Politics

Blinken says Taliban won’t get international support by using force

New Delhi, Jul 28 (EFE).- The United States’ Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday warned that the Taliban would not get international support if they continue to use violence, while backing peace negotiations as the only way out of the two-decade long Afghan war.

“The Taliban says that it wants international recognition (….) and international support, it presumably wants its leaders to travel freely throughout the world. Well, taking over the county by force and abusing the rights of its people is not the path to achieve those objectives,” Blinken said in New Delhi during a two-day India visit.

He added that the “only path” to resolve the conflict peacefully was “at the negotiating table.”

“An Afghanistan that commits atrocities against its own people will become a poorer state,” the top diplomat warned.

Blinken said that any future government of Afghanistan has to be inclusive and fully representative of the Afghan people, but insisted that this had to be an Afghan-led process, through their own peace process.

Despite Washington withdrawing its troops “we remain very much engaged in Afghanistan in support of the Government and to bring the parties together in a meeting point to resolve the conflict peacefully,” said the secretary of state.

Blinken’s comments come on a day when a nine-member Taliban delegation met the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during a visit to China.

During his India visit, Binken has met Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval to evaluate the security situation in Afghanistan at a key moment for the country as international troops are being withdrawn completely from Afghan soil.

The Taliban’s rapid territorial gains have triggered concerns in New Delhi, which offered major aid, recognition and funding to the current government in Kabul after the insurgents were ousted from power in 2001, following the US invasion.

The US diplomat’s India visit is also aimed at boosting ties in areas of mutual interest, such as the global economic recovery after Covid-19, ties in the Indo-Pacific region, the climate crisis and cooperation through international organizations. EFE

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