Taliban to Kazakhstan: Stay Out of Afghanistan

Kazakhstan's decision to send troops to Afghanistan has elicited a quick rebuke from the Taliban, which warns that the deployment "will leave a long-term negative impact on relations between Afghanistan and Kazakhstan and the region."

The statement accuses Kazakhstan of kowtowing to Washington:

[I]t seems from the abrupt and impetuous decision of Kazakhstan that rulers of that country have shown impetuosity and hastiness in taking the decision. They have focused on protection of American interests instead of taking into account the aspirations of their people and the regional interests.

And it calls Kazakhstan ungrateful for the Afghan jihadis' role in ensuring its independence:

Kazakhstan obtained its liberation and got an identity after the collapse of the former Soviet Union at the hands of the Afghan people. In a way, they ( must) remain obliged to the blessing of the Afghan Jihad and struggle. Still, if they have opted to take part in the war of the illegitimate occupation of Afghanistan, it will be their historical perfidy and an act of impetuosity politically.

What to make of this? It's a curious move by Kazakhstan -- it'll be the only Central Asian country with troops in the western mission there, as well as the only member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which has lately been signaling that it intends to take a larger role in Afghanistan when the U.S./NATO mission there ends. And given that once the U.S. and NATO leaves, Afghanistan will likely have some Taliban representation in its government, this could have some effect on Afghan-Kazakh relations in the future. of course, conversely, this could help Kazakhstan's standing among Afghanistan's anti-Taliban leaders. But Kazakhstan could be backing the losing horse here. As the Taliban statement says:

Obviously, in a time that the invading countries of the world are trying to find justification to flee Afghanistan and the European parliaments are demanding withdrawal of their troops, the Kazakhstan decision to enter the war will yield nothing except negative consequences.

What could those negative consequences be? We'll have to wait and see.