The US special envoy for Afghanistan Thomas West said there are some productive relationships being formed and there is “honest dialogue” be-tween the US and members of the Islamic Emirate.
West made the remarks in an exclusive interview with TOLOnews’ Hamid Bahram.
“On the matter of trust, what I would tell you is that I do think we are building some productive relation-ships and an honest dialogue with members of the Taliban,” he said.
However, he said, there are some issues that need trust-building such as women’s rights and the space for journalists to continue their work. “On certain issues, yes, we are developing a greater candor and honesty with one another. I think our conversation regarding terrorism is also more honest than it was before,” the US envoy said.
Referring to the meetings in Oslo, West suggested that such dialogues should continue inside Afghani-stan.
“I think some of the key requests that they have of the Taliban, the Afghans have of the Taliban, are the same requests of the international community–for an open consultative process, of movement from an acting to a permanent capacity,” he said. “…They want to be sure that protestors are able to do so peacefully, to continue their work. They want to see women protestors who were recently detained re-leased. They want to see journalists be able to do their jobs and so I think that dialogue was very posi-tive.” —Agencies
