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Pentagon ‘mindful of looming deadlines’ around troop withdrawals
Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said on Wednesday night Washington has been in constant communication with Afghan officials as it continues to review the February agreement signed between the US and Taliban in Doha last year.
In an off-camera press conference, Kirby said US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was also fully aware of the findings of the Afghan Study Group analysis and its recommendations.
The report released early this month recommended an immediate diplomatic effort to extend the current May 2021 withdrawal date in order to give the peace process sufficient time to produce an acceptable result.
Kirby meanwhile stated that the Pentagon is “mindful of looming deadlines here and — and everybody shares the sense of — of alacrity when it comes to working our way through this review but we want to do it in a thoughtful, deliberate way, to make sure that we’re — that whatever decisions are made, they’re the best ones, that are in our best national security interests and the — certainly the security interests of our allies and partners, and that includes the Afghan people.”
Asked whether Austin would speak directly to President Ashraf Ghani about this, Kirby said: “I don’t have a future conversation to announce here today but obviously we’ll keep you posted as he continues to consult with our allies and partners.”
Kirby also stated that it was “perfectly reasonable when you have a new administration coming in, to want to take a look at the Doha Agreement, which was agreed to before this administration took office.”
He said given the stakes in Afghanistan, it was reasonable for the new administration to want to review the agreement and look at the issues of compliance in order to make an informed decision about the best way forward.
“We’re taking this very seriously,” he said.
Kirby went on to state “we would hope that people would feel a sense of confidence that we are taking this so seriously; that we want to dive into the details and better understand it, mindful of our security commitments around the world, and particularly, to our Afghan partners.”
This comes just three days after Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State, said that the US supports a political settlement and permanent and comprehensive ceasefire in Afghanistan.
Following a phone conversation between Blinken and Abdullah Abdullah, head of the High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR) on Saturday about the Afghan peace process, the Secretary of State said: “The U.S. supports progress toward a just and durable political settlement and permanent and comprehensive ceasefire.”
Abdullah also said that Afghanistan’s situation and the acceleration of the Afghan peace process was discussed in this conversation.
“We exchanged views on the Afghan Peace Process, the 2nd round of the peace talks, the US review of the situation in Afghanistan and ways of accelerating and supporting the peace process,” tweeted About Abdullah.
Following a two-day official visit to Pakistan, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif issued a joint statement emphasizing the need to further expand commercial and economic cooperation and transform the common border of the two countries from a “border of peace” to “border of prosperity”.
The two leaders also strongly condemned aggressions and crimes of Israel in Gaza, and demanded an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, as well as unimpeded humanitarian access to the besieged people of Gaza.
Numerous other issues were also discussed but on the topic of Afghanistan, they jointly declared their commitment to the development of Afghanistan as a peaceful, united, independent country free from the threats of terrorism and drug trafficking.
According to the statement the two countries pointed out that the existence of terrorist organizations in Afghanistan is a serious threat to the security of the region and the world.
The two sides stressed their desire to strengthen cooperation in the field of fighting terrorism and ensuring security and creating a united front against terrorism.
They also discussed the importance of coordinating regional and international efforts to ensure security and stability in the region.
“While respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Afghanistan, the two sides recognized that increasing participation of all strata of Afghans in basic decision-making will lead to the strengthening of peace and stability in this country,” the statement read.
The Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations (MoRR) says over 1,000 Afghan migrants were forcibly returned from Pakistan on Tuesday through Spin Boldak border crossing in Kandahar province, the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry stated that based on information provided by the Spin Boldak Kandahar border command, these returnees comprised 191 families, totalling 998 people.
In addition, three migrants released from Pakistani prisons were also returned, according to the statement.
The statement added that after registering the returnees, the refugees were referred to the offices of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the World Food Program (WFP) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Each family received 10,000 afghanis – paid to them by the Islamic Emirate.
In another statement, the ministry said that 2,783 migrants living in Iran voluntarily and forcibly returned to the country during this week.
Hamidullah Akhundzadeh, acting Minister of Transport and Aviation, headed a delegation to Uzbekistan for a ‘Six-Party Corridor’ meeting that included representatives from Afghanistan, Russia, Belarus, Pakistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
On the sidelines of this meeting the Afghanistan delegation discussed trade through the corridor with the other five relevant countries.
According to the ministry of transport and aviation, Akhundzadeh met with the deputy ministers of transport of Russia and Belarus.
He also discussed ways to expand transit between Afghanistan and Russia; and Afghanistan and Belarus, and provide the necessary facilities to achieve this.
The ministry added that the acting minister had a bilateral meeting with the Minister of Transport and the Special Representative of the President of Uzbekistan on Afghanistan and discussed the expansion of road transport between the two countries.
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