ISLAMABAD: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called and spoken with the Taliban’s chief negotiator, a spokesman for the insurgents said Tuesday, amid a raging controversy in Washington over when President Donald Trump was told about US intelligence that Russia was paying the Taliban to kill US and NATO soldiers in Afghanistan.
However, there was apparently no mention during the call about allegations that some Taliban militants received money to kill US and NATO soldiers in Afghanistan.
Pompeo and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar held a video conference late on Monday in which Pompeo pressed the insurgents to reduce violence in Afghanistan and discussed ways of moving a peace deal signed between the US and the Taliban in February forward, Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen tweeted.
The call comes as the US peace envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, is touring the region in efforts to advance the deal. He was in Uzbekistan on Tuesday and was expected in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, later in the day or on Wednesday, and was also to travel to Doha, Qatar, where the Taliban maintain a political office.
Khalilzad is also holding video conferences with Kabul leaders rather than traveling to the Afghan capital because of the dangers of COVID-19, according to a US State Department statement. Afghanistan’s dilapidated health system is grappling with the pandemic, with the number of infections thought to far outnumber the official tally of over 31,000 cases, including 733 deaths.
The implementation of the US-Taliban deal has reached critical stage, with the Taliban and Kabul’s leaders expected to hold negotiations on a framework for a post-war Afghanistan that would end the fighting and bring the insurgents into the country’s political arena.
The talks are expected to begin sometime in July — if both sides abide by a promise laid out in the US-Taliban deal to release thousands of prisoners. The agreement calls for Kabul to release 5,000 imprisoned Taliban while the insurgents would release 1,000 government and military personnel they hold captive. But the prisoner releases have been marked by delays; Kabul has so far released 3,500 and the Taliban have freed about 700.
Shaheen tweeted that Pompeo and Baradar discussed the “implementation of the agreement, foreign troop withdrawal, prisoner release, start of intra-Afghan dialogue and reduction in (military) operations.” The US State Department has not commented on the video conference.
Baradar complained about new Afghan military checkpoints in areas either under Taliban control while Pompeo said Washington wanted to see a reduction in violence, according to the tweet.
A US official close to the peace process, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter with journalists, said Pompeo emphasized in Monday night’s video call the imperative that the Taliban abide by their commitment to battle other militants operating in Afghanistan — specifically terror groups that could threaten the US or its allies, a reference that alludes to the Daesh group.
The Taliban have denied the allegations that they were paid by Russia to kill Americans in Afghanistan. The Associated Press has reported that Russia began paying the bounties back in early 2019, even as Khalilzad was trying to finalize the deal with the insurgent group to end Washington’s longest war and withdraw US soldiers.
Violence in Afghanistan has continued to spike since a three-day cease-fire in May for a major Muslim holiday. As civilian casualties rise, both the Taliban and the government blame each other. On Monday, 23 civilians were killed in an attack on a busy market in the southern province of Helmand, a Taliban heartland.
In a tweet early Tuesday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid invited foreign and Afghan journalists to visit the area, which is controlled by the Taliban and has been off-limits to reporters, to independently check out claims about the attack.
The Afghan government said a powerful bomb and mortar fire by the Taliban caused the deaths.
Pompeo calls Taliban leader amid Russian bounty scandal
https://arab.news/ntxas
Pompeo calls Taliban leader amid Russian bounty scandal
- US Secretary of State pressed the insurgents to reduce violence in Afghanistan
- The implementation of the US-Taliban deal has reached critical stage
Venezuela begins ‘large’ prisoner release amid US pressure
- The releases are the first since Maduro’s former deputy Delcy Rodriguez took over, with the backing of President Donald Trump
- The releases were announced by Rodriguez’s brother, parliament speaker Jorge Rodriguez
CARACAS: Venezuela on Thursday began releasing a “large number” of political prisoners, including several foreigners, in an apparent concession to the United States after its ouster of ruler Nicolas Maduro.
The releases are the first since Maduro’s former deputy Delcy Rodriguez took over, with the backing of President Donald Trump, who says he is content to let her govern as long as she gives Washington access to oil.
The White House credited Trump with securing the prisoners’ freedom.
“This is one example of how the president is using maximum leverage to do right by the American and Venezuelan people,” Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement to AFP.
The releases were announced by Rodriguez’s brother, parliament speaker Jorge Rodriguez, a key figure in “chavismo,” the anti-US socialist movement founded by Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chavez.
He said “a large number of Venezuelan and foreign nationals” were being immediately freed for the sake of “peaceful coexistence.”
He did not say which prisoners would be released, nor how many or from where.
Renowned Spanish-Venezuelan activist Rocio San Miguel, imprisoned since February 2024 over a purported plot to assassinate Maduro, was among five Spanish citizens freed, according to Spain’s foreign ministry.
Security was stepped up Thursday afternoon outside the notorious El Helicoide detention center in Caracas, used by the intelligence services to jail political and other prisoners.
Miguel was held in El Helicoide after her arrest.
Leading opposition figure Alfredo Diaz, who died in December in custody, was also held at the facility.
Families gathered outside on Thursday for news of their loved ones.
“I’m nervous. Please God may it be reality,” the mother of a detained activist from the party of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado told AFP.
On Tuesday, Trump had told Republican lawmakers that Rodriguez’s administration was closing a torture chamber “in the middle of Caracas” but gave no further details.
His remarks had sparked speculation that Venezuelan authorities had agreed to close El Helicoide.
Venezuelan rights NGO Foro Penal estimates over 800 political prisoners are languishing in the country’s jails.
It welcomed the government’s plans to liberate some of them but was still verifying releases.
As tensions with Washington climaxed in the past month Venezuela had already released dozens of dissenters in two phases.
- Trump rebuked by Senate -
Thursday’s move by Caracas came as Trump suggested the United States could run Venezuela and tap into its oil reserves for years.
Shortly after Maduro’s seizure in US airstrikes and a special forces raid that left 100 people dead, according to Caracas, Trump announced that the US would “run” the Caribbean country for a transitional period.
“Only time will tell” how long Washington will demand direct oversight of the country, he told The New York Times in an interview published Thursday.
When asked whether that meant three months, six months or a year, he replied: “I would say much longer.”
Meanwhile, the US Senate on Thursday took a major step toward passing a resolution to rein in military actions against Venezuela.
The Democratic-led legislation, expected to pass a vote next week, reflects widespread disquiet among lawmakers over Saturday’s secretive capture of Maduro, conducted without their express approval.
It is expected to face resistance in the Republican-dominated House, however.
- Millions of barrels of crude -
Oil has emerged as the key to US control over Venezuela, which has the world’s largest proven reserves.
Trump announced a plan earlier this week for the United States to sell between 30 million and 50 million barrels of Venezuelan crude, with Caracas then using the money to buy US-made products.
Delcy Rodriguez on Wednesday called the US attack to depose Maduro, who was taken to New York with his wife to face trial on drugs charges, a “stain” on relations with the United States.
But she also defended the planned oil sales to Washington.
On the streets of Caracas, opinions remain mixed about the plan.
“I feel we’ll have more opportunities if the oil is in the hands of the United States than in the hands of the government,” said Jose Antonio Blanco, 26.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump, who will meet oil executives on Friday, is also considering a plan for the US to exert control over Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA.
Trump has warned Rodriguez she will pay “a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro” if she does not comply with his agenda.
“Her power comes from Washington, not from the internal structure. If Trump decides she’s no longer useful, she’ll go like Maduro,” Venezuela’s former information minister Andres Izarra told AFP in an email.
