25 years after September 11; is Afghanistan once again becoming a platform for global terrorism?

🔸Twenty-five years after Afghanistan was turned into a launchpad for the September 11 attacks, this country has now “returned to the starting point.”

🔸The Taliban, after a 20-year military presence led by the United States, has once again seized power, and al-Qaeda factors have once again found a safe haven in Afghanistan.

🔸So far, this situation has not led to carrying out major terrorist attacks against Western capitals from within Afghanistan, let alone something like the September 11 attacks.

🔸However, former military, diplomatic, and intelligence officials, as well as regional experts, have offered different views in interviews with “Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty” about why this has not happened. Some argued that today’s conditions are fundamentally different from the situation before September 11. Others warned about the return of a threat and a “ticking time bomb.”

🔸After September 11, Washington decided to support a coalition of anti-Taliban forces to remove the Taliban from power and target al-Qaeda leaders who were present in that country. But this decision turned into a 20-year war that brought immense financial costs and human casualties.

🔸In 2020, during the first term of Donald Trump’s presidency, an agreement was signed with the Taliban, under which international forces would withdraw, and the Taliban would “not allow any of its members, or any person or group including al-Qaeda, to use Afghan soil to threaten the security of the United States and its allies.”

🔸Within the framework of this agreement, the Taliban also pledged that it would not make possible “the recruitment, training, and financing” by such groups or individuals, or from within Afghanistan.

🔸Read the full report on the Radio Farda website.