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Riyadh wants to seek a new role in Afghanistan after the Western-backed government in Kabul collapsed on August 15. The kingdom is not to be outdone by rival Qatar, which has emerged as a major power broker in the war-torn country.
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Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS) reportedly recently commissioned his former intelligence chief, Prince Turki al-Faisal, to renew contacts among Taliban leaders with whom he had dealt with more than two decades ago.
Faisal, 76, served as head of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence service between 1979 and 2001, and helped coordinate resistance with the Afghan Mujahideen group during the Soviet Union’s invasion of the country.
According to reports Intelligence Online, Prince Faisal recently met with Mullah Yaqoob, the son of one of the Taliban’s founders Mullah Omar, and also held a meeting with top Taliban official Mullah Baradar in Qatar.
Baradar is the Taliban’s political chief and has acted as the group’s main negotiator in talks with the United States and the ousted Afghan government.
In the days following the Taliban’s takeover of power, Qatar, a country with cold relations with Saudi Arabia in recent years, was praised by the US for its role in evacuating tens of thousands of people from Kabul airport.
The tiny Gulf state previously allowed the Taliban to open an office in Doha in 2013, with the backing of then-US President Barack Obama, and is reported to have a lot of influence over the group.
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