By Barnett R. Rubin
“We used to appreciate the difficult operate of the U.S. for evolution inwards Afghanistan,” Iqbal Khyber, a 27-year-old medical pupil from Helmand Province, told me inwards Kabul on July 2. “Unfortunately, things happened. The international forces started searching houses, thinking nosotros had links to the Taliban. Special forces raids, misaimed bombs—these caused hate amidst the people.” Khyber in addition to his companions sat nether the blast-proof walls of the U.S. embassy. They were members of Afghanistan’s peace caravan, who over the shape of 38 days had walked nearly 400 miles from Helmand Province, inwards the country’s southwest, to Kabul inwards lodge to enjoin Afghanistan’s warring parties that, inwards the words of a banner they had hung on the diplomatic mission wall, “We don’t desire violence.”
The peace caravan arrived inwards Kabul on June 18, the twenty-four hours that the Taliban leaders inwards Islamic Republic of Pakistan refused to extend an unprecedented three-day cease-fire betwixt the Afghan government, the Taliban, in addition to the forces of the U.S.-led coalition. During the cease-fire, members of the Taliban entered government-controlled areas, including Kabul city, where they prayed amongst regime officials, ate H2O ice cream, in addition to posed for selfies with women. In reply to the Taliban refusal, the peace marchers decided to army camp out inwards front end of the embassies of the major unusual powers inwards Afghanistan—the United States, Russia, Pakistan, in addition to Iran—to need an end to the war, in addition to they appointed a delegation to select their message to Taliban-controlled areas, equally well.
At the U.S. embassy, the marchers’ showtime destination, I asked them questions most the possibility of peace with the Taliban. Khyber rejected the idea, pop inwards Washington, that intensifying state of war machine pressure level on the Afghan Taliban volition assist convey them to the negotiating table. Rather, he said, “Pakistan has to live pressured to expel the Taliban leaders from Islamic Republic of Pakistan to Afghanistan.” Khyber too disagreed that the Taliban were extremists who would never select democracy, in addition to he called on the U.S. to “engage inwards straight talks
Buat lebih berguna, kongsi:
