Pariah no more: World powers warily engage with the Taliban

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Andreas Krieg, a Middle East specialist at King’s College in London, said the world is eager to absorb the mistakes of the past and give the Taliban at least a chance to show that it has changed its ways.

“The question is to what extent the fighters on the ground are buying into what the leaders are saying,” said Mr Krieg.

“There’s a lot of grey space between having a full adversarial role and full diplomatic recognition,” said Mr Krieg. “If you don’t engage with them they will definitely go back to the 1990s. If you don’t put money into the state, it will collapse, whether you recognise the government or not.”

Period	1 Sept 2021
Held at	The Independent, United Kingdom