US President Donald Trump’s announcement that he had called off negotiations with the Taliban, apparently ending a year-long diplomatic push to exit the US’ longest war, has left the withdrawal deal shrouded in uncertainty, but in the streets of Kabul, some residents expressed their satisfaction at Trump’s move.
“It is good that the talks have been canceled, there should be intra-Afghan talks, and people should be involved in it, and they should be informed about it,” 52-year-old Mir Dil said yesterday.
If the Taliban “had accepted peace, they should have announced a ceasefire and then the talks should have moved forward,” he added.
Photo: AFP
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s office cautiously saluted the “sincere efforts of its allies” after Trump tweeted that he had canceled unprecedented — albeit separate — meetings with the Taliban and Ghani at Camp David, Maryland.
The office also “insisted that a real peace can only be achieved if the Taliban stop killing Afghans and accept a ceasefire, and face-to-face talks with the Afghan government.”
Trump’s announcement late on Saturday that he would “call off peace negotiations” appears to abruptly end, at least for now, a nearly year-long diplomatic process led by veteran US diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad, who held nine rounds of talks with the Taliban, mostly in Qatar.
Many Afghans had expressed deep unease throughout the talks, from which their internationally recognized government has been excluded, seeing them as a beaten US selling out in a bid to escape Afghanistan after 18 years of grueling war.
“It was a good opportunity for [the Taliban], but it was wasted because they did not stop attacks,” 22-year-old Ahmad Jawed said.
“I’m personally happy that the US-Taliban talks have collapsed,” said Hamid Akbar, a 24-year-old shopkeeper. “If the Taliban come back in some form, the country will go backwards, and Afghanistan will be isolated again.”
Davood Moradian, director of the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies, said the top US negotiator, Afghan-born Khalilzad, was “solely responsible.”
“He excluded not only the Afghan government, but also important stakeholders in Washington and US allies, including the EU, NATO and India,” Moradian said.
He criticized Khalilzad for giving “the illusion that the US is desperate to leave Afghanistan, with or without a working agreement.”
Ghani’s office affirmed that it was committed to working with the US and other allies to bring a lasting peace.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique