ISLAMABAD (AP) — The U.S. has agreed to provide humanitarian aid to a desperately poor Afghanistan on the brink of an economic disaster, while refusing to give political recognition to the country’s new Taliban rulers, the Taliban said Sunday.
The statement came at the end of the first direct talks between the former foes since the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops at the end of August.
The U.S. statement was less definitive, saying only that the two sides “discussed the United States’ provision of robust humanitarian assistance, directly to the Afghan people.”
The Taliban said the talks held in Doha, Qatar, “went well,” with Washington freeing up humanitarian aid to Afghanistan after agreeing not to link such assistance to formal recognition of the Taliban.
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The United States made it clear that the talks were in no way a preamble to recognition of the Taliban, who swept into power Aug. 15 after the U.S.-allied government collapsed.
State Department spokesman Ned Price called the discussions “candid and professional,” with the U.S. side reiterating that the Taliban will be judged on their actions, not only their words.
“The U.S. delegation focused on security and terrorism concerns and safe passage for U.S. citizens, other foreign nationals and our Afghan partners, as well as on human rights, including the meaningful participation of women and girls in all aspects of Afghan society,” he said in a statement.
Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen also told The Associated Press that the movement’s interim foreign minister assured the U.S. during the talks that the Taliban are committed to seeing that Afghan soil is not used by extremists to launch attacks against other countries.
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On Saturday, however, the Taliban ruled out cooperation with Washington on containing the increasingly active Islamic State group in Afghanistan.
IS, an enemy of the Taliban, has claimed responsibility for a number of recent attacks, including Friday’s suicide bombing that killed 46 minority Shiite Muslims. Washington considers IS its greatest terrorist threat emanating from Afghanistan.
“We are able to tackle Daesh independently,” Shaheen said when asked whether the Taliban would work with the U.S. to contain the Islamic State affiliate. He used an Arabic acronym for IS.
Bill Roggio, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies who tracks militant groups, agreed the Taliban do not need Washington’s help to hunt down and destroy Afghanistan’s IS affiliate, known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province, or ISKP.
The Taliban “fought 20 years to eject the U.S., and the last thing it needs is the return of the U.S. It also doesn’t need U.S. help,” said Roggio, who also produces the foundation’s Long War Journal. “The Taliban has to conduct the difficult and time-consuming task of rooting out ISKP cells and its limited infrastructure. It has all the knowledge and tools it needs to do it.”
The IS affiliate doesn’t have the advantage of safe havens in Pakistan and Iran that the Taliban had in its fight against the United States, Roggio said. However, he warned that the Taliban’s longtime support for al-Qaida make them unreliable as counterterrorism partners with the United States.
The Taliban gave refuge to al-Qaida before it carried out the 9/11 attacks. That prompted the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan that drove the Taliban from power.
“It is insane for the U.S. to think the Taliban can be a reliable counterterrorism partner, given the Taliban’s enduring support for al-Qaida,” Roggio said.
During the meeting, U.S. officials were expected to press the Taliban to allow Americans and others to leave Afghanistan. In their statement, the Taliban said without elaborating that they would “facilitate principled movement of foreign nationals.”
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AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed.
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Anywhere there is an enemy of America, Joe Biden is there to lend a helping hand.
BUT when it comes to millions of americans in need, they can go to the back of the line…
ltuser: This socialist Democrat Party has been giving our citizens and illegal immigrants so much, that people don’t want or have to work. Employers are begging for workers, but for now they are being given so much money that they don’t have to work. But this is just a traitorous, socialist Democrat Party Con, once people begin to depend on a socialist government to live, they become servants, slaves to that government.
The “Socialist Democrat Party State” political officers, Gestapo, Woke and Cancel Culture are just getting started.
You will obey, be loyal and support the “Socialist Democrat Party State” or you will be classified as
“Enemies of the State”.
24 Aug. 2020 – Monday on MSNBC’s “Live,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
referred to President Donald Trump and his Republican supporters as
“domestic enemies” and “enemies of the State”.
only if they took the evil jab and wear a mask
We the People should have to Vote on this and we Left billions of $$ and Weapons and 300,000 of trained Men and they Refuse to fight Period and Not another Dime to them or the Taliban Period We the Tax Payers are tired of the Government giving away our Money to other Countries and We have to Suffer for it and also in Debt for years to come go see how much Interest a Minute it is on the Dept and they do not care that they are Bank Rupting our children Future either
Especially when you see how most of those nations we ‘gladly give to’ HATE OUR GUTS!
We already have given them Billions of dollars of military equipment, tell them to sell some of that.
Oh No, I forgot the Muslim B. Obama is pulling puppet president biden’s strings.
IIRC they already are.. TO CHINA!
What is wrong with these people in our government. They spent how many billions in Afghanistan, ostensibly fighting and subduing the Taliban. They left Americans and our allies behind, along with another untold billion in military equipment.
Now they want to provide aid to the people and expect the Taliban to pass it along. Are they nuts or are we nuts to keep electing these imbeciles.
If vegetarians eat vegetables, what does a Humanitarian like Joe Biden eat? He devours American wealth and dollars like a starving Muslim eats falafels, and Muslim terrorists devour their own people.
“Joe went down on his knees to his Taliban pals, sing Afghanistan-a doodle- all the day,
The turned their women into spanking gals, sing Afghanistan-a-doodle all the day,
He turned over the country to murdering thieves, sing Afghanistan-a-doodle all the day,
And armed them up to their blackened teeth, sing Afghanistan-a-doodle all the day,,,
Fare thee well, fare thee well, Fare thee well, my fairy fay,
Joe is off to steal elections, and put down oil rig erections sing Afghanistan-a-doodle all the day.”
Just watch as 10% of every dollar sent gets kicked back to the Biden Crime family as they doodle all our tax money and wealth away to invite more crime and criminal activity into the good old USA, disguised of course as Humanitarian aid. Just how do you think those Central American leaders get rich off AMerican aid while America gets stuck with taking in and aiding their Democrat socially destroyed populations which Afghanistan now gets to join the ranks of, all in the image of the great CONSUMER they reflect and worship, unlike Joe, never holding or creating any real jobs or reflecting the CREATOR of real creating Americans,
If this doesn’t qualify as high treason, NOTHING should.
The correct answer is that we are nuts because , as you said, we keep voting for them to stay in office, and allowing them to screw over us. It seems like the biggest enemy we face are members of our own government. I’m old so I probably won’t see it, but I really believe that this country will go through another American Revolution, and that time is not so far in the future. After the dust settles there is a good possibility that the United States of America will no longer exist, and we could well become several different countries. What a sad ending for this once great country.
Well first off we …DID NOT…. elect these imbeciles… second, they are not imbeciles, they are evil, traitorous disciple’s of satan that HATE our country, our freedom, God, our Constitution and know exactly what they are doing …. third, most of that money disguised as “humanitarian aid” …WILL… end up in the communist occupier democrat party coffer, forth… the people left behind was done on purpose so as NOT to tell what they witnessed, fifth… The “war” on the talian had nothing to do with “subduing”.. it was all about these evil fatherless scum in the cesspool swamp of Sodom & Gomorrah DC making money …look into the Halliburton company and see who the crime family has major stock. The last two years have been so over the top evil every which way but loose, people just refuse to believe it…. they’re over whelmed… better get “woke” in a very different way and pretty soon.
How do I become an illegal alien or Taliban to get from my government without having to give my rights away like these people who hate us?
I think he should, and so should Kamala, Pelosi, Soros, Milley, Garland because they are complicit in all the discombooberated garbage they have thrown our way….. and Hunter, Hunter, just because. The money should come out of their pockets. Another thought, maybe they all would like to foster some of the diversified, un-vetted guests they all encouraged to crash our borders….
Isn’t there something giving aid and comfort to the enemies of The United States? Of course that may be in effect only during wartime but the Taliban is still at war with us no matter what Biden, Blinken, and Milley have told us. TREASON!
It will only aid in their inhumane treatment of the people of Afghanistan!
YEa, just like the congo, and many other african nations where warlords ruled, WHEN WE ‘dipped into our pockets’ to help the ‘needy’ out, IT JUST WENT INTO THE BANK accounts of the warlords.. NOT the people!!
Same will happen in afganistan.
“The statement came at the end of the first direct talks between the former foes since the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops at the end of August.”
Wow! That’s a really, really, really long time. What it should say is: Just six weeks after handing the Taliban a country and completely outfitting them with state of the art weaponry, Joe Biden and the Democrats have decided that U.S. taxpayers should support them financially as well.
What would be wrong with letting them fail? I thought we were out of the nation building rut?
Yup, let them sell some of the weaponry Good Ol’ Joe gave them, if they need money. This is unfreakin’ believable.
Sorry about the typo (“the” for “they”). Editor stuck on “Save.” Again. Anyone else having that problem?
I can hear Joe rationalizing that we rebuilt Japan after WWII.
YEA. WE DID.. AND to this day, i STILL FEEL WE buggered up doing so.
I wonder how much of the aid will go toward their women’s rights and education, and food and medicine. They surely don’t need any military equip. Biden already took care of that.
Yep, and don’t forget the transgenders.
Please notice the correctness of the headline,” Biden Admin. To Give Humanitarian Aid To Taliban Government”, of course not the people of Afghanistan, after all, most of them will soon be purged. You know the Taliban Government are all very sophisticated and professional in all they do, just ask Jan Peski. I am sure we will soon fly a few pallets of billions of our taxes one of these days at midnight. So what we will get back for all this ? I am afraid I cannot post it.