ISLAMABAD:
Afghanistan may no longer be a priority for the United States, but actions taken by President Donald Trump during his first days in the White House suggested that the Taliban government would be under the American scanner.
The Trump administration adopted a tough policy towards the Taliban government, as it made two major decisions that directly affected the country.
Minutes after being sworn in as the 47th president of the United States, Trump issued a series of executive orders. Those orders also included an executive order immediately ending U.S. foreign aid and the Afghan refugee plan.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent a diplomatic message to all US missions to suspend all foreign aid until a review to verify whether funding was consistent with Trump’s foreign policy agenda and US interests .
The Trump camp has long questioned the issue of doling out taxpayer money to countries, which sometimes goes against U.S. interests. Afghanistan has been the largest recipient of aid, with the United States injecting at least $3 billion into Taliban-controlled Afghanistan since August 2021 in humanitarian aid.
U.S. aid has played a crucial role in keeping the Afghan economy afloat. But since Trump’s latest move, the Afghan currency has lost value against the US dollar, triggering inflation.
President Trump has warned the Taliban to return American weapons before any aid. The other decision may not have a direct impact on the Taliban government but on thousands of Afghans, who worked for the US military and its contractors during their campaign in Afghanistan.
They were promised resettlement in the United States under the Biden administration’s policy. However, this project was also suspended. At least 40,000 Afghans were affected by this decision. Approximately 25,000 people are currently in Pakistan and have been waiting for more than three years to reach the United States.
At the same time, in another sign of a hard line on Afghan leaders, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday that the United States could place a “very large bounty” on the Taliban’s top leaders, adding that he had heard the Taliban were holding more. American hostages than previously reported.
“Simply hearing that the Taliban are holding more American hostages than have been reported,” Rubio said in a post on the social media platform BIG bounty on their main leaders, perhaps even.” bigger than the one we had on bin Laden,” he added.
The message did not provide further details or specify the number of Americans detained by the Taliban. Authorities in Kabul said last week that the United States had freed an Afghan convicted by a U.S. court of drug trafficking and extremism in exchange for two U.S. citizens detained in Afghanistan.
Afghan officials said Tuesday that the man, Khan Mohammad, had landed in Kabul after being released. A spokesperson for the Taliban administration confirmed that two Americans were released during the exchange.
Trump’s executive order to suspend admissions for at least 90 days starting Jan. 27 prevented about 10,000 Afghans permitted entry from starting new lives in the United States, according to the nonprofit # AfghanEvac.
Trump pledged to withdraw from Afghanistan during his first term, but the process was overseen by his successor, Joe Biden. A special visa program for Afghans employed by or on behalf of the United States remains active.
The Taliban government announced an amnesty and encouraged those who fled to return to rebuild the country. However, Moniza Kakar, a lawyer who works with Afghan refugees in Pakistan, said some women told her they “would rather kill themselves than return to Afghanistan.”
Earlier in 2022, a report from the US Department of Defense found that $7 billion in military equipment was left behind after the military withdrawal. These included aircraft, air-to-ground munitions, weapons communications equipment and other materials, later seized by the Taliban.
Trump told a rally on the eve of his swearing-in that the United States wanted its military equipment back from the Taliban. “If we have to pay billions of dollars a year, tell them we’re not going to give them that money unless they give us back our military equipment,” he said.
(COURTESY OF AFP)
