The Biden administration has reportedly agreed to provide humanitarian aid to Afghanistan – after allowing the Taliban to seize control of the country as part of a catastrophic failure of a withdrawal.
“The U.S. has agreed to provide humanitarian aid to a desperately poor Afghanistan on the brink of an economic disaster, while refusing to give political recognition to the country’s new Taliban rulers,” The Associated Press reported.
“The statement came at the end of the first direct talks between the former foes since the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops at the end of August.”
State Department Spokesman Ned Price said in a statement that the U.S. delegation “focused on security and terrorism concerns and safe passage for U.S. citizens, other foreign nationals and our Afghan partners, as well as on human rights, including the meaningful participation of women and girls in all aspects of Afghan society.”
“The two sides also discussed the United States’ provision of robust humanitarian assistance, directly to the Afghan people,” the statement added. “The discussions were candid and professional with the U.S. delegation reiterating that the Taliban will be judged on its actions, not only its words.”
The news follows reports from last week that the Taliban were refusing to work with the U.S. to seek vengeance over ISIS – the terrorist group responsible for murdering 13 U.S. soldiers and many more civilians during a suicide bombing in August.
The AP reported:
“Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen told The Associated Press there would be no cooperation with Washington on containing the increasingly active Islamic State group in Afghanistan. IS has taken responsibility for a number of recent attacks, including a suicide bombing Friday that killed 46 minority Shiite Muslims and wounded dozens as they prayed in a mosque in the northern city of Kunduz.
“We are able to tackle Daesh independently,” Shaheen said, when asked whether the Taliban would work with the U.S. to contain the Islamic State affiliate. He used an Arabic acronym for IS.”
While the Taliban is claiming to combat ISIS on its own, the reality is that they recently released thousands of terrorists who were captured and being held at Bagram prison after Biden gave the order to abandon the area and leave it in the Taliban’s hands – among those prisoners was the suicide bomber responsible for the August attack mentioned prior.
“Senior Indian intelligence sources familiar with the case have told Firstpost that he was handed over to the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency by the Research and Analysis Wing in September 2017,” Firstpost, an Indian news organization, first reported. “However, the jihadist walked free on 15 August along with thousands of other dangerous terrorists held in the high-security prison, taking advantage of the chaos that ensued in the aftermath of the United State’s hurried exit and the Taliban’s swift takeover of the entire country.”
“America’s disorganized retreat from Afghanistan has led to hundreds of highly-competent and highly-committed terrorists being set free to rejoin the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups,” an Indian intelligence officer, who allegedly worked on the case involving this specific terrorist, told the publication.
“Literally a decade’s work on counter-terrorism has been undone by the US’ failure to secure key prisoners in Bagram.”
Author: Ryan Kim
