Blinken

Michael Hughes
AOPNEWS
July 30,2021

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington will ensure al-Qaeda no longer uses Afghan territory to launch attacks against the American homeland or its allies, although his comments came just as reports surfaced claiming that the terror outfit is fighting alongside the Taliban.

According to ANI, the Pakistan army continues to support the Taliban and al-Qaeda in the border region, with some injured terrorists recently admitted to Jailani Hospital in Quetta city. Other al-Qaeda militants were taken to DHQ Hospital in Charman district, ANI reported this week.

“We will keep a very close eye on it [al-Qaeda] to make sure that it doesn’t reemerge, and if it does we will do what’s necessary to prevent it from attacking us or from attacking anyone else,” Blinken said in an interview with Al Jazeera on Thursday.

Blinken said the United States invaded Afghanistan in the first place to bring justice to those responsible for the attacks on September 11. He claimed the U.S. has “largely succeeded” in this endeavor, citing the raid that took out Osama bin Laden.

America’s top diplomat also said the U.S sacrificed 4,500 troops and spent a trillion dollars since 2001, but it is time for Afghanistan to shape its own future. However, he also claimed the U.S. would not abandon Kabul.

“Having said that, even as we’re withdrawing our military forces, we remain very much engaged in Afghanistan with a strong embassy, with support for Afghanistan’s economy, humanitarian support, development support, support for security forces, as well as very active diplomatic engagement to try to bring an end to the conflict at the negotiating table with the Taliban and with the Afghan Government.  There is no military solution to the conflict,” Blinken said.

He warned that if a Taliban government emerges that does not respect basic human rights including those of women and girls, Afghanistan will be a “pariah” in the international community.

This underscores a frequent notion bandied about by the State Department that the Taliban will eventually become willing to discuss a ceasefire because they would risk not gaining international recognition.

The Taliban, under the Doha pact negotiated with the Trump administration, agreed to split with al-Qaeda in exchange for the U.S. force withdrawal, a promise it appears the militants have failed to live up to.

Meanwhile, earlier in the day, the US reconstruction watchdog in a new report said the government in Afghanistan faces an “existential crisis.” The report from the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) also said that despite frequent calls by Washington to reduce violence, Taliban attacks are on the rise.

“Each three-month period since the February 29, 2020, U.S.-Taliban agreement has had significantly more EIAs (enemy-initiated attacks) than their corresponding quarters the previous year,” the report said.

U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley said about half of the 419 district centers in Afghanistan are under Taliban control. However, he also said the Taliban have not taken over any of the 34 provincial capitals in the country.

The United States has recently increased airstrikes against the Taliban in support of Afghan forces over the last several days, according to CENTCOM. But U.S. tactics do not appear to have stalled the Taliban’s momentum. The militant group has made significant military gains amid the US troop withdrawal, which the Pentagon says is more than 95 percent complete.

The Taliban’s offensive campaign has also threatened Afghanistan’s neighbors. Last week, the Taliban told Sputnik it now controls 90% of Afghanistan’s borders with Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Iran. 

On the diplomatic front, there has also been little progress made with the Taliban showing it does believe in a military solution. In a phone call last week, President Joe Biden and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani agreed that the Taliban offensive contradicts the movement’s claims to be interested in a negotiated settlement.

On Wednesday, Afghan First Vice President Amrullah Saleh continued his verbal attacks against both the Taliban and Pakistan. Saleh in a tweet said that Afghanistan would not “bow” to the Taliban proxy “or its backer.” These comments came a day after he accused Islamabad of being the primary force behind the chaos.

“The reality is that Pak army is the architect, strategic master & low profile supplier of the ongoing full scale terror invasion in my country,” Saleh said in a tweet on Tuesday.

The United States, in the meantime, has seemed to pass the buck to regional states, which could possibly be the most logical move.

Blinken called China’s recent talks with the Taliban a “positive thing” – observing that Beijing and neighboring countries have a strong interest in ensuring the region does not fall into enduring war. Meanwhile, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov this week said Moscow would like to hold an extended troika with participants from the Afghan government and the Taliban.