Filenews 17 August 2021
The Taliban expect the United States to stick to the timetable it has committed to for its withdrawal from Afghanistan and expect to do so by the September 11 milestone date, a spokesman said today, while pledging that the Islamist militants "have not and will not attack until then" U.S. forces.
Speaking to Sky News, Taliban spokesman Mohammad Sohail Sachin said that US President Joe Biden must respect the Doha agreement signed by the Trump administration last year and leave Afghanistan by The US until September 11 – the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers that led to the US invasion.
"We are committed not to attacking them, we have not attacked them," Mr Sachin said.
He also sent a message to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the international community to "respect the wishes of the people of Afghanistan". "This is their obligation because they were behind the destruction of Afghanistan over the last 20 years," he said.
The Taliban are expected to hold a press conference this afternoon at a press centre in Kabul, previously used by the Afghan government. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted to invite journalists to come to the press centre.
They call for an international conference on assistance
"In the short term, we will undoubtedly need the help of other countries. We need help to pay the salaries of teachers, officials and fighters of the security forces. We call on all countries to help us. I believe that the need for an international conference to provide financial assistance to Afghanistan has matured, as has been the case in the past. This should not be done for us, but for the sake of the Afghan people," Sachin said.
He said the Taliban movement is also interested in the construction of the TAPI gas pipeline (which will run through Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India) as well as in the implementation of other important infrastructure projects.
"In our country there are other big projects. It is the TAPI gas pipeline, railway projects and others. Our political wing hopes that work will begin on their implementation," Sachin said.
How the Taliban prepared their advance for months
It took a few days for the Taliban to sweep to Kabul and occupy Afghan territory that they had not already controlled, sometimes without a single shot being fired.
Statements obtained by Reuters from Taliban leaders, Afghan politicians, diplomats and other observers suggest that the Islamic militant movement laid the groundwork for its victory well before last week's events.
Prepared to step up their efforts to regain control of a country they ruled from 1996 to 2001, The Islamist rebels have for months cultivated relations with low-level political and military officials as well as with tribal leaders.
This, coupled with the heralded withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan, some 20 years after the start of the longest war in which the US was involved, destroyed confidence in the political administration advocated by the West.
"The Taliban didn't want to fight," said Asfantyar Mir, an analyst linked to Stanford University. "Instead, they wanted to cause a political collapse."
The speed of the Taliban advance surprised even them. A Taliban commander in the central province of Ghazni said that as soon as government forces saw that the United States was leaving, the resistance collapsed.
In just one week, all the major cities of Afghanistan, from Kunduz in the north to Kandahar in the south, had fallen.
"It doesn't mean that these Afghan leaders who surrendered had changed or became loyal to us, but it's because there were no more dollars," he said, referring to the financial support the government and the military had received from the West for nearly two decades. "They surrendered like sheep and goats," he added.
In separate statements, Suhail Shaheen said that a large number of regions were secured through contacts and urging opponents to switch sides. "(We had) direct talks with the security forces there, as well as through mediation of tribal elders and religious leaders," he said.
After being ousted from power after 2001, the Taliban gradually regrouped, funded by opium and illegal mining. At the same time they remained in the "background", preferring isolated places and spreading fear in the cities through suicide bombings.
Meanwhile, they took control of many provincial areas with a form of shadow government with its own courts and tax systems. In the northern and western regions, where the Pashtun movement has traditionally been weaker, they moved to reinforce it.
Throughout their onslaught they finally managed to maintain a united front between the Taliban leadership and fighters across the country, despite the fact that sometimes there were competing interests and disagreements on issues ranging from peace talks to sharing the revenues from poppy cultivation.
