What will the Taliban victory mean for the Middle East?

Middle East leaders are watching Afghanistan and drawing conclusions about the unreliability of the US as a partner.

Over the past few days, many have drawn parallels between images of an Air America helicopter rescuing Vietnamese evacuees from the rooftop of a building in Saigon in 1975 and desperate Afghans climbing over a US Air Force plane taking off from the tarmac of Kabul’s airport on August 16. These parallels feed into the growing perception of the United States as a power that engages in reckless invasions only to depart when the human, monetary or political costs become too high for the American public to bear. After investing $2 trillion over two decades, Washington watched the Afghan national government and army collapse like a house of cards in a matter of days following the withdrawal. Many analysts are now declaring the end of US nation-building efforts after their spectacular failure in Afghanistan. But state-building has long been dead as a Western policy, as it was evident in the cases of Libya and Syria after the Arab uprisings in 2011. The US and NATO had realised this failure early on and stayed longer in Afghanistan not to continue such efforts but to prevent the Taliban and other groups from establishing a haven for terrorists. The Taliban has recently committed not to harbour terrorists that could threaten the US but there are no guarantees the militant group will abide by these promises.