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Five conditions Taliban must apply to gain legitimacy

The United States has listed five key conditions that the regime in Kabul must fulfil, if it wants to gain legitimacy from the international community…reports Asian Lite News

Insisting that the world remains united in its expectations from the Taliban, the United States has listed five key conditions that the regime in Kabul must fulfil, if it wants to gain legitimacy from the international community.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday night detailed in a virtual G20 meeting on Afghanistan what Washington needs to see from the Taliban and from any future government in Kabul.

Senior US State Department officials later said that there was a broad consensus on the points from the other members of the G20 that had participated in the meeting.

First, Blinken said that the international community must hold the Taliban to their commitment to allow foreign nationals and Afghans to travel outside the country if they wish. He said it should be a prerequisite to any meaningful engagement with the Taliban.

Second, Blinken affirmed that the Taliban should be held accountable to their commitment to prevent terrorist groups from using Afghanistan as a base for external operations that threaten other countries.

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Third, the US Secretary of State said that collectively, the international community must be fierce advocates for the human rights of all the Afghan people, including women, girls, and members of minority communities. He affirmed that the Taliban must make good on their commitment not to carry out reprisal violence and to grant amnesty to all who worked for the former government or coalition forces.

Fourth, Blinken went on to say that the Taliban should be pressed on unimpeded humanitarian access. Quoting the dire assessments from the UN that nearly half of Afghanistan’s population needed humanitarian protection assistance, he said that the US remains committed to humanitarian leadership when it comes to Afghanistan.

Finally, Blinken said, the US has urged the Taliban to form an inclusive government that can meet the needs and reflect the aspirations of the Afghan people. He pointed out that the government is overwhelmingly dominated by one ethnic group, is exclusively male, and includes people who are notorious for attacks on US and coalition forces as well as civilians.

The US State Department officials have said that there’s “quite a lot of convergence” about what Washington needs to see from the Taliban.

“I don’t think anybody is satisfied with the composition of this interim government, including the Chinese. So, there was quite a bit of convergence in the room,” the official said while briefing media on the US engagements at the United Nations.

Afghanistan remains a “hot topic” in New York which, according to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin, will be discussed extensively during all contacts of the Russian delegation on the side-lines of the UN General Assembly.

“We expressed our consistent approaches to the situation in Afghanistan – normalization of the situation, the need to coordinate the international community’s approaches, the need for resolution of humanitarian problems through coordination among the international community,” Vershinin was quoted as saying by the Russian news agency Tass today.

The developments in Afghanistan, and the need to prevent the proliferation of the terrorist and drug threats throughout the region, also dominated the proceedings during the traditional meeting of the ministers for foreign affairs of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York.

Focusing on the Afghan issue, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted that the permanent members of the UN Security Council bear special responsibility to the international community as a whole.

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British nationals killed in Kabul bombings

(Credit UK MOD_ Crown copyright)

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace expressed “deep regret” that not everyone eligible had been evacuated, including around 800 to 1,100 Afghans and 100 to 150 Britons, reports Asian Lite Newsdesk

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the suicide attacks in Kabul, which killed two Brits and a child of a British national, showed how urgent it was for evacuations to conclude.

“The loss of two British nationals and the child of a British citizen in the Kabul airport bombing (yesterday) underlines the urgency of concluding the Operation PITTING (evacuation),” he said.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has informed that two UK citizens and the child of another UK citizen were killed in the terrorist attack in Kabul.

People queue up to board a military aircraft of Germany and leave Kabul at Kabul airport, Afghanistan. (Xinhua/IANS)

“I was deeply saddened to learn that two British nationals and the child of another British national were killed by yesterday’s terror attack, with two more injured,” Raab said in a statement released by the Foreign Office.

“Yesterday’s despicable attack underlines the dangers facing those in Afghanistan and reinforces why we are doing all we can to get people out. We are offering consular support to their families. We will not turn our backs on those who look to us in their hour of need, and we will never be cowed by terrorists,” he added.

A day after an explosion rocked Kabul, Pentagon on Friday said that approximately 5,400 individuals at the airport are awaiting flights out of Afghanistan.

“There are still approx 5,400 individuals at the airport awaiting flights out of Afghanistan. We have the ability to include evacuees on the US military airlift out of Afghanistan… ISIS will not deter us from accomplishing this mission,” said US Army Major General William “Hank” Taylor during a briefing.

Major General Taylor clarified that there was only one explosion at the Abbey gate at Hamid Karzai International airport on Thursday. Earlier, the Pentagon had said there was a second explosion outside the Baron hotel in its initial statements.

The death toll from yesterday’s blast in Kabul has surged to more than 90 people killed, CNN reported. The report said that more than 150 people were wounded by the blast.

UK ends evacuation

UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace on Friday said that its evacuation mission is in ‘final hours’ in Afghanistan, four days prior to the August 31 deadline by the Taliban.

Britain’s Secretary of State for Defence Ben Wallace

Wallace told Sky News the effort was into its “final hours” after the closure of the main processing center in Kabul at the Baron Hotel near the airport.

He said, “We at 4.30 this morning, UK-time, closed the Baron Hotel, shut the processing center and the gates were closed at Abbey Gate.

“We will process the people that we’ve brought with us, the 1,000 people approximately in the airfield now and we will seek a way to continue to find a few people in the crowds where we can, but overall the main processing is now closed and we have a matter of hours.

“The sad fact is not every single one will get out. The threat is obviously going to grow the closer we get to leaving,” said Wallace.

People eligible to be resettled in the UK will be left behind as the final British flights leave on Friday following an attack at Baron Hotel that closed just hours after an attack which was claimed by terror group ISIS-K, outside the Kabul airport that killed 13 US troops and 78 Afghans, reported Sky News.

Wallace said he had authorized the loosening of regulations on numbers “to pack people in” on the final flights out. It is expected about 600 people will now be able to board military transporters.

The defence secretary said the night before the attack the British Army had pushed a perimeter away from the Barons Hotel by about 300 meters, reported Sky News.

“If they hadn’t pushed that perimeter further out we’d be in a worse place,” he added.

Defence sources told Sky News up to half of those crowding into the Baron Hotel yesterday for processing were not cleared under the Afghanistan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) for interpreters or the Leave Outside the Immigration Rules (LOTR) scheme, making processing difficult.

The roughly 1,000 UK troops at the airport will start packing up and leaving after the final evacuations have taken place today, the defence secretary said. (ANI)

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Islamic State claims responsibility for Kabul mosque attack

The authenticity of the statement could not be independently verified….reports Asian Lite News

The Islamic State (IS) terror group has claimed responsibility for a blast at a mosque in Kabul that killed at least 12 people, including the imam.

In a statement released late Saturday via the Nashir News Agency, which publishes the terror group’s official propaganda, accused the imam, identified as Mohammad Numan, of encouraging the fight against jihadis, reports dpa news agency.

“Soldiers of the caliphate” had planted an explosive device in the mosque, said the statement.

The authenticity of the statement could not be independently verified.

At least 15 others were wounded in the attack in Kabul province’s Shakar Dara district during the Eid-ul Fitr festival to mark the end of Ramadan on Friday, according to Afghan security officials.

The attack took place as the Afghan government and the Taliban were holding a ceasefire for the Islamic Eid holidays.

The ceasefire ended at midnight on Saturday. The IS has recently lost territory, leaders and other fighters in Afghanistan.

In addition to the Afghan government, the Taliban are also fighting the extremists. According to a UN report, the terrorist group is still able to carry out attacks in various parts of the country.

US embassy warns of increase in violence

The US embassy in Kabul warned American citizens to exercise caution in places where people are known to congregate, saying that “historically, violence has increased in Afghanistan following the Eid holiday”.

“The US government remains concerned that insurgents are intent on targeting foreigners via kidnapping schemes and attacks at locations such as hotels, residential compounds, security checkpoints, government facilities and airports,” it said in a security alert.

Last month, the US State Department ordered some of its employees whose functions can be performed elsewhere to depart from the American embassy in Kabul, reports dpa news agency.

Ross Wilson, the acting US Ambassador to Afghanistan, said that the decision was made “in light of increasing violence and threat reports in Kabul”.

The Department had also advised US citizens not to travel to Afghanistan due to crime, terrorism, civil unrest, kidnapping, armed conflict and the coronavirus, adding that American nationals already in the country should consider departing.

a piece of broken glass of a vehicle at the site of a bomb attack in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Photo by Rahmatullah Alizadah/Xinhua)

Afghanistan is in a state of uncertainty after US President Joe Biden announced that American troops will pull out from the country by September 11.

NATO also said it will abide by the decision.

The international forces already began the official process of withdrawal on May 1.

The Taliban have intensified attacks on provincial capitals, districts, bases and checkpoints since international troops began to withdraw.

Currently, both the Taliban and the Afghan government have announced that they would observe a three-day ceasefire for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr that started on Thursday, but the violence continues.

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