wonder what the Afghan govt thinks about this
Posted on 08/19/2018 1:55:05 AM PDT by robowombat
Taliban chief wants direct talks with US Group committed to regional security and would not pose a danger to other countries
KABUL: The leader of the Taliban said Saturday there will be no peace in Afghanistan as long as the foreign “occupation” continues, reiterating the group’s position that the 17-year war can only be brought to an end through direct talks with the United States.
In a message released on occasion of the Eid Al Adha holiday, Maulvi Haibatullah Akhunzadah said the group remains committed to “Islamic goals,” the sovereignty of Afghanistan and ending the war.
The Taliban have had a major resurgence in recent years, seizing districts across the country and regularly carrying out large-scale attacks. Earlier this month, the Taliban launched a major assault on the city of Ghazni, just 120 kilometres from the capital, Kabul. Afghan security forces battled the militants inside the city for five days, as the US carried out air strikes and send advisers to help ground forces.
The battle for Ghazni killed at least 100 members of the Afghan security forces and 35 civilians, according to Afghan officials. A year ago, President Donald Trump announced that he would send additional US forces to confront the Taliban. But since then the insurgents’ profile has risen, both on the battlefield and in the diplomatic sphere.
The Taliban sent a delegation to Uzbekistan to meet with senior officials earlier this month, and say they recently met with a senior US diplomat in Qatar for what they called “preliminary talks.” The US neither confirmed nor denied the meeting. Earlier this week, the Taliban’s top political official, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, led a delegation to Indonesia, where he met Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi as well as Jusuf Kalla, Indonesia’s deputy president, according to a statement the Taliban sent to AP. The three-day trip ended on Wednesday.
The statement said Stanikzai discussed the presence of US and Nato troops in Afghanistan and the need for them to leave if peace is to return to the country, said Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman based in the group’s Qatar office.
While in Indonesia, Stanikzai also “exchanged views on bilateral relations,” Shaheen said in the statement, without elaborating. From 1996 until 2001, the Taliban ruled in accordance with a harsh interpretation of Sharia. Women were barred from education and forced to wear the all-encompassing burqa whenever they left their homes, and the country hosted Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaida.
The Taliban have refused to enter into talks with the Afghan government, which they view as a US puppet, saying they will only negotiate the end of the war directly with Washington. The group has said it is committed to regional security and would not pose a danger to other countries. However, it has also demanded the complete withdrawal of all US and Nato forces.
Although Nato officially ended its combat mission at the end of 2014, it has repeatedly come to the aid of Afghan forces, and it’s unclear whether the government in Kabul would be able to remain in power without foreign military aid.
“Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman” — yeah, from that old Afghan family with the Syro-Lebanese surname? The Taliban is a foreign occupying power. When they stick their noses out in other countries, they should leave there in a body bag.
Just a humble observation, but if the US and allied military units pulled out of Afghanistan....it would collapse in less than a year, or end up as five or six ‘kingdoms’ with war-lords as the only protection against the Taliban. Maybe that is the only path ahead for the region.
They don’t want Blackwater to crash their party.
Translation: we made a few of our scumbags take a real bath with soap and put on a clean sheet around their bodies, clean towels on their heads and new sandals made of some retreaded truck tyres. Then we sent them to beg for the rest of the World to stop bombing the crap out of us.
We have already met with their representatives in Doha, Qatar, see article below, I thought those would have been direct talks already. Yeah, I don’t see how one can talk to them but we do... and we’ve been there 17 years.
This odd article has the Taliban saying, they’d accept US troops on Afghan soil.
We should have decamped after the punitive expedition phase and never started the nation-building / meals-on-wheels phase. “We’ve messed you over for allowing the likes of OBL to live among you. We’ll come back and do it again if you do it again.”
That should have been delivered in about 2004, maybe 2003.
Give them one tiny province and make them all move there.
answer with enormous force
answer with enormous force
Since Alexander’s time this place could not be tamed.
I have no problem with that, at least they would be killing or maiming each other instead of American military forces.
China will if Russia doesn’t....
wonder what the Afghan govt thinks about this
“Islamic Goals”
That means total domination of the entire world & everyone has to be Muslim.
The message: “ Surrender unconditionally or die by the tens of thousands”
The requested talks or My idea ?
Thanks robowombat.
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