Germany says skeptical about Taliban government – KXAN Austin
[ad_1]
BERLIN – The German Foreign Minister reacted skeptically to the Taliban’s announcement that it had announced a transitional government for Afghanistan.
The Taliban announced on Tuesday an all-male transitional government riddled with veterans of their hardline rule from the 1990s and the 20-year struggle against the US-led coalition. Germany was an important contributor to this alliance.
Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a statement that his country is ready to provide humanitarian aid through the United Nations and will continue to speak to the Taliban to ensure that former employees and others leave Afghanistan.
He added that any additional obligation would depend on the behavior of the Taliban.
Maas said: “The announcement of a transitional government without the participation of other groups and yesterday’s violence against demonstrators and journalists in Kabul are not signals that make us optimistic in this regard.”
___
MORE ABOUT AFGHANISTAN:
– Taliban appoint caretaker cabinet who pays homage to the old guard
– Databases created in the US are a potential tool for Taliban repression
– Blinken and Austin visit Gulf to ease post-war tension
– Taliban say they took Panjshir, the last refusing Afghan province
– Over 24 hours in Kabul, brutality, trauma, moments of grace
– For more AP coverage, please visit https://apnews.com/hub/afghanistan
___
HERE STILL HAPPEN:
ISLAMABAD – The Pakistani Foreign Minister has urged the international community to prevent a humanitarian and economic crisis in Afghanistan.
Shah Mahmood Qureshi spoke at a virtual meeting of foreign ministers from neighboring countries in Afghanistan. His counterparts from China, Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan took part.
The meeting took place one day after the Taliban announced an all-male interim government for Afghanistan. In his televised remarks, Qureshi said Pakistan had taken note of developments.
He added that “not much feared bloodshed has occurred” since the Taliban came to power in Kabul, and the prospect of protracted conflict and civil war appears to have been averted. Qureshi said that a feared emigration of refugees had not yet taken place.
However, the situation in Afghanistan remains complex and fluid and “requires the discarding of old lenses, the development of new knowledge and a realistic and pragmatic approach”.
___
BERLIN – Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet on Wednesday at the US Air Force Base Ramstein for talks on Afghanistan.
The Foreign Office announced that the two foreign ministers should first speak to each other bilaterally and later hold a virtual meeting with other foreign ministers.
Maas praised the close cooperation with the US in evacuating international and local Afghans from the country in recent weeks and said: “We want to continue to cooperate and coordinate in the next phase, especially with regard to the new rulers in Kabul. . “
Maas warned of a threefold humanities crisis in Afghanistan due to hunger, the aid freeze from international aid organizations and the explosive political situation with the new Taliban regime in Kabul.
Ramstein has become a hub for evacuating people from Afghanistan, with around 34,000 flown to the US base for stopovers. Around 22,000 evacuees have already left the base for the USA or other places.
Germany has so far relocated more than 4,000 people from Afghanistan.
___
ISLAMABAD – Pakistan is hosting a virtual meeting of foreign ministers from neighboring countries in Afghanistan to discuss the situation there.
A Foreign Ministry statement said the meeting on Wednesday will be attended by China, Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi will chair the meeting, which aims to “work together for the common goal of a peaceful and stable Afghanistan, which is essential to building strong economic ties”.
The development comes a day after the Taliban announced an all-male transitional government for Afghanistan riddled with veterans of their hardline rule in the 1990s and the 20-year struggle against the US-led coalition.
Pakistan has not yet commented on the formation of the transitional government.
___
UNITED NATIONS – Former Irish President Mary Robinson, who leads the group of prominent former leaders founded by Nelson Mandela, particularly urged China and Russia to tell the Taliban that women’s participation in Afghan society and the education of girls “don’t are negotiable and “must be respected.”
Robinson recalled visiting Afghanistan in March 2002 as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and being with the then Minister for Women and other Afghan women who were active prior to Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001 when they were drafting a women’s rights charter .
Robinson, chairman of The Elders, told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that it was “an important reminder that women’s rights are not Western rights – they are basic human rights that these Afghan women in accordance with their cultural Have recaptured values ”.
For the past nearly 20 years, she said, “hard-won advances in gender equality and women’s rights have been ensured through constitutional, legislative and policy changes.”
“We cannot allow women and girls in Afghanistan to be deprived of these rights, including the right to leave the country,” said Robinson.
___
UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations is urgently calling for $ 606 million to aid nearly 11 million people in Afghanistan for the remainder of 2021. They are facing a humanitarian crisis exacerbated by drought, displacement, chronic poverty and the surge in hostilities as the Taliban came to power.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has already submitted an appeal totaling 1.3 billion US dollars for Afghanistan for the whole of 2021, but only 39% of this is funded – with only 498 million US dollars.
The agency’s “Flash Appeal,” launched Tuesday, includes $ 413 million from the original call that was not funded and $ 193 million in new needs through December.
The money aims to provide 11 million people with much-needed food and “livelihood assistance,” including 2 million people who were not included in the original call. It also aims to provide 3.4 million Afghans with basic health care, acute malnutrition treatment for more than 1 million children and women, water and sanitation for 2.5 million people, and protection for 1.5 million people, including children and gender-specific survivors Violence, offer.
Even before the Taliban took over, “the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan is one of the worst in the world,” says the agency.
___
WASHINGTON – The State Department says the US is evaluating the new Afghan government announced by the Taliban.
“We note that the announced list of names consists exclusively of people who are members of the Taliban or its close associates, and not women,” said a statement from the Foreign Ministry. “We are also concerned about the affiliations and track records of some of the individuals.
“We understand that the Taliban presented this as a transitional cabinet. However, we will judge the Taliban by their actions, not their words. We have made clear our expectation that the Afghan people deserve an inclusive government, ”it said.
Regarding people trying to leave Afghanistan, the State Department said the US “will keep the Taliban to its commitments to provide safe transit for foreigners and Afghans with travel documents, including authorizing flights currently departing from Afghanistan, to agreed on onward travel destinations. “
The statement added: “We also reaffirm our clear expectation that the Taliban ensure that Afghan soil is not used to threaten other countries and to provide humanitarian access in support of the Afghan people.”
___
[ad_2]