Afghan pullout must be tied to talks’ progress, says Germany
As Nato partners, we want to ensure that we tie further troop reductions in Afghanistan to clear conditions: German foreign minister
Nato must not jeopardise the peace negotiations for Afghanistan by withdrawing troops prematurely from the war-torn country, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said ahead of a virtual meeting with his Nato colleagues.
“As Nato partners, we want to ensure that we tie further troop reductions in Afghanistan to clear conditions,” he added on Tuesday.
“To safeguard what we have reached so far, we must not take any rash actions,” Maas said.
“This is why we call on the alliance to have a very close look at how far the conditions for a further withdrawal have been met to avoid sending a wrong message regarding the peace process.”
Earlier, officials said that Afghan forces have killed the Taliban mastermind of a suicide car bomb atack that let at least 30 security personnel dead.
Hamza Waziristani was killed in an air strike overnight in the eastern province of Ghazni where the bomber struck an Afghan military base on Sunday.
“The mastermind behind terrorist atack on the (Ghazni) base was killed along with seven other terrorists,” the defence ministry said in a statement.
Military spokesman Fawad Aman said that the bomber was a Taliban militant from the border region of Waziristan.
The atack was one of the deadliest in months targeting government forces in Afghanistan, where violence has surged since the start of peace talks between President Ashraf Ghani’s administration and the Taliban in Qatar.
No group has claimed the atack.
The Taliban oten do not comment on deadly atacks they are accused of carrying out.
The insurgents have launched near daily atacks against Afghan forces, primarily in rural areas, since signing a deal with Washington in February that paved the way for the withdrawal of foreign troops by May 2021.
Health officials in Ghazni said 30 people died in Sunday’s atack, but the defence ministry — which is known to downplay tolls in atacks against its forces — said 10 were killed.
Violence has also surged in Kabul in recent weeks, with more than 50 people killed in two assaults on educational centres and a rocket atack.
The three Kabul atacks were claimed by the Daesh group, but Afghan officials blamed the Taliban — who denied any involvement. A breakthrough on an initial agreement reached between Taliban and government negotiators has been held up at the last minute ater the insurgent group balked at the document’s preamble because it mentioned the Afghan government by name.
Teams representing the Taliban and the Afghan government have been negotiating in the Qatari capital since September to reach a consensus on the modalities of peace talks, moving forward to help end decades of war in Afghanistan.
“The negotiating teams have so far agreed on all 21 articles that provide guiding principles for the negotiations,” Ghani’s spokesman
Sediq Sediqqi said in a statement on Monday. “At this time, they continue to debate the preamble, in which some issues need further clarification.”
Government and diplomatic sources said that when it came to signing the document in November, which was to include references to the “Islamic Republic of Afghanistan” — the official name of the Afghan government, — the Taliban backed off.