Afghan official says security forces can hold their own against Taliban if US troops withdraw March 14 Afghan Interior Minister Masoud Andarabi speaks during an interview to the Associated Press at the Ministry of the Interior in Kabul, Afghanistan, March. 13, 2021. (Rahmat Gul/AP) KABUL, Afghanistan Afghanistan’s interior minister said Saturday that Afghan security forces can hold their ground even if U.S. troops withdraw, challenging a warning from the United States predicting a withdrawal would yield quick territorial gains to the Taliban. Masoud Andarabi’s comments in an interview Saturday with The Associated Press were the first government reaction to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s warning issued in a sharply worded letter to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani last weekend.
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Blinken offers plan to bolster Afghan peace process, report says The Associated Press March 7 Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks on foreign policy at the State Department, March 3, 2021, in Washington. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Pool via AP) WASHINGTON Secretary of State Antony Blinken is proposing a series of steps to help jumpstart Afghanistan’s stalled peace process between the government and Taliban, according to a letter from Blinken to Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani published Sunday by Afghanistan’s TOLONews. The letter calls for bringing the two sides together for a U.N.-facilitated conference with foreign ministers and envoys from Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran, India and the United States “to discuss a unified approach to supporting peace in Afghanistan.”
Afghanistan troop withdrawal should be tied with peace talk progress, says German foreign minister The Associated Press February 2 Security personnel inspect the site of a bomb attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021. (Rahmat Gul/AP) BERLIN The withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan should be tied to progress in stuttering peace negotiations between the Kabul government and the Taliban, rather than “slavishly” bound to an end-of-April deadline, Germany’s foreign minister said Tuesday. Germany is the second-biggest contributor to NATO’s Resolute Support training and assistance mission in Afghanistan, after the United States. President Joe Biden’s new administration has said it plans to review the peace agreement signed last February between the U.S. and the Taliban.