
Zalmay Khalilzad told The National that it would be a mistake for the US to turn its back on Afghanistan.
"It creates a vacuum in a strategically important location, that our adversaries are only too happy to fill," he said. "It gives opportunities to terrorists. And it hurts the ordinary Afghan people, who have suffered enough decades of chaos and turmoil and need normalcy and peace more than anything else."
But developing consensus on the best way to approach Afghanistan under the Taliban is easier said than done. Since the chaotic US withdrawal, Afghanistan has developed primarily into a political blame game.
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A US soldier points his gun at an Afghan passenger at Kabul airport on August 16, 2021, after the Taliban's swift takeover of the capital, as thousands of people attempt to flee the group's hardline Islamist rule. AFP -
Taliban fighters celebrate in Kandahar on September 1, 2021, after the US pulls its troops out of Afghanistan after nearly 20 years. AFP -
US Marines honour fellow service members killed in action during a ramp ceremony at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on August 27, 2021. Reuters -
Afghans desperate to flee the Taliban climb on top of a Kam Air plane at Kabul airport on August 16, 2021. AFP -
Internally displaced Afghan refugee women queue up at the UNHCR camp on the outskirts of Kabul to identify themselves and get money as they return home to the east, in July 2022. AFP -
Afghan citizens inside a military aircraft at an undisclosed location during an evacuation from Kabul, in a photo taken on August 19 and released on August 20, 2021. Reuters -
President Barack Obama during a surprise visit to US troops at Bagram Air Field, north of Kabul, on May 25, 2014. AFP -
Taliban soldiers celebrate near the US embassy on the second anniversary of the fall of Kabul, in August 2023. Reuters -
A US soldier investigates the scene of a Taliban suicide attack that set several Nato military vehicles ablaze at the Afghan-Pakistan border crossing in Nangarhar province, on June 19, 2014. AFP -
Afghan children play outside temporary shelters in Kabul, in October 2009. EPA -
Blindfolded insurgents are presented to media after being captured by security forces in Kandahar, in March 2012. AFP -
An operation by US soldiers at Zangabad base in Panjwai district, Kandahar, after roadside bombs were detonated at Naja-bien village, in September 2012. AFP -
US president Joe Biden observes a moment of silence for the dead as he delivers remarks about Afghanistan from the White House, on August 26, 2021. Reuters -
A US Marine comforts a baby while waiting for the mother during the August 2021 evacuation at Kabul airport. Reuters -
An Afghan farmer walks past as US soldiers keep guard while troops seal a canal running through Highway 1 on the outskirts of Kandala village in Kandahar on August 6, 2011, as part of a mission to secure strategic roads against the placement of improvised explosive devices by Taliban insurgents. AFP -
US servicemen before their departure to Afghanistan from the US transit centre Manas airport, 30km outside Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek, on March 27, 2012. AFP -
US soldiers lead Afghan prisoners suspected of being Taliban during Operation Dragon Fury in the Shahi Knot mountains in eastern Afghanistan, in June 2003. AFP -
An Afghan boy sells flags of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan on August 13, 2026, ahead of the fifth anniversary of the Taliban's return to power. EPA
Republicans have sought to blame former president Joe Biden for the turmoil that unfolded around the wind-down of America's longest war. In 2024, Republicans in the House of Representatives released a scathing report blaming Mr Biden for failing to plan ahead, with Representative Mike McCaul saying that the administration had "picked optics over security" every step of the way.
During President Donald Trump's run for the White House that same year, he highlighted the withdrawal as a national embarrassment - despite Mr Trump being the one to set the timeline of the withdrawal with the Taliban in his first term. Members of his administration vowed to punish those responsible for the events of the withdrawal, including the Abbey Gate ISIS-K attack that left scores of Afghans and 13 US troops dead.
"The impact of disappointment and anger over how our 20 years of investment, efforts and sacrifices ultimately ended, that will take time and a willingness to face facts and realities, not only about the past, current realities but our future interests," Mr Khalilzad said.
Other obstacles include the fate of Americans still being held by the Taliban, he said, as well as the situation of women and girls in the country.
"The limitation on girls’ education has become symbolic of everything we stood for and worked for," he said. "It's not just morally wrong of the Taliban to take this stance, it's also socially short-sighted and not very smart."
Yalda Royan, an Afghan women's rights activist now living in the US, described her homeland as the "world's biggest prison for women and girls".
"Oppression is no longer simply something the Taliban does; it has become a system of governance," she told The National, also highlighting the plight of ethnic and religious minorities.
"And yet, there is another image of Afghanistan being promoted by Taliban lobbyists and some foreign social media influencers: a peaceful, safe country that tourists should visit ... A country cannot truly be called peaceful when half of its population has been systematically erased from public life."
For Ms Royan, the prospect of another five years of Taliban rule, with the international community further engaging with the group, would further entrench the situation.
"Five more years of Taliban rule would mean an entire generation of girls growing up without education, opportunity, or even the memory of what it was like for women to participate freely in society," she said. "That is very difficult to think about."
But Mr Khalilzad, while recognising the failures of the Taliban, struck a somewhat optimistic note about Afghanistan's future.
"In some ways it [the Taliban government] is better than many believed. There was widespread fear that the terrorist threat from Afghanistan would be a lot worse. There was concern that internal security would be worse," he said.
"Surprisingly, the Taliban have proven more astute than expected in terms of infrastructure development, support to agriculture and regional diplomacy."
Whatever their successes, Ms Royan hopes to see the Taliban answer for their actions.
"I also hope to see the Taliban held accountable for what they have done to Afghan women and girls and for the many other abuses committed under their rule," she said. "But hope and expectation are two different things."
