Afghanistan government formation: Taliban to wait until August 31 amid growing protests across country

Taliban lead negotiator Anas Haqqani has told his ex-government interlocuters that the insurgent movement has a deal with the US 'to do nothing' until after the final withdrawal date passes.
In this Monday, Aug. 16, 2021 file photo hundreds of people gather near a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane along the perimeter at the international airport in Kabul. (Photo | AP)
In this Monday, Aug. 16, 2021 file photo hundreds of people gather near a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane along the perimeter at the international airport in Kabul. (Photo | AP)

KABUL: An Afghan official familiar with talks with the Taliban says the group does not plan to make any decisions or announcements about the upcoming government until after the August 31 US withdrawal date passes.

The official, who is not authorised to give information to the media and thus spoke anonymously, says Taliban lead negotiator Anas Haqqani has told his ex-government interlocuters that the insurgent movement has a deal with the US "to do nothing" until after the final withdrawal date passes.

He did not elaborate on whether the reference to doing nothing was only in the political field.

Haqqani's statement raises concerns about what the religious movement might be planning after August 31, and whether they will keep their promise to include non-Taliban officials in the next government.

Until now the Taliban have said nothing of their plans to replace the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces, or what a replacement would look like.

China on Thursday said it is in "contact and communication" with the Taliban and called for an "objective judgement" on their actions after it seized power in Afghanistan, saying the militant group appears to be more "clear headed and rational" and hoped that it will deliver on its promises, including protection of women's rights.

"China maintains contact and communication with the Afghan Taliban and other parties on the basis of full respect for the sovereignty of Afghanistan and the will of all parties," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said in updated comments on Foreign Ministry website.

On Wednesday, China said it will decide on extending diplomatic recognition to the Taliban in Afghanistan only after the formation of the government in the country, which it hoped would be "open, inclusive and broadly representative".

In her media briefing on Thursday, Hua came up with Beijing's positive assessment of the Taliban in what was seen here as a build-up towards recognising the Taliban government when it is formed.

Referring to statements by the Taliban leaders and spokesman assurances, Hua said, "we have also noticed that some political figures of Russia and other countries and many international media have recognised Afghan Taliban's behaviours after it entered Kabul, believing that they have been good, positive and pragmatic actions".

"Although the Afghan situation is not fully clear yet, they believe the Afghan Taliban will not repeat history, and the Afghan Taliban today is more clear-headed and rational than it was in power last time", she said.

"In fact, the rapid evolution of the situation in Afghanistan also reveals how the outside world lacked objective judgment on the local situation and accurate understanding of the public opinion there. In this respect, some western countries in particular should learn some lessons," she said.

"We encourage and hope the Afghan Taliban can follow through its positive statements, unite with all parties and ethnic groups in Afghanistan, establish a broadly-based, inclusive political framework that fits the national conditions and wins public support through dialogue and consultation as soon as possible", she said.

She also hoped the Taliban will adopt moderate and prudent domestic and foreign policies.

"It is expected that the Afghan Taliban can contain all kinds of terrorist and criminal acts and ensure a smooth transition of the situation in Afghanistan to take the long-suffering Afghans away from wars and chaos as soon as possible and build lasting peace", she said.

In this process, the international community should encourage and support solidarity and cooperation of all parties and ethnic groups in Afghanistan to open a new chapter in Afghan history, she said.

About the trust deficit about Taliban statements, Hua said, "I noticed that some people have been saying they don't trust the Afghan Taliban".

"I want to say that nothing stays unchanged. We need to not only listen to what they say, but also look at what they do. If we do not keep pace with the times, but stick to a fixed mind-set and ignore the development of the situation, we will never reach a conclusion that is in line with reality," she said.

Afghan protesters defied the Taliban for a second day Thursday, waving their national flag in scattered demonstrations, and the fighters again responded violently as they faced down growing challenges to their rule.

A U.N. official warned of dire food shortages and experts said the country was severely in need of cash while noting that the Taliban are unlikely to enjoy the generous international aid that the civilian government they dethroned did.

In light of these challenges, the Taliban have moved quickly to suppress any dissent, despite their promises that they have become more moderate since they last ruled Afghanistan with draconian laws.

Many fear they will succeed in erasing two decades of efforts to expand women's and human rights and remake the country.

On Thursday, a procession of cars and people near Kabul's airport carried long black, red and green banners in honor of the Afghan flag — a banner that is becoming a symbol of defiance.

At another protest in Nangarhar province, video posted online showed a bleeding demonstrator with a gunshot wound.

Onlookers tried to carry him away.

In Khost province, Taliban authorities instituted a 24-hour curfew Thursday after violently breaking up another protest, according to information obtained by journalists monitoring from abroad.

The authorities did not immediately acknowledge the demonstration or the curfew.

Protesters also took the streets in Kunar province, according to witnesses and social media videos that lined up with reporting by The Associated Press.

The demonstrations, which come as Afghans celebrated Independence Day and some commemorated the Shiite Ashoura festival, were a remarkable show of defiance after the Taliban fighters violently dispersed a protest Wednesday.

At that rally, in the eastern city of Jalalabad, demonstrators lowered the Taliban's flag and replace it with Afghanistan's tricolor.

At least one person was killed.

Meanwhile, opposition figures gathering in the last area of the country not under Taliban rule talked of launching an armed resistance under the banner of the Northern Alliance, which allied with the U.S. during the 2001 invasion.

It was not clear how serious a threat they posed given that Taliban fighters overran nearly the entire country in a matter of days with little resistance from Afghan forces.

The Taliban so far have offered no specifics on how they will lead, other than to say they will be guided by Shariah, or Islamic, law.

They are in talks with senior officials of previous Afghan governments.

But they face an increasingly precarious situation.

"A humanitarian crisis of incredible proportions is unfolding before our eyes," warned Mary Ellen McGroarty, the head of the U.N.'s World Food Program in Afghanistan.

Beyond the difficulties of bringing in food to the landlocked nation dependent on imports, she said that drought has seen over 40% of the country's crop lost.

Many who fled the Taliban advance now live in parks and open spaces in Kabul.

"This is really Afghanistan's hour of greatest need, and we urge the international community to stand by the Afghan people at this time," she said.

Hafiz Ahmad, a shopkeeper in Kabul, said some food has flowed into the capital, but prices have gone up.

He hesitated to pass those costs onto his customers but said he had to.

"It is better to have it," he said.

"If there were nothing, then that would be even worse."

Two of Afghanistan's key border crossings with Pakistan, Torkham near Jalalabad and Chaman near Spin Boldak, are now open for trade.

However, traders still fear insecurity on the roads and confusion over customs duties that could push them to price their goods higher.

Amid that uncertainty and concerns that the Taliban will reimpose a brutal rule, which included largely confining women to their homes and holding public executions, many Afghans are trying to flee the country.

At Kabul's international airport, military evacuation flights continued, according to flight-tracking data.

However, access to the airport remained difficult.

On Thursday, Taliban fighters fired into the air to try to control the crowds gathered at the airport's blast walls.

Men, women and children fled.

Fighter jets later roared overhead, but no airstrike accompanied their pass.

Overnight, President Joe Biden said that he was committed to keeping U.S. troops in Afghanistan until every American is evacuated, even if that means maintaining a military presence there beyond his Aug.31 deadline for withdrawal.

In an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America" aired Thursday, Biden said he didn't believe the Taliban had changed.

"I think they're going through sort of an existential crisis about do they want to be recognized by the international community as being a legitimate government," Biden said.

"I'm not sure they do."

Indirectly acknowledging the resistance they face, the Taliban on Thursday asked preachers to urge congregants to remain in the country and counter "negative propaganda" against them.

The Taliban have also urged people to return to work, but most government officials remain in hiding or are themselves attempting to flee.

The head of the country's Central Bank warned that the supply of physical U.S. dollars is "close to zero," which will batter the currency, the afghani.

The U.S. has apparently frozen the country's foreign reserves, and the International Monetary Fund cut off access to loans or other resources for now.

"The afghani has been defended by literally planeloads of U. S. dollars landing in Kabul on a very regular basis, sometimes weekly," said Graeme Smith, a consultant researcher with the Overseas Development Institute.

Friday prayers were uneventful in the Afghan capital, with no Taliban gunmen seen guarding the entrances of mosques or enforcing dress code restrictions as they have in the past.

Some mosques even saw higher numbers than normal in attendance.

The Islamic-fundamentalist Taliban issued guidance to imams around Afghanistan on Thursday, saying they should use the weekly sermons and prayers to appeal for unity, urge people not to flee the country, and to counter "negative propaganda" about them.

"The benefits of state should be explained to all," a commission of Taliban monitoring religious affairs and mosques said in the guidance they circulated.

Kabul resident Jawed Safi was please to see the mosques secure.

The Afghan government had previously posted guards at mosques to ward off attackers due to frequent bombings in the past.

"People were as normal, as in the past, but there were more of them," Safi said, adding that there were "no restrictions so far."

An imam in eastern Kabul, Bashir Wardak, said that Afghans should unite to stop the decadeslong bloodshed.

"Allah has ordered us to peace and brotherhood so we must get united," he said.

Abdul Boghdi, another imam in northern Kabul, said that "people together should collect money to help those displaced."

One attendee, Qasim Ahmadi, saw people wearing jeans attend prayers as usual.

"There should be no restrictions on us, we are already Muslims," he said.

"The Taliban should aim for an inclusive government in order to be successful."

Thousand of internally displaced people are living on the streets and in the parks of Kabul, with limited access to drinking water and food.

Some reports indicate that their situation has worsened since the Taliban overran the capital, causing donors to shy away.

People continue fleeing Afghanistan

Poland's prime minister says his government has taken on the responsibility as a NATO member to organise the evacuation of some 300 Afghans who have cooperated with the military alliance.

Mateusz Morawiecki said Friday on Facebook that following his talks with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, Poland will be evacuating from Kabul 300 Afghans who "in recent years cooperated with" NATO.

He did not elaborate what that cooperation entailed.

They will be brought to Poland and then on to other NATO countries, which Morawiecki did not name.

Morawiecki said that Poland is taking seriously its obligations within the alliance and that the evacuation was "not the last word" from Poland in the NATO response to the crisis in Afghanistan.

Poland has been a NATO member since 1999.

In three previous flights, Poland has evacuated some 130 Afghans and another 100 are waiting at the Kabul airport, according to Michal Dworczyk, a top aide to Morawiecki.

They were first flown on Polish military planes to Uzbekistan and then on national carrier LOT planes to Warsaw.

Spain's defence minister says the country's military transport planes are leaving Kabul partly empty because chaos at the city's airport is preventing Afghans from evacuating.

Defence Minister Margarita Robles said Friday that one Afghan family taken out by Spain had left behind a daughter they lost in the airport crush.

She told Spanish public radio RNE that an ideal solution would be to set up corridors into the airport, but that's impossible because "nobody's in control of the situation."

She said that after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani left his country the airport's air traffic controllers and security staff walked out, rendering it inoperative until United States forces took it over.

She said the US has given assurances that its forces won't leave the airport until the last person awaiting evacuation is out.

Meanwhile, Germany said a civilian suffered a gunshot wound before being evacuated from Kabul on a German air force plane.

German government spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer said Friday that the wounded person was not in a life-threatening condition, but didn't immediately further details about the person or incident.

Meanwhile, Foreign Ministry spokesman Christofer Burger said Germany is providing 100 million euros in immediate funding for humanitarian aid inside Afghanistan and neighboring countries.

He said the money would exclusively go to aid organizations, particularly UNHCR, and not to the Taliban.

The Defense Ministry on Friday said that the German military has carried out 11 evacuation flights so far, with more planned.

The German government has pledged to help bring all citizens and local Afghan staff who worked for the German military, aid groups or news organizations out of the country.

Senior German officials have also said efforts will be made to help Afghans who are particularly vulnerable to reprisals from the Taliban, such as human rights defenders.

But Germany's commanding officer in Kabul, Gen. Jens Arlt, said the evacuation has been hampered by the large number of people outside Kabul airport hoping to get onto planes out of Afghanistan.

In a Friday statement, the White House said multiple C-17 flights from Hamid Karzai International Airport evacuated nearly 350 US citizens, as well as family members of US citizens, asylum applicants and their families, and vulnerable Afghans.

"We have evacuated approximately 9,000 people since August 14. Since the end of July, we have evacuated approximately 14,000 people," it said.

It added that in the last 24 hours, the US military facilitated the departure of 11 charter flights, and that those numbers were not included in the other totals.

Indonesia has evacuated 26 of its citizens, including 5 diplomats, from Kabul on a special military flight to Jakarta.

Indonesia's foreign minister Retno Marsudi said in a tweet that the Friday flight that would land later in the day also carried five Filipinos and two Afghans, including the spouse of an Indonesian national and a local staff member of the Indonesian Embassy.

"The Indonesian military aircraft carrying out this mission is now in Islamabad and will proceed to Indonesia soon," Marsudi said.

The ministry's spokesperson, Teuku Faizasyah said the evacuation was planned once the Taliban took control of the capital and President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.

A plane with people who have been evacuated from Afghanistan landed Friday at the Oslo airport in Norway.

Norway's Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soereide told Norwegian news agency NTB that onboard were citizens from the Scandinavian country, family members to local employees and "some other European citizens."

Eriksen Soereide didn't give any figures or elaborate.

Among the group were reporters for Norway's TV2 and NRK television channels.

The plane arrived from Tbilisi, Georgia.

On Wednesday, a plane with 13 Norwegian citizens, mostly diplomats, arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark.

More than 160 Australian and Afghan citizens have been evacuated from Kabul after a third rescue flight, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday.

Morrison said 60 Australians and Afghans who helped Australia during the 20-year war were flown to the United Arab Emirates overnight.

The first Australian flight carrying 94 evacuees touched down in the Australian west coast city of Perth on Friday, he said.

Australia could not evacuate parts of Afghanistan beyond the Kabul airport, he added.

"The situation in Kabul does remain chaotic," Morrison said.

The government has not commented on media reports that Australia plans to evacuate 600 Australians and Afghans.

(With AP Inputs)

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