Afghanistan’s Taliban government has launched an unprecedented public appeal for U.S. diplomatic engagement and investment, citing mineral wealth and restored security. But with American officials and experts skeptical—and human rights concerns unresolved—the regime’s bid for normalization faces steep odds.
The Taliban made the call five years after the U.S. withdrawal from the country after two decades of presence. However, Washington has moved on while the Taliban remain far from convincing the world to be just rulers of the country.
The Taliban move appears to be part of an intensifying effort to break its international isolation. The de facto rulers’ publicly urging Washington to reopen its embassy and restore diplomatic ties comes with an invitation to invest in Afghanistan’s infrastructure and vast mineral reserves.
“We consider the chapter of war to have come to an end, and from now on, we want relations based on mutual respect and a new chapter of positive engagement,” Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said in an interview in Kabul.
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He proposed that the U.S. could fund roads, dams, and mining projects, including lithium and rare earth deposits—assets that have drawn interest from China, Iran, and Qatar.
While the Taliban has secured defense and trade deals with Russia and Central Asian neighbors, and cooperates with European nations on migrant returns, its outreach to Washington has gained little traction.
“There is no appetite in D.C.,” said Hassan Abbas, a U.S.-based scholar and author of a recent book on the Taliban in power.
“No one wants to touch this topic. Everyone wants to forget about Afghanistan,” he said, according to The New York Times.
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The U.S. State Department has rejected normalization, citing the Taliban’s failure to uphold counterterrorism commitments and its continued restrictions on women and girls—policies that have led to an ICC arrest warrant and frozen Afghan central bank assets.
Muttaqi, however, brushed aside questions about women’s education as a barrier, calling the ban “temporary,” a defense also used during the group’s first rule.
Despite domestic resistance, some analysts see economic opportunity, according to the Times.
Michael Kugelman, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, noted that “values-based considerations like brutality and the Taliban’s horrific treatment of women and girls would not necessarily keep this administration from engaging with the Taliban, particularly if that could help advance U.S. economic interests.”
He added that Afghanistan’s untapped critical minerals “are the right pitch to make to the Trump administration.”
Yet no country has recognized the Taliban administration, and it remains excluded from the UN and IMF while the Taliban have angered Pakistan — the landlocked country’s trade window to the world — with their support for the Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan, a U.S.-designated terrorist group that has claimed several terror attacks on Pakistani cities and military targets.
The closure of Pakistan-Afghanistan trade transit routes have deeply hurt the ordinary Afghans as Islamabad presses the Afghan Taliban to crack down on the TTP hideouts.
India, which recently hosted the Afghan foreign minister, has faced stinging criticism for advancing relations with a repressive regime while claiming to be the largest democracy in the world.
The United Nations this week noted in an update that Afghanistan remains a hotbed of terrorist activity with several militant organizations like the ISIS and the TTP operating out of the country.
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Expert Abbas predicts continued isolation for Taliban as long as the group clings to its most extreme policies, largely dictated from Kandahar.
Muttaqi, for his part, rejected any foreign military presence, stating: “No Afghan wants or can tolerate the military presence of another country on Afghan soil, as history has demonstrated.”
The Taliban has also rebuffed Trump on key requests—including regaining control of Bagram Air Base, returning abandoned U.S. weapons, and releasing a prisoner the Taliban denies holding. Meanwhile, the U.S. has moved closer to Pakistan, remains embroiled with Iran (one of the Taliban’s few steady partners), and has paused visas for Afghans.
Beyond the United States, Muttaqi called on any country to invest in Afghanistan, where the administration is in desperate need of foreign capital. Half of its estimated 45 million people require humanitarian assistance, which dwindled after U.S. aid cuts last year, according to the United Nations. About four million Afghans have returned from neighboring Pakistan and Iran since early 2025.
Muttaqi also said his administration wanted to reopen diplomatic missions in the United States and was negotiating migration agreements with European countries. However, no European nation has recognized the Taliban as Afghanistan’s legitimate authority, and the government remains a pariah excluded from international bodies.
In an initial exchange earlier this year, Muttaqi highlighted Afghanistan’s mines as a potential starting point for a “new chapter for the two countries.” He added: “I view President Trump’s deal-making ability, pragmatic approach and decisiveness as factors that can facilitate constructive engagement with his administration.”
But with Washington’s focus elsewhere and the Taliban’s most extreme policies unchanged, experts agree that meaningful engagement remains a distant prospect.
Muhammad Luqman is Associate Editor at Views News Now. He writes on wide-ranging issues including economy, South Asia, the Middle East, agriculture, economy and innovation. Luqman has worked some of the leading news organizations and won acclaim for his original and research-based works.
Iftikhar Ali is a veteran Pakistani journalist, former president of UN Correspondents Association, and a recipient of the Pride of Performance civil award
