The Taliban on Tuesday expressed their desire for peaceful relations with other countries pledging to respect the rights of women within the framework of Islamic law.
In the first official news briefing since they seized Kabul, the Taliban adopted a softer line than their earlier rule 20 years ago as the United States and Western allies resumed evacuating diplomats and civilians after scenes of chaos at Kabul airport as Afghans thronged the runway.
A White House official said military aircrafts evacuated about 1,100 Americans from Kabul on Tuesday.
The Taliban said one of their leaders and co-founders, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, had returned to Afghanistan for the first time in more than 10 years. Arrested in 2010, he was released from prison in 2018 at the request of former US President Donald Trump’s administration to take part in peace talks.
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“We don’t want any internal or external enemies,” Taliban spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, said.
His conciliatory tone was in contrast to the comments by Afghan First Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who declared himself the “legitimate caretaker president” and vowed not to bow to Kabul’s new rulers. It was not immediately clear how much support Saleh enjoys in a country worn by decades of conflict.
According to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the Taliban “should allow the departure of all those who want to leave Afghanistan.”
“The NATO’s aim was to help build a viable state” and warned the alliance could strike if the country again becomes a breeding ground for terrorism.
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President Joe Biden’s decision to stick to the withdrawal deal struck last year by his Republican predecessor Trump has stirred widespread criticism at home and among US allies.
His approval rating dropped by 7 percentage points to 46%, the lowest level in his seven-month-long presidency, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted on Monday. The poll also said that less than half of Americans liked how he has handled Afghanistan.
Biden said he had had to decide between asking US forces to fight endlessly or follow through on Trump’s withdrawal deal and blamed the Taliban takeover on Afghan leaders who fled and the “army’s unwillingness to fight.”
A Biden administration official said Washington was blocking the Taliban from accessing any Afghan government funds held in the United States, including about $1.3 billion of gold reserves at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. (AW)
