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Eurasia
February 1, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 22
saying that although the payment channel’s eco- nomic impact would be modest there was hope the political symbolism could help persuade Teh- ran to stick to the nuclear deal. Hardliners in Iran have always fiercely opposed the decision of Iran’s centrist, pragmatic president, Hassan Rouhani,
to sign up to the multilateral accord in late 2015. They resisted the move saying that the US could not be trusted to not back out of the required commitments.
Progress in US-Taliban peace talks potentially good news for Central Asia
Kanat Shaku in Almaty
US and Taliban officials have agreed in principle to a peace deal "framework", the New York Times reported on January 28 quoting US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who was speaking after five days of talks between the militant group and the US in Qatar.
Both sides have previously stated that "progress" had been made in the talks aimed at ending
the 17-year conflict in Afghanistan. The latest development marks potentially good news for three neighbouring Central Asian countries — Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan.
What many observers may have missed was the role of the Uzbek-led and Turkmen-supported Central Asian integration efforts in bringing out the militant group’s previously unseen, albeit still complex, proclivity for dialogue. At the heart of Afghan concerns on both sides of the conflict lies the opium poppy cultivation market which stands as a vital part of the Afghanistan’s economy —
The sanctions regime imposed on Tehran by US President Donald Trump since last year is the toughest ever with which Washington has gone after the Islamic Republic. Trump wants to stran- gle Iran’s economy to the point that the Iranians come begging for a deal which would see big concessions on their activities in the Middle East as well as on their nuclear and ballistic missile development programmes.
Taliban police patrolling the streets of Herat in a pickup truck.
and Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan have offered the first alternative business in a long time to the crop used as the essential ingredient in heroin production. That fact was precisely demonstrated when the Taliban, to everyone’s surprise, in February 2018 announced support for the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project in exchange for a future share of transit revenues.
Uzbekistan, in particular, has been pushing for peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government since 2017.
“We have a draft of the framework that has to be fleshed out before it becomes an agreement,” Khalilzad said in an interview with the New York Times in Kabul on January 28. The militants agreed, as part of the “framework”, to prevent Afghan territory from being used by groups such as Al-Qaeda to stage terrorist attacks — a source of concern for bordering nations.