Taliban’s Doha office is a Qatari scheme to legitimize terrorism

Shaimaa Hefzi

Qatar has become a mediator between terrorist organization Taliban and the United States as it hosts talks between the Afghani movement and US officials to release takfiri leaders. That raises a number of questions about Doha’s intentions.

A few days ago, the Qatari mediation resulted in the release of Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar from prison. Bardar was a close aide to the founder of Taliban, Mullah Omar, who was killed in 2013.

Bardar was released after 8 years in Guantanamo along with five other prisoners released. Taliban said it had talks with of US envoy for peace, Zalmay Khalilzad, to Afghanistan.

In 2013, the Taliban political office was set up in Doha at the request of the U.S. to facilitate peace talks.

When Baradar was arrested, Bruce O. Riedel, a former CIA officer who led the Obama administration’s Afghanistan and Pakistan policy review in 2010, said “his capture could cripple the Taliban’s military operations, at least in the short term.”

Afghani political analyst Habib Hakimi also stated at the time that Baradar’s arrest was “a loss for the movement, both militarily and politically,” because Baradar “has close ties to political circles and many Islamic movements within the region, especially within the territory of Pakistan.”

Two years after the Taliban office was established in Qatar,the head of al-Qaeda, Ayman el-Zawahiri, gave the bay’a (Islamic oath of allegiance) to Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour. Mansour was killed in 2016 by a U.S. drone strike in southwest Pakistan.  Following Mansour’s death,  al-Zawahiri renewed his oath of allegiance to the Taliban’s current chief, Hibatullah Akhundzada.  That means that al-Qaeda is now officially working under the guidance of the Taliban, according to a report by American Thinker.

Why Qatar?

Qatar claims it support peace by brokering talks with terrorist organizations. It also uses human rights as an excuse to back the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood organization. That raises a number of questions about Doha’s real intentions.

Qatar backed the Muslim Brotherhood and it has funded terrorist groups for a long time. However, its relations with Taliban is rather creepy.

A report titled ” Qatar, al-Qaeda, and the Taliban: A creepy relationship” warned that the release of Baradar would have dangerous repercussions.

Appeasing terrorists has never worked and serves only to bolster their activities.  Afghani president Ashraf Ghani and his Qatari counterparts have long worked to legitimize the Taliban.

The report also warned that the release of Baradar could significantly help the Muslim Brotherhood.

Peace talks have been on the rise since the US appointed American-Afghan Zalmay Khalilzad as of US envoy for peace to put an end to the longest US war that has cost around $900 billion. .