US DISABLES AIRCRAFT AMID TALIBAN CONTROL
KABUL: The US military disabled scores of aircraft and armoured vehicles as well as a high-tech rocket defence system at the Kabul airport before it left Monday, a US general said.
Central Command head General Kenneth McKenzie said 73 aircraft that were already at Hamid Karzai International Airport were “demilitarised”, or rendered useless, by US troops.
“Those aircraft will never fly again... They’ll never be able to be operated by anyone,” he said, as vehicles carrying the Taliban raced back and forth along the Kabul airport’s runway.
UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) adopted a resolution Monday requiring the Taliban to honour their commitment to let people freely leave Afghanistan, but the measure did not cite a “safe zone” as pitched by French President Emmanuel Macron.
The resolution - drafted by the US, Britain and France - was passed with 13 votes in favour and no objections. China and Russia abstained from voting.
The resolution says the council expects the Taliban to allow a “safe, secure, and orderly departure from Afghanistan of Afghans and all foreign nationals”. It refers to an August 27 statement by the Taliban in which they said Afghans would be able to travel abroad, and leave Afghanistan any time they want to.
The Security Council “expects that the Taliban will adhere to these and all other commitments”, the resolution says.
Macron had raised hopes of more concrete proposals in comments published in the weekly Journal du Dimanche over the weekend. The French had president said Paris and London would present a draft resolution which “aims to define, under UN control, a ‘safe zone’ in Kabul, that will allow humanitarian operations to continue,” Macron said.
But the UN resolution is far less ambitious. It is not clear whether another resolution proposing a “safe zone” will be circulated later on.
The text also calls for the Taliban to allow for “full, safe, and unhindered access” for the UN and other agencies to provide humanitarian assistance.
It also “reaffirms the importance” of upholding human rights, including of children, women and minorities and encourages all parties to seek an inclusive, negotiated political settlement with the “full, equal and meaningful representation of women”.
The meeting, under India’s presidency of the UNSC, was chaired by Indian foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla.
“I was in particular very happy to preside over the adoption of today’s important resolution on Afghanistan, which has unequivocally conveyed that Afghanistan’s territory should not be used to threaten or attack any country or to shelter, train terrorists or plan or finance terrorist acts... This is of direct importance to India,” Shringla told reporters.
The resolution also condemned the attacks on August 26 near the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul for which the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) claimed responsibility and killed 169 Afghans and 13 US service members.
This was the first resolution adopted by the council on the situation in Afghanistan following the takeover of Kabul by the Taliban.