US doesn’t intend legitimacy, recognition to IEA: Patel

ATLANTA (Pajhwok): US State Department has rejected recognizing the ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’ (IEA) government and said US will engage with the IEA when it served Washington’s interest, according to the State Department on Thursday.

Vedant Patel, the US State Department Spokesperson, told reporters on Thursday: “We have been very clear that we will engage with the Taliban appropriately when it is our interest – in our interest to do so. This does not – this is not intended to mean any kind of indication of recognition or any kind of indication of normalization or legitimacy of the Taliban.”

He said: “I don’t have any additional details to offer beyond what was laid out in the media note that we shared indicating travel for Special Representative Tom West and Rina Amiri, but also know this does not indicate any change in policy of the United States.”

Patel said: “The comments I made yesterday very clearly about our continued concerns about backsliding in Afghanistan, the egregious human rights abuses that the Taliban is undertaking, their marginalization of Afghan women and girls – all of those things and many others continue to be of immense concern to the United States.”

This comes that Afghan Foreign Ministry also said a delegation led by Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, will travel to Doha at the end of July for talks with US officials.

Abdul Qahar Balkhi, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, tweeted: “A delegation led by Muttaqi is scheduled to travel to Doha at the end of this month (July) to hold talks with the US side.”

‌Balkhi wrote the lifting of sanctions and blacklists, unfreezing of Afghan assets, and violations of the country’s airspace would be the topics for discussion.

During the trip, the Afghan delegation would also discuss bilateral relations with Qatari officials, the MoFA spokesman added.

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