Taliban Attempts to Reassure Pompeo Amid Russia ‘Bounty’ Controversy

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Mike Pompeo

By Ayaz Gul
VOA News
June 30,2020

ISLAMABAD – The Taliban said Tuesday its political chief in a video call with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has reassured him the Islamist insurgency does not allow anyone to use Afghanistan to plot attacks against other nations.

Pompeo’s contact with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, head of the Taliban’s political office in Qatar, came as President Donald Trump faces growing pressure from U.S. lawmakers to investigate news reports that Russia had offered bounties to Taliban fighters to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan.

“It is not true. We have already rejected that,” Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen told VOA from the Qatari capital of Doha when asked whether Pompeo raised the issue of alleged Russia-Taliban collaboration.

“Baradar once again reiterated that the Taliban are committed not to allow anyone to use Afghan soil (to launch attacks) against any country,” Shaheen said.

U.S. officials have not yet commented on the Pompeo-Baradar contact.

In an exclusive story published last week, the New York Times, while citing anonymous officials, reported that Trump had been told about the alleged Russian bounties but did nothing in response.

Trump has denied getting any such briefing.

“Intelligence is verified before it reaches the president of the United States. And in this case, it was not verified,’’ White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Monday when reporters asked why the president was not informed.

Shaheen said that Baradar also reaffirmed his group’s commitment to a peace-building agreement with Washington, which requires all U.S. and coalition forces to withdraw from Afghanistan by July 2021 in return for Taliban counterterrorism guarantees.

The pact, signed in Doha on Feb. 29, also binds the insurgents to seek political reconciliation with other Afghan groups through direct negotiations to bring an end to decades of hostilities in the country.

However, increasing battlefield violence and a controversial slow-moving prisoner swap between the Afghan government and the Taliban have delayed long-awaited intra-Afghan negotiations that were originally scheduled for March 10.

Shaheen said Baradar told Pompeo the delay in intra-Afghan talks was because the Kabul government did not release all 5,000 Taliban prisoners as stipulated in the accord.

Afghan officials say they have released about 4,000 insurgent prisoners so far while Shaheen said his group has also freed 717 out of the promised 1,000 Afghan forces being held by the Taliban.

Sheen noted that Pompeo called for all Afghan warring sides to do more to reduce violence, claiming the chief U.S. diplomat acknowledged that the insurgent group has “lowered the war graph by not attacking cities and major military bases.”

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A divided Taliban could unleash a new proxy war in Afghanistan

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Taliban militants (file photo)

Atlantic Council: The COVID-19 pandemic is transforming international relations not just by straining relations among powerful states, but also by disrupting violent nonstate actors. Perhaps no major militant outfit has felt the impact as much as the Taliban. The group’s leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, is either seriously ill with the virus or possibly dead. Sirajuddin Haqqani, the head of the powerful Haqqani Network and deputy leader of the Taliban, is also very ill with COVID-19. This has allowed Mohammad Yaqoob, the other deputy leader, to take operational control of the organization. The shift in the balance of power within the Taliban has the potential to upend Afghan security, India-Pakistan relations, and the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan. Haqqani is an ally of Pakistan and al-Qaeda, while Yaqoob favors the peace process with the United States and rapprochement with India.  Click here to read more (external link).

Rocket Attack Kills 23 Afghan Civilians 

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Ayaz Gul
VOA News
June 29, 2020

ISLAMABAD – A rocket attack on a crowded marketplace in Afghanistan’s volatile southern Helmand province killed at least 23 civilians and injured 15 others on Monday.

Residents reportedly accused Afghan security forces of firing the rockets in Sangin district during clashes with the Taliban.

The governor’s office in Helmand rejected the allegations and instead blamed the insurgent group for being behind the bloodshed.

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousouf Ahmadi, denied the insurgent group’s involvement.

The Taliban controls or influences most of the territory in the largest Afghan province and regularly stages attacks on government forces.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s office denounced the incident and urged the Taliban to quit violence in favor of peace talks.

Monday’s bombing took place a day after eight civilians were killed when a roadside bomb ripped through their vehicle in Washir district of Helmand province.

Last week, a roadside bomb in the Afghan capital, Kabul, killed two members of the national human rights commission, including a female donor coordinator.

There were no claims of responsibility for that attack, though Afghan officials blamed the Taliban for planting the bomb.

In recent days, the United Nations has repeatedly warned that the Afghan conflict is causing record levels of civilian casualties and has urged warring sides to begin long-awaited peace talks.

The United States, meanwhile, has been pressing Afghan rivals to accelerate a prisoner swap to pave the way for intra-Afghan dialogue, the next crucial steps in a peace-building agreement Washington recently signed with the Taliban to end the war.

Kabul has released around 4,000 Taliban inmates out of the promised 5,000 while the insurgents have freed more than 600 out of 1,000 Afghan security personnel in their custody.

U.S. reconciliation envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, who negotiated and sealed the landmark deal in February, began on Sunday another multi-nation visit to the region, including stops in Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Qatar, where the Taliban maintains its political office.

Qatar’s capital, Doha, is where the U.S.-Taliban deal was inked and the city will also be the venue for the intra-Afghan talks, which are expected to begin early next month.

“At all three locations, Ambassador Khalilzad will urge support for all Afghans to meet their remaining commitments ahead of intra-Afghan negotiations, specifically reduced violence and timely prisoner releases,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement Sunday.

The State Department noted that the U.S. envoy and his delegation will also conduct meetings with Afghan officials throughout the trip remotely via video due to the challenges of travel during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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What’s going on between Russia, US and Afghanistan?

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BBC News: What are we to make of the reports that have surfaced in the past few days that Russian military intelligence agents were offering money to Taliban fighters to kill US and possibly other Western service personnel? How true are these reports? Can they be substantiated? And what is their real significance? For a start, we have a triple denial from all of the main parties involved. The Russian government has dismissed the story out of hand. So too have the Taliban. And US President Donald Trump has vehemently denied any knowledge of the matter – with White House sources telling the US press that the subject never reached as high as the president or vice-president because there was no consensus in the intelligence community about the veracity of the reports. Click here to read more (external link).

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This Is How Pakistan Can Fulfill Its Promises to Afghanistan

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The National Interest: First and foremost… Pakistan should no longer allow its soil to be used as a safe-haven for Taliban leaders. After the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, the late Mulla Omar, founder of the Taliban, lived in Quetta and headed the so-called Quetta Shura. The Peshawar Shura has long supported the Haqqani Network, which supports Taliban operations in northern and eastern Afghanistan. The Haqqani Network also dominates the Miran Shah Shura, headquartered in Pakistan’s North Waziristan district. Click here to read more (external link).

271 of 761 Cases Positive in Latest COVID-19 Tests

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Tolo News: The Ministry of Public Health on Monday reported 271 new positive cases of the coronavirus from 761 samples tested over the last 24 hours. The number of total cases is now 31,238, the total reported deaths are 733, and total recoveries are 13,934. Click here to read more (external link).

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Nearly 31,000 COVID-19 Cases: Afghan Health Ministry

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Tolo News: The Ministry of Public Health on Sunday reported 351 new positive cases of the coronavirus from 701 samples tested over the last 24 hours. So far, 70,788 samples have been tested in the government’s testing centers and there are 17,650 active COVID-19 cases in the country, according to data by the Ministry of Public Health. Click here to read more (external link).

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At some Afghan customs, nearly 90 percent of goods are imported without duty: watchdog

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1TV: At some customs in Afghanistan, nearly 90 percent of goods are imported without payment of duty, the Independent Joint Anti-Corruption Monitoring and Evaluation Committee said in a report Sunday. The watchdog said that illegal interference of central and provincial government officials, Members of Parliament (MPs), and warlords determinedly influence the customs and tax administration, resulting in ongoing corrupt practices. Click here to read more (external link).