Taliban to attend Paris meeting on Afghanistan

December 10, 2012

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban will attend a meeting in France to talk about Afghanistan's future but will not discuss peace and reconciliation, the militant group's spokesman said Monday.

The meeting, organized by a French think tank on the outskirts of Paris, is not expected to produce results, but it will produce a rare face-to-face gathering of Afghanistan's major players. Only one such meeting, far less inclusive, has been held this year with Taliban participation. It was organized by a Japanese university in Kyoto six months ago.

Zabiullah Mujahid said two of the Taliban's representatives will attend next week's meeting to outline their policies. Representatives from Afghanistan's High Peace Council, political parties opposed to the Taliban, and the militant Islamist group Hezb-e-Islami also are expected to attend.

French Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman Vincent Floreani said the intra-Afghan conference would take place this month under the auspices of the Foundation for Strategic Research. It will be closed to the media and will involve "all components of Afghan society," he said. He declined to specify the date or indicate the location, citing security concerns.

Peace talks with the Taliban remained stalled, but there are signs of increasing efforts to get them back on track. U.S.-backed talks broke down last March in a dispute over the release of five Taliban detainees held in U.S. custody in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai wants the peace talks to be led by his government and the peace council, a body he set up to negotiate with the insurgency. It was unclear who would represent the Afghan government, but an official who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to reporters said that Education Minister Farooq Wardak may attend along with one other official.

Pakistan is also a key player in the peace process, and its release of a number of Taliban prisoners earlier in the month was seen as a key step in its participation. The cooperation of Pakistan, which has long-standing ties to the Taliban, is seen as pivotal in restarting the talks. The United States and its allies are trying to get movement ahead of the Afghan presidential election in 2014, the year that most foreign combat troops are set to leave the country.

"Two people are going from the Taliban side. We are not giving the names now," Mujahid said. "We are not going to talk about the peace process. We will express our ideas and policy. We are not going to discuss peace. This gathering is not about peace."

Ghairat Baheer, who will attend and represent his father-in-law Hekmatyar, said Hezb-e-Islami was supporting the initiative by the French because it focused on a discussion among Afghans. "It is a good forum for exchanging views and expressing oneself and understanding each other's point of view," Baheer said. "The intra-Afghan dialogue is the only solution. The Taliban have shown a willingness to participate."

Muhammad Mohaqeq, a member of the peace council and top leader of Afghan Shiites and the Hazara minority ethnic faction, said the peace process would be a topic for discussion at the meeting. "There will be people from the government side, from Hezb-e-Islami and the Taliban," he said. "We are going to talk about the peace process and all sides will be there. We will also talk about the elections and the situation in Afghanistan."

Mohaqeq, a member of the National Front, which represents members of the former Northern Alliance that fought the Taliban before the U.S. invasion 11 years ago, said he and another two people from the group will attend. One of the two is Ahmad Zia Masood, the brother of the late Northern Alliance chief Ahmad Shah Masood, considered a national hero by anti-Taliban forces.

Associated Press writers Jamey Keaten in Paris and Kathy Gannon in Islamabad contributed.

'US-Taliban talks reveal America's failure in Afghanistan'

WARNING: Article contains propaganda!

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Mon Feb 20, 2012

A top Pakistani leader of the Taliban says the United States seeks to engage in talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan as its mission in the war-battered country has failed, Press TV reports.

Pakistan's Tehrik-i-Taliban's leader Waliur-Rehman Mehsud told Press TV that Washington has sought to launch peace talks with the Afghan Taliban over the US failure in Afghanistan.

Mehsud added that the US-led invasion of Afghanistan was initially aimed at eliminating the Taliban militants or making them surrender.

However, he said, the foreign forces' failure to do so has forced Washington into a negotiating position.

Mehsud added that the US and its allies are trying to hide their defeat in Afghanistan under the guise of advocating dialogue.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, Afghan President Hamed Karzai admitted that the peace talks had taken place among the United States, the Afghan government, and Taliban over the past month.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Mehsud rejected reports that Tehrik-i-Taliban commander Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in a US assassination drone strike. He said that Hakimullah is alive and well.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/227625.html.

Taliban downplay Obama's decision on troops drawdown, call for complete withdrawal

KABUL, June 23 (Xinhua)-- Taliban militants fighting Afghan and NATO-led troops in Afghanistan on Thursday downplayed U.S. President Barack Obama's troops withdraw announcement as a trick to deceive public opinion and called for the complete pull out of foreign forces, a Taliban statement said.

"Obama and his war mongers want to deceive their nation and with this announcement, while in reality, they have no respect for their nation's demands of waiting to bring this war and occupation to an end nor do they want to fulfill their promise," the statement sent to media added.

In the statement written in Pashtu language, spoken largely among the Taliban fighters, and English, the Taliban outfit vowed to continue armed struggle till the complete withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama announced in Washington Wednesday night that 10,000 U.S. troops will leave Afghanistan by the end of this year and another 23,000 will come back home by September 2012.

"Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the name of Taliban ousted regime) once again wants to make it clear that the solution for the Afghan crisis lies in the full withdrawal of all foreign troops immediately and until this does not happen, our armed struggle will increase from day to day," the statement emphasized.

Source: Xinhua.
Link: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-06/23/c_13946127.htm.

476 inmates escape from Afghan prison, Taliban claims responsibility

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, April 25 (Xinhua) -- Over 470 inmates escaped from a prison in Kandahar, south of Afghanistan early Monday, an official said.

"Some 476 inmates made their good escape from the Kandahar jail early today," chief of the Kandahar jail Ghulam Dastgir Mayar told Xinhua.

He also admitted that the prisoners made their escape after digging a hole.

Meantime, deputy to Kandahar provincial police chief Shir Shah Yusufzai told Xinhua that so far eight escaped prisoners had been re-arrested.

Some 1,000 inmates, according to an official who declined to give his name, had been held in the Kandahar jail. This is the third time that the Kandahar jail has been attacked over the past few years and the detainees have been able to escape.

On the other hand, Qari Yusuf Ahmadi who claims to speak for the Taliban outfit stressed that over 500 Taliban detainees have escaped from the jail.

In talks with media via telephone from an undisclosed location, the Taliban purported spokesman emphasized that militants, after digging a 360-meter long tunnel, enabled 541 militants including 106 commanders to escape.

Kandahar, the former stronghold of Taliban, is the second major base of the NATO and U.S. troops after Bagram, in Afghanistan.

Source: Xinhua.
Link: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-04/25/c_13844690.htm.

Response of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in Reaction to Senator Lindsay Graham Remarks to Maintain US Permanent Bases in Afghanistan

Wednesday, January 05, 2011

In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful.

A Republic Senator Lindsey Graham in an interview with NBC Television has said that USA should maintain permanent military bases in Afghanistan. He has claimed, the bases would be beneficial for the region and in the combat against the Taliban. His remarks definitely lifts the curtain from the colonialist motives of America which the Islamic Emirate has been trying in the past decade to draw to them, attention of the people of the world. In fact, the invading America wants to establish her dominance over the region and the world under the so-called war on terror. Thus, they are trying to deprive the masses from their inalienable rights. In view of this, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan would like to spell out its response as follows:

1. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan categorically rejects the suggestion by the Republican senator. America’s intention to maintain permanent bases in Afghanistan would mean extending the occupation indefinitely. This illegitimate step is never acceptable to any Islamist and patriotic Afghan. The Muslim people of Afghanistan and the Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate will continue their struggle against the occupation and other ploys of America until and unless Afghanistan wins its deserved place among the comity of nations as an independent country.

2. The maintenance of permanent bases in Afghanistan by America will (not) usher in law and order situation as well as social, cultural and economic problems for Afghanistan and the region. They will deprive the regional people of their natural economic and academic advancement. Current explosions at congested places in cities, mosques, religious seminaries and demonstrations are the ugly upshot of the invading America’s plots. Therefore, neither the people of the region nor the freedom-loving Afghans will ever accept the permanent bases in Afghanistan.

3. Remarks by high-ranking figures of the invading America elucidates the fact that the war on terror was a phony drama conceived and staged by Washington. Their real goal was to occupy Afghanistan and maintain domination over the region. The relevant facts crop up one by one with the passage of time. The Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate will continue their struggle against these conspiracies until they reach a victorious end.

4. The invading America and her Allies have no capability to face the Mujahideen in a broad day light in view of their constant frustration during the decade-long showdown of muscles. They raid houses in the stillness of the night, killing innocent Afghans. Therefore, in this critical phase , we request all countries of the region and the world to grant due recognition to the struggle of the people of Afghanistan against colonialism and render all-sided moral and financial assistance with this movement because the current Jihad is, undoubtedly, a liberation struggle for all freedom-loving humanity at regional and global level.

5. The tempo of economic and industrial progress is going to shift from America and Europe to Asia in the near future. This economic impetus needs raw material. Hence, the invading America wants to bring under her belly the natural resources of Afghanistan, ostensibly, under the name of war on terrorism, thus intending to coerce regional countries to agree to the colonialist objectives and strings of America. Similarly, they want to deprive the Afghan people of access to their natural resources and compel them live in poverty and misery. Therefore, the Mujahid people of Afghanistan will never allow the invading America to plunder their natural resources and take their freedom.

6. We are ready to enter into transparent bilateral agreements with other countries on the basis of national interests and economic profitability for the extraction of the said natural resources.

7. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is a responsible force. We assure all regional countries that we will maintain good relations with them in light of the lofty rules of ethics of Islam, following our obtaining independence. Meanwhile, we urge them not to be beguiled by America to give consent to establishment of American permanent bases in Afghanistan under the unjustified name of war on terror. The Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate are neither exhausted nor have become weak in their legitimate struggle.

Source: Theunjustmedia.
Link: http://theunjustmedia.com/Afghanistan/Statements/Jan11/Response%20of%20the%20Islamic%20Emirate%20of%20Afghanistan%20in%20Reaction%20to%20Senator%20Lindsay%20Graham%20Remarks%20to%20Maintain%20us%20Permanent%20Bases%20in%20Afghanistan.htm.

October 7 is Continuation of December 27

Thursday, December 30, 2010

In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful.

31 years ago, on 27 December, the Red Army of the former Soviet Union invaded the land of the Muslim Afghan people by violating its sanctity. They resorted to committing genocide, torture and oppression against the miserable people of Afghanistan soon after that. For ten years, they had been carrying out brutalities and atrocities. But with the help of Allah (SwT) and the sacrifices of 1.5 million Afghans, the Red Army was forced to pull out of Afghanistan. Not only that. Many Muslim and non-Muslim countries which were chafing under the yoke of communism for many decades, found their independence once more. Thus the empire of atheism broke into smithereens.

Today the former Soviet union is no more thanks to the Jihad of the Afghans, nor traces of the Warsaw military pact exist but despite that, Afghanistan has been burning in the flames of war, notwithstanding the colossal sacrifices of 1.5 million martyrs of the Afghan people, immigration of 6 million Afghans and many millions becoming disabled, handicapped, with women becoming widows and mothers losing their sons.

This time NATO under the leadership of America have invaded Afghanistan by dent of 150,000 troops. They have unleashed atrocities and brutalities on the Afghans since 7 October 2001; have martyred more than 200,000 Afghans; have tortured hundreds of thousands of Afghans in prisons in Afghanistan and other countries. This spell of brutality has still been continuing.

Yesterday, the former Soviet Union’s Red Army had occupied our country under the tutelage of Warsaw Pact but today the Americans have taken the land of the Afghans as hostage under the arrangement of NATO.

Yesterday, the Russians claimed, there was a foreign interference in Afghanistan and called the armed opposition as the mischief-makers but today America calls her invasion of Afghanistan as a war on terror and calls the armed opposition as terrorists.

Yesterday, the Russians had usurped the freedom and our national independence and used to determine the fate of Afghanistan in the corridors of Kremlin but today, the Americans have left the Russians behind in their brazenness to clasp the fate of Afghanistan in their reprehensible tentacles.

The fate of Afghanistan is determined in Washington, London and Bruxel. Yesterday a flag had been hoisted on the presidential palace in Kabul which was claimed to be the flag of Afghanistan and today another stooge flag is fluttering on the presidential palace. The Russians said, their presence in Afghanistan had not negated the independence of Afghanistan.

American and NATO officials claim the presence of 150,000 troops and the current brutalities unleashed by them to be the signs of their friendship and sympathy. They do not consider the presence of troops as a foreign force. A few elements who are Afghans by name only, called the Russian forces as being the friends of Afghanistan in an effort to support their presence in the country.

Today, some debased elements who are Afghans by name condone the presence of thousands of soldiers of America and NATO. They are trying to find a palatable interpretation for the callous military operations, aerial bombardment, detentions and violation of the Afghan values. The invading Americans carve out justifiable pretexts for these atrocities. But the Russians including the Warsaw Pact along with their tactics and strategies, brutalities, surrogates like Khalq and Parchm failed to afford constantly facing the Mujahid Afghan people but received a historical defeat. Their mastership at world level came to an end. Today, the Americans are following the footsteps of the former Soviet Union and hovering over the moribund edge of erosion--their strength played out, their arrogance is on the collapse and their ambitions of mastership debilitating. They are seeking a way out of the country.

While condemning both the invaders and their lackeys of the 27 December and showing our deep resentments in this regard, we pay our deep tribute to the sacrifices of the Afghan Mujahid people. We believe October 7 was continuation of December 27 invasion. The Americans and NATO will face the fate of the former Soviet Union and the world will be saved from their claws of mischief-making and colonialism.

--Black be the faces of the invaders and the puppets of the invasions both of 27 December and 7 October.

Source: Theunjustmedia.
Link: http://theunjustmedia.com/Afghanistan/Statements/Dec10/October%207%20is%20Continuation%20of%20December%2027.htm.

Statement of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan Regarding the Condemnation of the 31st Anniversary of the Red Army Invasion of Afghanistan

Sunday, December 26, 2010

In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful.

The 6th Jaddi (the Hijri Lunar year) which coincides with 27th December, is the day of the former Soviet Union’s aggression against Afghanistan. Three decades ago, on this day, 700 soldiers of the Red Army dressed in the uniform of the Afghan Army killed Hafizulla Amin, the former communist ruler of Afghanistan at Taj Beg Palace, near the capital Kabul. With this, 80,000 Red Army soldiers entered Afghanistan through land and air which, at one point, reached 150,000 soldiers. To confront the coward aggression of their northern neighbor--the former Soviet Union-- the Afghans chose the path of armed Jihad as per the requirement of their religious obligation and other humane values. The Soviets’ invasion expedited the tempo of the struggle which had already been going on against the communist government, giving it a new impetus.

The Soviet troops remained engaged in a military muscle showdown against the freedom- loving and Islamist people of Afghanistan almost for ten years from December 1979 to February 1989. After passage of a few years; reviewing and revision of new strategies and troops re-enforcement, they were not able to have a tangible achievement. Contrarily, the situation had slipped into a deepening crisis, following the prolongation of the war and expansion of battles. The decrepit Soviet Union’s economy was not strong enough to fund the aggression. Hence, the last ruler of the former Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbacheve admitted the bitter reality in 1989, saying openly, the crisis of Afghanistan was a bleeding wound for the Soviet Union. He promised to put an end to the invasion.

The struggle against the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan and the Soviets ultimate defeat came to be known epically as the miracle of the century. The Afghans proved once again as saviors of the world from the fangs of another global anaconda. The rulers of the Soviet Union themselves conceded that historically, the invasion was their big mistake—ushering in collapse of the empire existing by the name of the Soviet Union; bringing to and end the rule of the communist empire in central Asia and Eastern Europe ; dissolving the Warsaw pact and crumbling into pieces the Wall of Berlin . Consequently, the spell of awe and fear from the Soviet Union which had gripped the globe, melted away simultaneously.

After the disintegration of the Red Empire, as a result of the Afghan Jihad, the stage was set for the Western Empire under the leadership of USA to exercise unipolarism and arrogance in the world. Instead of taking a lesson from the shameful end of the invading Soviets, the American arrogant authority, contrarily, turned to colonizing and oppressing miserable people. This gun boat approach on the part of the Americans led to the Americans attacking the miserable people of Afghanistan like the former Soviet Union had done this before; to commence a bloodbath against the oppressed people and occupy the country itself by dent of advanced weapons. The Americans did fulfill their wicked designs practically. At the start, like the former Soviet Union, they had thought, that it was easy to swallow and ingest Afghanistan.

The present rulers of the setting puppet regime had encouraged the White House to invade Afghanistan. Thus, they deceived them and used their power for realization of their own whims of power-grabbing. Even now, they are trying to keep the Americans unaware of the ground realities in Afghanistan--encouraging them to unleash further atrocities and brutalities on the common people.

The Global insatiable colonialism as per its trait has deprived the brave people of Afghanistan of their freedom, ironically, under the misleading slogan of democracy. They have packed the prisons of Kandahar, Bagram and other tens of prisons with the innocent Afghans; has brought about an atmosphere of terror and fear throughout the country as a result of night raids against the houses of the common people. They think, the tactic of terrorizing and oppressing people will vouchsafe them victory, or they will subjugate the Afghans through force and coercion. But despite their showdown of their military might during the past decade, neither they have stabilized the country nor did they silence the Jihadic resistance of the Afghans. If God willing, Afghanistan will prove to become a bleeding wound for the invaders once again. The global colonialist power will breathe its last here.

On this 31st anniversary of the former Soviet Union’s invasion, while condemning the invasion of the Soviets, and believing it as an incendiary spark which kept the 3-decade long war of Afghanistan ignited, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, meanwhile, remind the Americans to learn lesson from the shameful fate of the invading Soviets by using sagacity and rationale and immediately pull their invading troops out of Afghanistan.

Source: Theunjustmedia.
Link: http://theunjustmedia.com/Afghanistan/Statements/Dec10/Statement%20of%20the%20Islamic%20Emirate%20of%20Afghanistan%20Regarding%20the%20Condemnation%20of%20the%2031st%20Anniversary%20of%20the%20Red%20Army%20Invasion%20of%20Afghanistan.htm.