[ad_1]
Last month, more than 1,000 civilians were killed in an offensive by the Taliban.
The UN Special Envoy for Afghanistan questioned the Taliban’s commitment to a political solution on Friday, telling the UN Security Council that the war has entered a “more deadly and destructive phase”, with more than 1,000 civilians killed in the Taliban’s offensive in the past month.
“The party that is truly committed to a negotiated settlement will not risk so many civilian casualties because it will understand that the reconciliation process will be more challenging and bleeding,” said Deborah Lyons.
Since April, as foreign troops have withdrawn after 20 years of war, the Taliban have intensified their campaign to defeat the US-backed government. The Taliban occupied an Afghan provincial capital in Kabul on Friday and assassinated the government’s top media official.
“Now this is a different type of war, reminiscent of the recent Syria, or Sarajevo in the not-too-distant past,” Lyon said.
“Attacking an urban area is deliberately causing great harm and causing a large number of civilian casualties. Nevertheless, the threat to the metropolitan area seems to be a strategic decision by the Taliban, and they have accepted the massacre that may occur next,” she said.
The Afghan government and Taliban negotiators started peace talks in Doha, the capital of Qatar, but did not make any substantial progress.
Senior American diplomat Jeffrey Laurentiis urged the Taliban to stop the offensive, seek a political solution and protect Afghanistan’s infrastructure and people.
“The Taliban must learn from the international community that we will not accept a military takeover of Afghanistan,” he said.
Afghanistan’s ambassador to the United Nations, Ghulam Isakzai, urged the Security Council to take action to “prevent catastrophic situations”.
“We are shocked by the reports and incidents of the Taliban and its foreign terrorist associates that have severely violated human rights in nearly half of our country. We are extremely worried about the safety and security of the people in the cities under the Taliban’s attacks,” he said.
Isaczai accused the Taliban’s fighting of “turning our country into a safe haven for transnational terrorism again.”
[ad_2]
Source link