Connect with us

Latest News

Khalilzad says a Taliban ruled Afghanistan will become a pariah state

Published

on

(Last Updated On: )

The U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, said Monday that if the Taliban take over the country by force, they will not win international recognition and “they will become a pariah state.”

Speaking to VOA, Khalilzad said the United States remains committed to promoting a political settlement between warring Afghans, stressing that neither side to the conflict can win militarily.

Asked whether the US has a moral and political responsibility to ensure that Afghanistan does not slide into another civil war, after U.S. military departure, as happened following the Soviet exit in 1989, Khalilzad said “it is a point that we have kept in mind that what happened in the 90s should not be repeated and that working with the Afghans we did something big, a huge sacrifice on the part of the Afghans with our support to get the Soviets out, and then we abandon Afghanistan, and a terrible war took place and it produced challenges particularly in 9/11.

“So, we do not want to repeat that mistake,” he said adding “we have an agreement with the Taliban in principle to depart. But we engaged the Taliban as part of a strategy, a plan to have safe withdrawal of U.S. forces.”

He also said the start of the peace process was part of this strategy.

According to him, the US-Taliban agreement, signed in Doha in February last year, provided the opportunity for Afghans to sit across the table from each other, “a historic development”, to reach an agreement to agree on a formula that would have broad support in Afghanistan and international support as well.

“Unfortunately, the two sides have not taken advantage of that opportunity as quickly as we would have liked, as the Afghan people would have liked,” he said.

He reiterated that there is no military solution to the war and that there must be a “political solution, a political agreement for a lasting peace.”

Khalilzad meanwhile stated that the Afghan government “also has had challenges or difficulties in terms of agreeing to or embracing the idea of a new Islamic government and the Taliban have used force to see if it could coerce the government into agreeing to a formula for a new Islamic government, a new constitution as they see it as well.”

He said in the US’s opinion, the Afghan government cannot get rid of the Taliban, “and the Taliban cannot conquer Afghanistan and have a government that has the support of the overwhelming majority of the Afghans and international support.”

He said while the Taliban tells the US they know there is no military solution, “maybe some Taliban think there is a military solution to the conflict.”

Khalilzad said “the wise thing is for both sides to engage seriously and quickly, urgently to respond to the wishes of the people of Afghanistan for a political agreement.”

He pointed out that history has shown, over the past 45 to 50 years, that attempts by one party to impose its will on the people only leads to war.

“I hope that the leaders of Afghanistan have learned that lesson and that they need to agree to a formula that has broad support, accepts that all Afghans have legitimate rights, that those rights have to be respected and the people have to have a say ultimately in how they are governed.”

ON the gains the Taliban has made in the country in terms of seizing territory, Khalilzad said the Afghan security forces “are numerically far superior than the Taliban. They have over three hundred thousand troops, it has an Air Force and it has special forces. It has heavy equipment and both proper leadership, political and military and proper military strategy and plan and execution.”

However he added “the government forces should have done a lot better than they are doing.”

Khalilzad, who has worked tirelessly to bring the two warring sides together over the past three years, told VOA that he is “concerned very much by the lack of progress. I know that the gap has been large, continues to be a big gap between the two sides, but they need to put the leader or the interests of the Country first, rather than their own interest or their factional interest.”

“There cannot be peace without a compromise, without give and take, without respect for the fundamental rights of all Afghans men and women and the Afghans having a say, ultimately the people and in terms of what happens to them.”

He said the question now is “will these leaders rise to the occasion and put country first or will they go down in history as people who put their own interests or the interests of their faction first”.

In conclusion, Khalilzad touched on Pakistan and its relations with the Taliban.

He said: “Pakistan has a special role and responsibility, given also that many Taliban leaders are in Pakistan, located there, to do what it can to encourage peace and a political settlement as soon as possible, for it will be judged internationally also as to whether it has done all that it can or it could to promote a political settlement.

He said peace in Afghanistan is in Pakistan’s interests and that many Pakistan leaders have acknowledged this.

Latest News

Female foreign ministers from 17 countries call on IEA to repeal laws affecting women

Published

on

(Last Updated On: )

Female foreign ministers from 17 countries have called on the Islamic Emirate to repeal the laws restricting women and girls in Afghanistan.

In a joint statement issued on Saturday, on the situation of women and girls in the country, the group of foreign ministers denounced the Islamic Emirate’s “morality laws”.

“We denounce and call for the repeal of the Taliban’s (IEA) so called ‘Morality Laws’, which have exacerbated existing restrictions for Afghan women and girls,” the statement read.

“These decrees aim literally to silence Afghan women and girls and confine them to their homes. There is no viable future—no long-term peace, prosperity, or legitimacy—for any state that seeks to effectively erase women from public life.”

In reaction, the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice said that Western countries have a double standard on the issue of human rights and are using it as a tool to pressure the Islamic Emirate.

“If such ministry does not exist in an Islamic system or Islamic society, we cannot call it an Islamic system or Islamic society,” Saif-ul-Islam Khaibar, the ministry’s spokesman, said.

“Those who demand the abolition of this ministry are actually acting against Islamic values, religion, nation, and identity of Afghans, which is unacceptable to all. Instead of making allegations against this ministry, they should adhere to human rights in their own laws.”

In their joint statement, the female foreign ministers also said that the Islamic Emirate’s “systematic exclusion of girls from school—including by barring education for girls above sixth grade—deprives millions of women and girls of their right to education.”

“We encourage all countries to advocate for the full, equal, meaningful, and safe participation of Afghan women in discussions on Afghanistan’s future, including in the U.N.-facilitated Doha process,” the statement said.

Continue Reading

Latest News

IEA officials on way to Japan

Published

on

(Last Updated On: )

A delegation of senior Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) officials was expected to arrive in Tokyo on Sunday in what is the IEA’s first visit to Japan since they regained power in August 2021.

According to Japanese media, the delegation consists of around six government officials in charge of diplomacy, healthcare, education, cultural properties and other policies.

This visit was in response to an invitation offered by an executive of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation and Tadamichi Yamamoto, former head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), last year.

Reports state that the delegation will likely request more humanitarian support and may also discuss ties between Japan and Afghanistan with Japanese government officials.

Japan continues to maintain diplomatic functions in Afghanistan and has provided support for medical facilities through the United Nations.

Continue Reading

Latest News

Ministry of Refugees condemns forced evacuation of Afghans in Balochistan, Pakistan

The statement added that among the people deported by the Pakistani police, 65 were children and 30 were Afghan women.

Published

on

(Last Updated On: )

The Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation on Sunday condemned the forced evacuation of Afghan refugees from their homes in Balochistan province, Pakistan.

The Ministry of Refugees’ statement said that on February 15, Pakistani police raided the homes of a number of Afghan refugees in the Quetta and Kuchlak areas of Balochistan province.

The raids took place at night and officials forcibly evicted and mistreated a number of Afghan refugees.

The statement added that among the people deported by the Pakistani police, 65 were children and 30 were Afghan women.

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2024 Ariana News. All rights reserved!