Political analysts said that the issue of recognition is linked to the formation of an inclusive government…reports Asian Lite News
US Department of State deputy spokesman Vedant Patel has said if the Taliban intends to seek international recognition, they need to “start directly with the actions and the policies they choose to undertake in Afghanistan”, TOLO News reported.
Patel while speaking at a press conference in Washington DC, said that the US is “going to be watching very closely and will continue to take appropriate actions as needed.”
“As it relates to the United States and Taliban, we have been incredibly clear, quite regularly condemning the clear backsliding that we are seeing in Afghanistan, the egregious human rights abuses, the marginalization of women and girls,” he said, as per TOLO News.
The Taliban has, meanwhile, said that ensuring the rights of women is an internal issue and no country should interfere in this regard.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said: “The Taliban has its own rules in issues of values and women—whatever the Islamic Sharia allows and whatever is ensured is based on Shariah. The Americans and other countries should not interfere in the internal issues of Afghanistan.”
This comes as political analysts said that the issue of recognition is linked to the formation of an inclusive government, and the fulfillment of the international community’s wishes.
If the Taliban does not take “some of the rules and procedures on the international level and doesn’t take practical actions to eliminate restrictions against them, it will not be recognized by the international community, particularly the US,” said Najib Rahman Shamal, political analyst, according to TOLO News.
The US had earlier stated that it retained the ability to carry out its own operations against terrorism in the Pak-Afghan region, Dawn reported.
Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the US State Department, made these remarks in response to a query regarding recent terrorist assaults carried out within Pakistan from terrorist hideouts in Afghanistan. Nine soldiers were killed two weeks ago when terrorists assaulted a military facility in Zhob, Balochistan. The military’s media branch, ISPR, released a statement shortly after the incident, expressing “serious concerns” about the existence of terrorist “safe havens” in Afghanistan and urging Kabul not to allow terrorists to utilise their territory for carrying out strikes inside Pakistan, according to Dawn
The message also served as a reminder to the caretaker Afghan government of their obligations under the Doha Agreement. The US military finally left Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, in compliance with the agreement that the US and Afghan Taliban signed in Doha, Qatar, in February 2020.
Asked if the US expects the Taliban rulers to abide by the commitments they made in Doha, Mille said, “I will say that we will hold them to their commitments. But as we have said before, we retain the ability to conduct our own operations in the region to ensure that, regardless of any promises that the Taliban make and regardless of their relative ability or willingness to uphold them.”
He added that the United States retains the right to protect American interests. Asked how confident he was that the Taliban would keep their promises, Miller said, “I don’t want to express any amount of confidence or lack of confidence”, reported Dawn.
To a question about the Pakistani government’s plan to hold elections in early October, the US official said, “I will make clear that we support the peaceful upholding of fundamental democratic principles such as free media, free speech, freedom of assembly.” (ANI)