U.S. Afghan Envoy Looks To Accelerate Peace Talks In Trip To Region
Khalilzad
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
March 28, 2021
Washington’s special envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad has traveled to Turkey and the region as part of an effort to encourage the Taliban and the Afghan government to work toward a peace agreement as a deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops looms.
The U.S. State Department said on March 27 that Khalilzad “will build on recent efforts by regional and international partners to encourage the two Afghan parties to accelerate their negotiations to end the conflict.”
The statement said Khalilzad left for Turkey on March 25.
The trip comes as President Joe Biden faces a decision on the deployment of troops in Afghanistan, where the United States has had a sustained military presence for 19 years.
Biden is deciding whether to meet a May 1 deadline for the withdrawal of the last 2,500 American troops that comprise about one-quarter of a NATO force that is in Afghanistan to train and advise local security forces. NATO allies have said they are willing to stay if Washington decides to remain.
Biden has said it will be difficult to meet the May 1 deadline, which was set in a February 2020 accord struck between the United States and the Taliban.
The United States has sought to build international pressure on the Taliban and U.S.-backed Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s government to reach a peace agreement and a cease-fire before the deadline.
Taliban Threat
The Taliban on March 26 threatened to resume hostilities against foreign troops in Afghanistan if they do not withdraw by May 1.
The Taliban has said failure to meet the deadline would be seen as a violation of the 2020 agreement.
Taliban assaults on foreign troops in Afghanistan have largely ceased since the deal was signed in Doha, Qatar. But attacks have continued against Afghan security forces and government personnel.
Under the accord, all foreign forces are to leave Afghanistan in exchange for security guarantees from the militant group such as severing ties with Al-Qaeda and refusing to harbor any foreign terrorists.
The Taliban also pledged to negotiate a cease-fire and a power-sharing deal with Kabul. But the intra-Afghan peace talks, launched in Qatar in September 2020, have bogged down.
With reporting by Reuters and dpa
Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036
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Paris Pays Tribute To Assassinated Afghan Resistance Leader
Ahmad Shah Massoud
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
March 27, 2021
The city of Paris has inaugurated a pathway in the Champs-Elysees gardens named after the late Afghan resistance fighter and anti-Taliban leader Ahmad Shah Masud.
The inauguration ceremony on March 27 was attended by his son, Ahmad Masud, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and Abdullah Abdullah, the head of Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation.
Masud was killed by Al-Qaeda assassins just two days before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.
Within a month, the United States invaded Afghanistan with the intention of overthrowing the Taliban and capturing Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
A 1992 editorial in The Wall Street Journal described Masud as the “Afghan who won the Cold War.”
His native Panjshir Valley was a bastion of resistance to the 1979-89 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Masud was also a key leader of the Northern Alliance, a combination of Afghanistan-based forces that aligned in 1996 to counter the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul.
Masud spoke some French, having studied at the French-language Lycee Esteqlal school in Kabul, and was admired in France. In 2001, French President Nicole Fontaine invited Masud to address the European Parliament.
Masud was also friends with French intellectual Bernard-Henri Levy, who visited Masud in the Panjshir Valley in the 1990s. Masud was known to have said that French President Charles De Gaulle was one of his political heroes.
Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.
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Taliban fighters (file photo)
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Thirteen Afghan Police Officers Killed In Separate Attacks
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
March 27, 2021
Afghan officials say more than a dozen police officers have been killed in attacks by the Taliban in the country’s volatile south.
In the deadliest incident, 10 officers were killed after the Taliban attacked a security checkpoint along a highway in Helmand Province.
The attack occurred late on March 26 outside the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
Among those killed was Abdul Mohammad Sarwari, the police chief of Helmand’s Sangin district.
Meanwhile, three police officers were killed on March 27 in Helmand’s Gereshk district.
The attacks are the latest examples of escalating violence as peace talks between the Taliban and Afghan government stall.
The United States is making a diplomatic push to advance the talks as President Joe Biden’s new administration completes a review of an agreement with the Taliban to remove the final U.S. troops in the war-torn country by May 1.
Based on reporting by TOLOnews and Khaama
Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.
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