KABUL (SW) – Abdullah Abdullah, the ‘president of the inclusive government’, on Thursday said his efforts for resolution of the political impasse have been met with negative response.
Addressing a press conference at his office, he blamed President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani for not showing flexibility. “In the meeting with Dr. Ashraf Ghani, I showed great deal of flexibility so that a solution is found, but if I consider the elections are over, and the crisis is over, that is not the solution, despite the efforts, I saw no flexibility from the opposite side”, he said.
Abdullah said there is a need for flexibility on both sides to overcome the political deadlock.
He went on to express willingness for political solution to the crisis, but blamed President Ghani for not being flexible.
Abdullah said this crisis has cost the country $ 1 billion in U.S. aid, and warned this cannot be mitigated.
This comes a day after the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met the two Afghan leaders in Kabul on Monday.
"Because this leadership failure poses a direct threat to U.S. national interests, effective immediately, the U.S. government will initiate a review of the scope of our cooperation with Afghanistan", the State Department said.
"Among other steps, we are today announcing a responsible adjustment to our spending in Afghanistan and immediately reducing assistance by $1 billion this year. We are prepared to reduce by another $1 billion in 2021. We will also initiate a review of all of our programs and projects to identify additional reductions, and reconsider our pledges to future donor conferences for Afghanistan. We have made clear to the leadership that we will not back security operations that are politically motivated, nor support political leaders who order such operations or those who advocate for or support parallel government", it added.
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