Balancing act: Taliban learning from the past woes.

At 3 am on July 2, the United States stealthily abandoned the Bagram Airfield, its largest military facility in Afghanistan. Afghan security forces, who were awaiting a formal handover, received confirmation of the event two hours later. Bagram was the epicenter of the US presence in Afghanistan.

There is a new sense of approach that the Taliban is going about this time around. To begin with, the Taliban is not capturing cities but smaller districts in all 34 provinces. Secondly, the Taliban has given a lot of impetus in having a dialogue with major stockholders like Tehran, the US, Moscow, and CARs. Thirdly, the Taliban have overrun areas bordering five countries – Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, China, and Pakistan – as foreign forces end their two-decade intervention. Tajiks are offering the troops a haven, but the Uzbeks are taking a firmer line. Turkmenistan on other hand is hopeful of getting the Tapi deal over the line.

Taliban is now seeking to secure some revenue projects to sustain the long haul, the Chinese are more than willing to support the Taliban in this but the isolated case of Haji Furqan, a Chinese national with close ties to ETIM(East Turkestan Islamic Movement). The speculation of ETIM raises few eyebrows in Beijing.

Cruz of the new approach is to develop a self-sustainable model before reviving the Intra-Afghan talks after the US withdrawal is complete.