Afghans Win 7 Medals, Including Gold, in Intl Taekwondo Event

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Tolo News: The national taekwondo team won seven medals in the Nepal Open International Virtual Poomsae Taekwondo Championships, in which athletes from 30 countries attended. The medals were won by Mohammad Idris Qarizada (gold), Sayed Rustam Akbari (silver), and Sayed Zarif Hashimi, Sumaya Adil Niazi, Anzaroot Wali, Abdul Muoz Ahmad Salik and Sardar Agha (bronze). Click here to read more (external link).

COVID-19: 53 New Cases, 1 Death Reported in Afghanistan

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Tolo News: The Ministry of Public Health on Tuesday reported 53 new positive cases of COVID-19 out of 1,888 samples tested in the last 24 hours. The ministry says the cumulative total of known COVID-19 cases is 55,174, the total number of reported deaths is 2,406, and the total number of recoveries is 47,798. Click here to read more (external link).

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Biden Inherits No-Win Situation in Afghanistan

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Joe Biden

Michael Hughes: The Taliban last week threatened to kill any American troop that remains in Afghanistan beyond the deadline of the peace deal the group struck with the Trump administration. The insurgent group is freely willing to make such a threat because it feels it holds all the cards. As a Taliban commander told a Western military official at the beginning of Trump’s term in office: “You have the watches. We have the time.”

Hence, the news that the U.S.-led coalition is no longer going to abide by the agreement will likely mean the heat of the Afghan cauldron is about to increase more than a few notches. On January 31, Reuters reported, citing top NATO officials, that foreign troops would remain in the country past April in violation of the said U.S.-Taliban withdrawal pact.

Click here to read more.

Taliban Increasing Attacks In Kabul, U.S. Watchdog Says

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Taliban fighters (file photo)

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
February 1, 2021

Taliban attacks in Kabul are rising and government officials, activists, and journalists are increasingly the target, a fresh report by a U.S. watchdog said.

The report comes as the Biden administration plans to take a new look at the peace agreement between the U.S. and the Taliban signed last February under President Donald Trump.

“Enemy attacks in Kabul were higher than during the previous quarter,” the report quoted U.S. forces in Afghanistan. “They were much higher than in the same quarter last year.”

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, known as SIGAR, monitors the billions of dollars the United States spends in war-ravaged Afghanistan.

Across Afghanistan, Taliban attacks during the last quarter of 2020 were slightly lower than in the previous quarter but higher than the same period in 2019, according to the report, which was released on January 30.

The Taliban unleashed a wave of attacks in Afghanistan in December, including strikes in northern Baghlan and southern Uruzgan provinces over a two-day period that killed at least 19 members of the Afghan security forces. In Kabul, a roadside bomb struck a vehicle, wounding two, and a lawyer was shot in a targeted killing.

Resolute Support, the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan, reported 2,586 civilian casualties from October 1 to December 31 last year, including 810 killed and 1,776 wounded, according to the SIGAR report.

The report said the proportion of casualties caused by improvised explosive devices increased nearly 17 percent in this quarter, correlating with an increase in magnetically attached IEDs or “sticky bomb” attacks.

The U.S. has been the prime backer of the Afghan government since it invaded the country soon after the September 11, 2001, attacks and overthrew the Taliban, which was running the country and harboring Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The United States still spends about $4 billion a year to assist Afghan security forces.

The U.S. military said earlier this month that it had met its goal of reducing the number of troops in Afghanistan to about 2,500. Senior U.S. commanders are skeptical of the Taliban’s stated commitment to peace, though they have said they can accomplish their mission in Afghanistan at that troop level.

“As the footprint of U.S. agencies continues to shrink, it will become more important that the U.S. and other donors perform aggressive and effective oversight of its dollars and programs,” said Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction John F. Sopko.

With reporting from AP

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

MPs React to Rahmani Remarks on Interim Setup

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Mir Rahman Rahmani

Tolo News: The Wolesi Jirga Speaker Mir Rahmani’s remarks on an interim government plan stoked debate in Monday’s session as some MPs said such a plan is against the law and that the Republic must be maintained. Addressing an event on Sunday, Rahmani said he has found access to the draft of an interim setup and he welcomes it, but he added that the plan needs to be comprehensive. Click here to read more (external link).

Afghanistan: 62 New Cases of COVID-19, 1 Death Reported

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Tolo News: The Ministry of Public Health on Monday reported 62 new positive cases of COVID-19 out of 2,025 samples tested in the last 24 hours. The ministry says the cumulative total of known COVID-19 cases is 55,121, the total number of reported deaths is 2,405, and the total number of recoveries is 47,723. Click here to read more (external link).

Afghan Negotiators Say Taliban Must Return Soon To Peace Talks

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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
January 31, 2021

A member of the Afghan government’s peace negotiating team said on January 31 that if the Taliban doesn’t return to peace talks in Qatar soon, the Kabul government could recall its representatives before a deal is reached.

Government negotiator Rasul Talib told a news conference that the Afghan team is waiting for the return of the Taliban leadership to Doha, where a second round of peace talks began this month but have made little progress.

Talib said the Taliban should “stop spreading baseless remarks” and return to the negotiating table. He said the Taliban “does not have the guts for peace. They are spreading nonsense around.”

There was no immediate response from the Taliban.

Talib’s comments came after members of the Taliban leadership recently traveled to Iran and Russia for discussions on the negotiations.

U.S. President Joe Biden’s new administration has said it plans to review the peace agreement signed last February between the United States and the Taliban.

The Afghan negotiating team praised that decision to review the U.S.-Taliban peace deal, saying the deal favors the Taliban.

Talib asked Biden’s administration to withdraw its forces in a way that prevents a security vacuum in Afghanistan and eliminates the possibility of more militant attacks in the country, both against the United States and other countries.

Reuters reported on January 31 that international troops plan to stay in Afghanistan beyond the May deadline envisaged under the Taliban’s deal with the United States.

Reuters said four senior NATO officials had confirmed the report on condition of anonymity, with one official quoted as saying “there will be no full withdrawal by allies by April-end.”

“Conditions have not been met. And with the new U.S. administration, there will be tweaks in the policy,” the NATO official said. “The sense of hasty withdrawal which was prevalent will be addressed and we could see a much more calculated exit strategy.”

After discussions in Moscow on January 29, the head of the Taliban delegation, Sher Mohammed Abbas Stanikzai, said the Taliban expects the United States to fulfill its pledge to withdraw all of its troops from Afghanistan by May.

Stanikzai has also demanded the resignation of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, calling his administration an obstacle to peace

Hosting a meeting with a Taliban delegation in Tehran on January 31, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammd Javad Zarif called for the formation of an “all-inclusive” Afghan government.

That Taliban delegation, headed by its co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, arrived in Tehran on January 26 at the invitation of Iran’s Foreign Ministry to exchange ‘views on the peace process in Afghanistan.”

In mid-January, the Pentagon announced that the U.S. military has met its goal of reducing the number of its troops in Afghanistan to about 2,500.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP

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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