KABUL: The Afghan Taliban on Tuesday reiterated its willingness to hold direct talks with the US.
This comes two weeks after the Taliban, in an unprecedented move, made a similar call in an open letter to the US public and politicians.
The group says it wants direct talks with the US because it, not Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, has the influence, and because it was America that toppled the Taliban government.
In reiterating its willingness, the group cited Alice Wells, principal deputy assistant secretary in the US State Department’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, who recently said the “door is open” for talks.
The Taliban said in a statement: “For ending the occupation, we want a peaceful resolution to the Afghan issue.” It added that the US must focus on a “peaceful strategy for Afghanistan instead of war.”
The Taliban said: “Military strategies which have repeatedly been tested in Afghanistan over the past seventeen years will only intensify and prolong the war. And this is not in the interest of anyone.”
The group’s reiterated call for talks comes the day before a regional conference in Kabul, where representatives from 25 countries will discuss counterterrorism and conflict resolution.
“I’m confident that the conference is going to push forward regional efforts to enforce what has been our most important message to the Taliban — that the door is open, there is a path to peace and stability,” said Wells.
Ghani on Tuesday said his government will propose an inclusive proposal to Pakistan and the Taliban during the conference.
Taliban reiterates call for direct talks with US
Taliban reiterates call for direct talks with US
UK interior minister insists asylum reforms ‘fair’ amid blowback
- Mahmood argued in a speech that she was “restoring order and control” to Britain’s borders
- Amnesty International called the latest measure a “punitive blow”
LONDON: Britain’s interior minister doubled down Thursday on her tough stance on immigration despite criticism from charities and unease within the ruling Labour party that it is shedding left-wing voters.
Shabana Mahmood announced that asylum seekers who break the law or work illegally will be thrown out of government-funded accommodation and lose their support payments.
The policy forms part of a major overhaul of migration rules announced late last year and modelled on Denmark’s strict asylum system that aims to slash irregular migration to the UK.
Mahmood argued in a speech that she was “restoring order and control” to Britain’s borders and that her overhaul of the asylum was “firm but fair,” adding she would open new and safe legal routes.
But Amnesty International called the latest measure a “punitive blow” that “risks forcing people into destitution, homelessness and exploitation while they wait for their claims to be decided.”
Mahmood’s reforms are widely seen as an attempt to stem support for the hard-right Reform UK party, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage.
It has topped opinion polls for a year, in part because of the government’s failure to stop thousands of migrants from arriving in England from northern France on small boats.
But her stance has also been credited with contributing to Labour losing support to the progressive Green party, which won a local election in a traditional Labour heartland last week.
Mahmood said there was a middle path between Farage’s “nightmare pulling up the drawbridge and shutting out the world” and Green Party leader Zack Polanski’s “fairy tale of open borders.”
Her reform that makes refugee status temporary, including for accompanied children, came into force this week.
The status will be reviewed every 30 months, with refugees forced to return to their home countries once those are deemed safe.
They will also need to wait for 20 years, instead of the current five, before they can apply for permanent residency.
She also announced earlier this week that the government would stop issuing education visas to nationals from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan.
It said there had been a surge in asylum applications by students from those countries and almost 135,000 asylum seekers in total had entered the UK using legal routes since 2021.
