KABUL (SW) – Deborah Lyons, Chief of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, has said that If there is no movement at the negotiating table, the Taliban will not be seen as a ‘viable partner’ for the international community.
She said this at a top-level Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board (JCMB) meeting also attended by President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani.
She said 18 million Afghans are facing dire humanitarian needs. She added that the Afghans who don’t face the immediate threats to their livelihoods, have over recent months begun to live in fear that the Afghan state will not be able to defend them with a possibly repressive Taliban regime emerging to roll back the basic human rights that they have enjoyed.
She expressed particular concerns over the loss of control by the government of border posts.
“The border posts that are currently under Taliban control last year yielded substantial income in government revenue, amounting to about a third of the revenue raised by the government in Afghanistan. Assuming that the Taliban remain in control of these posts, this means, first, that the percentage of international funding as a share of total government revenue increases, setting back what had previously been indeed a major achievement by the state and the Government of Afghanistan”, she said.
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The UNAMA chief said the world was watching closely how the Taliban are acting, especially towards civilian populations, women, and minorities.
“The Taliban have gained a certain legitimacy in recent years through their negotiations in Doha, but this legitimacy is premised on their commitment to a political negotiation with the Government of Afghanistan, a commitment which their battle-focused strategy casts into doubt”, she said, waring if there is no movement at the negotiating table, and instead human rights abuses and worse still atrocities occur in districts they control, the Taliban will not be seen as a viable partner for the international community.
Speaking on the occasion, President Ghani said the ongoing war in the country is not a civil war, but a war with terrorist groups. Ghani added that the Afghan government was determined to make progress in peace talks and, in good faith, released thousands of Taliban prisoners and called for early elections, but the Taliban instead pushed for war.
According to Ghani, no country can tolerate non-state actors and there is no military solution to the war in Afghanistan and a political solution must be found.
President Ghani also said that in order to provide better services, he has reduced the budget for various defense sectors by 7.5 percent to avoid unnecessary expenses.
ENDS
