The Afghan Taliban have vowed to continue their “jihad” to “establish an Islamic government” and have refused to accept “the constitution of the stooge Kabul administration,” even as the US and NATO continue to push for negotiated settlement with the Taliban to end the war.
The Taliban made the comments in an English-language statement that was released today on their website, Voice of Jihad.
“[T]he Islamic Emirate has been engaged in a struggle and Jihad for the past one and a half decade to establish an Islamic government …, ” the Taliban statement said. “It is for this purpose and for bringing about peace and stability in Afghanistan that we have increased our political efforts to come to mutual understanding with the world in order to solve the current ongoing situation.”
“But this understanding does not mean a surrender from Jihad and neither is it connected to an acceptance of the constitution of the stooge Kabul administration but rather the Islamic Emirate is utilizing its political wing alongside its military presence and Jihad in order to realize the national and Islamic aspirations of the nation and its martyrs.”
The Taliban have previously agreed to establish a political office in Qatar, but have stated that the purpose of the office is to conduct “prisoner exchanges” as well as to educate the international community about the Taliban.
For years, the US government has stated that the Taliban must end lay down their arms, accept the Afghan constitution, and renounce their ties to al Qaeda. Although previously the US had said these demands must be met prior to negotiations, the US has since said they are merely “necessary outcomes.”
In recent weeks, the US has said it is prepared to transfer five dangerous Taliban commanders with close ties to al Qaeda who are currently being held at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. The Taliban want them transferred to Qatar, but the Afghan government has said the Taliban leaders should be transferred to Afghanistan. The US has indicated it is willing to transfer the five commanders from Guantanamo to the Taliban as part of confidence-building measures, without demanding anything in return.
As the US is prepared to turn over the five al Qaeda-linked Taliban leaders, the Taliban have in turn appointed Sheikh Mohammed Aminullah to lead one of the Taliban’s four regional councils. Aminullah, who in 2009 was placed on the United Nations Sanctions Committee’s list of “individuals and entities associated with al Qaeda,” was named last year to lead the Taliban’s Peshawar Regional Military Shura. Three of the four regional shuras are commanded by Taliban leaders who are closely associated with al Qaeda.
Additionally, the Taliban have continued their campaign of assassinations of Afghan government and military leaders. Just today, Sayed Fazuldin Agha, the governor of Panjwai district in Kandahar, was killed in a suicide attack. Agha was considered to be one of the most effective district governors in Afghanistan and was crucial in getting Taliban groups to reconcile with the government. And yesterday the Taliban targeted Kandahar Police Chief Abdul Razziq in a suicide attack.
7 Comments
“The US has indicated it is willing to transfer the five commanders from Guantanamo to the Taliban as part of confidence-building measures, without demanding anything in return.”
How about the return of our soldier they are holding? At least Israel got Shalit back. Another colossal error by the current U.S. administration.
I say transfer the Gitmo prisoners Qatar & let them move about freely. Let see how the government of Qatar likes having some ‘foreign’ Islamic anarchist’s sowing some chaos ‘locally.’
They ought to be transferred to the bottom of the ocean, it’s rather insane we’re considering returning these yahoos, even more so as ‘good will’. twilight zone
Will the ‘education of the international community’ include women?
Otherwise the statement underlines the essential delusional character of trying to believe there is a meeting of minds to be had. Certainly listen and learn. Then be prepared to act; once the west withdraws the Taliban will push for a return to power and since they are prepared to exercise extreme ruthlessness to do so, we can expect them to succeed at least over the greater part of Afghanistan. Soon, the camps and terror cells will reform and it will be ‘busiiness as usual’.
Western politicians have go to ‘educate’ the international community also. Having got this bunch by the throat (and at great cost), now is not the time to release our grip.
This isn’t going to help…
http://alturl.com/fv2wn
Obama needs to stop this BS IMMEDIATELY!
These prisoners should be shot or hung IMHO, but if they are going to be let go, then the Taliban need to come up with some big time consessions…and so far they haven’t come up with a one!
When the Taliban lay down thier arms and surrender THEN we will see about letting these dirt bags go.
Given the fact that the Taliban has a significantly different of values, beliefs, behaviors and norms (VBBN) that accord different strategies of social status and physicality, it is not reasonable to assume that logic arguments built on our own apply. In short, it hasn;t followed that the Taliban quits when our correlation of forces, accumulation of firepower, and home town rhetoric,
Such as, OBL believed that the US would slink away in the dark when he took down the Towers. He should have checked out Pearl Harbor which was the Japanese thought that destroying our fleet would bring us cringing to the peace table.
Any given cutural group has its ways of dealing with threats which come in two brands: having dinner instead of being it, and access to the other sex as in :Dinner and a Date, plus what follows.
The specefic array of Taliban culture is, like others, developed to produce subsequent generations. This is focused on growing the next generation in the image of the predecessors. That means that women are kept out of temptations way by red headed barbarians, and that the rules of the road are followed.
After several decades of precision munitions have to produced a humble Taliban, it might be useful to examine their culture with something that divides them from harms way and unites them in ways that the feel is beneficial.
WW2 was won because the Germans and the Japanese found working with us was a whole lot better to work with us, AFTER the war.