Afghanistan in a ‘very dire situation’ as violence sweeps the country

Middle East expert Amin Saikal says the agreement between the United States and the Taliban “comes at a time when Afghanistan is sinking in a major political turmoil” and US attempts to mediate between rival parties have “not been very successful”. Afghanistan is facing political turmoil as incumbent President Ashrag Ghani was declared the winner of the September 28 election last year while rival Abdullah Abdullah recognised himself as president and promised to form a parallel government. Mr Saikal told Sky News the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has visited the country and tried to bring the two sides together but he was unsuccessful and as a result Washington decided to cut off $1 billion of aid to Afghanistan”. He said “that leaves the country in a very dire situation, particularly in the wake of this ravaging violence which is really sweeping the country at the moment”. US reports of an increase in Taliban attacks against Afghan security forces since the signing are accurate “because the Taliban say that if the Afghan government fails to release all the 5,000 prisoners then they will be targeting the Afghan forces,” Mr Saikal said. “Since the signing of the agreement hundreds of Afghani soldiers have been killed and injured as well, of course, there have been civilian casualties." Image: AP

from World | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/2Vp2pXJ