U.S. Afghan Envoy Looks To Accelerate Peace Talks In Trip To Region

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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

Rights watchdog survey finds 4.4 million Afghans live with a disability

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Ariana: The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) said in a report on Sunday 4.4 million people in Afghanistan live with a disability and that the number people with disabilities has increased by 11.2 percent during the past 14 years. The AIHRC data shows that 13.9 percent of the total population of Afghanistan (4,475,800) have been identified as people with disabilities. Click here to read more (external link).

Paris Pays Tribute To Assassinated Afghan Resistance Leader

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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.

I sat through Chuck Lorre’s cringe new Afghan War sitcom in Kabul so you don’t have to

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Insider: I watched the 30-second trailer and was horrified to see that the show — the first sitcom I knew of where a central character is from Afghanistan — seemed to rely on tired tropes about a hulking, heroic white man coming to the rescue of his bumbling brown sidekick. Click here to read more (external link).

US spy agencies warn Biden of possible Taliban takeover of Afghanistan: report

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Taliban fighters (file photo)

1TV: The Taliban could overrun most of Afghanistan within two to three years if American troops leave before an intra-Afghan peace deal, US intelligence agencies have reportedly warned the Biden administration. Such a takeover potentially would allow al Qaeda to rebuild in Afghanistan, the New York Times reported, quoting anonymous US officials. Click here to read more (external link).

Related

Thirteen Afghan Police Officers Killed In Separate Attacks

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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.

Afghan Population Growing Rapidly, 57% Increase in Two Decades

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Tolo News: Afghanistan’s population has grown by 57 percent in the last two decades, according to statistics by the National Statistic and Information Authority, and there was a 13.8 million increase in the last 20 years. According to NSIA, in 1399 (2020), Afghanistan’s population was around 32.9 million while in 1380 (2001), Afghanistan had only 19.9 million population. Click here to read more (external link).

4 New Positive Cases of COVID-19, 1 Death Reported in Afghanistan

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Tolo News: The Ministry of Public Health on Saturday reported four new positive cases of COVID-19 out of 1,078 samples tested in the last 24 hours. The ministry reported that the cumulative total of known COVID-19 cases is 56,290, the total number of reported deaths is 2,469, and the total number of recoveries is 49,994. Click here to read more (external link).

Related

Afghan Taliban Threaten to Target US, NATO Troops if US Misses Exit Deadline

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Taliban militants (file photo)

Ayaz Gul
VOA News
March 26, 2021

ISLAMABAD – The Afghan Taliban warned Friday that they would be “compelled” to continue their war against international forces in Afghanistan, should the United States and NATO decide against withdrawing their troops from the country by May 1.

The insurgent group’s warning came a day after U.S. President Joe Biden said that 2,500 American troops might still be in Afghanistan beyond the May deadline, which is part of a year-old agreement the former Trump administration signed with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar.

There are around 7,000 non-U.S. troops in the country under the NATO-led Resolute Support noncombat mission and 20,000 contractors who support Afghan government security forces battling the Taliban.

Biden cited “tactical reasons” for the possible delay but said that even if Washington did not meet the deadline, he could not envision the U.S. military staying in the South Asian nation past next year. On Friday, when asked about the U.S. withdrawal, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters the president was still considering a timeline for a troop pullout.

The Taliban described Biden’s remarks as “vague,” in their formal written response issued Friday. The group insisted that the Doha pact “is the most sensible and shortest path” for the United States to end the two-decade-long Afghan war.

‘Compelled’ to keep fighting

The American side will be considered to have violated the accord if there is a delay to the agreed upon foreign troop withdrawal deadline, the group asserted. It added that the insurgents “will be compelled” to continue their “armed struggle” against foreign forces to “liberate” Afghanistan.

“All responsibility for the prolongation of war, death and destruction will be on the shoulders of those who committed this violation,” the insurgent group stressed.

The Taliban asserted that they are “firmly committed” to their end of the deal, advising Washington against “wasting this historic opportunity due to flawed advice and incitement by warmongering circles.” The group did not elaborate.

The insurgents ceased attacks on U.S. and allied forces after signing the deal with Washington, and there have been no U.S. military casualties since then in Afghanistan.

The Taliban are also bound to cut ties with al-Qaida and other terror groups, reduce battlefield attacks against local forces and negotiate a political power-sharing peace deal with Afghan rivals.

The U.S.-Taliban accord encouraged the insurgents to open talks with Afghan government representatives last September, but the intra-Afghan dialogue, hosted by Qatar, remains deadlocked.

Review of deal

The Biden administration initiated a review of the February 2020 U.S.-Taliban deal shortly after the president took office. The review has yet to be completed. Several high-ranking U.S. officials, meanwhile, have questioned whether the Taliban have kept their side of the bargain.

“It’s clear that the Taliban have not upheld what they said they would do and reduce the violence,” General Richard Clarke, commander of U.S. special forces, told U.S. lawmakers Thursday, hours before Biden held his first news conference.

“It is clear they took a deliberate approach and increased their violence since the peace accords were signed,” said Clarke.

Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote a strongly worded letter to the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, urging him to “accelerate peace talks” and move “quickly toward a settlement.”

The letter said the United States had asked Turkey to host a high-level meeting between Afghan parties to the conflict to “finalize a peace agreement.”

The Biden administration has proposed establishing an interim government in Kabul along with a 90-day reduction in Afghan violence to sustain political reconciliation efforts.

Taliban officials have suggested they may agree to a 90-day violence reduction if Washington sticks to the troop withdrawal deadline, pressures Kabul to release the remaining 7,000 Taliban prisoners and ends the U.N. terror designations of senior Taliban leaders, as stipulated in the Doha agreement.

For his part, Ghani has voiced strong opposition to any interim Afghan government, saying he would transfer power only through elections.

VOA’s Patsy Widakuswara and Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.