Afghanistan accuses Taliban of worst violence in 2 decades,
Source: AP
By EDITH M. LEDERER
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Afghanistan’s foreign minister accused the Taliban on Tuesday of carrying out its worst violence in the past two decades and urged the international community to try to persuade the Taliban to honor a February 2020 agreement with the United States to reduce violence and enter peace negotiations.
Mohammad Haneef Atmar told the U.N. Security Council that with the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops “to be completed in the coming weeks,” the international community should also establish a “mechanism” to monitor implementation of the agreement reached in Qatar’s capital Doha and the council resolution supporting it, “and to take appropriate measures to ensure compliance.”
Under the deal, the U.S. agreed to withdraw its troops in exchange for a Taliban promise to denounce terrorist groups and keep Afghanistan from again being a staging arena for attacks on America, to reduce violence and work with the government on a permanent cease-fire, and enter negotiations with the government aimed at restoring peace to the war-battered country.
Atmar said in his virtual briefing to the council’s ministerial meeting that the U.S. and regional partners have met almost all their obligations in the agreement, but “it’s a sad reality that the Taliban has not honored any of its obligations,” and has left the country and region “dangerously unstable,”
Afghan men prays near the grave of their relatives killed in bombings near Syed Al-Shahada School last month at cemetery on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, June 2, 2021. After the collapse of the Taliban 20 years ago, Afghanistan's ethnic Hazaras began to flourish and soon advanced in various fields, including education and sports, and moved up the ladder of success. They now fear those gains will be lost to chaos and war after the final withdrawal of American and NATO troops from Afghanistan this summer. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-taliban-united-nations-middle-east-afghanistan-7a0af1ee6c46c914a9a3c3ad90b5a198
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