Afghanistan .. America and Britain threaten the Taliban with exclusion from the government and Ghani vows to fight

A joint US-British statement said that the Taliban movement will not have a place in the next Afghan government if it does not control its fighters, and Afghan President Muhammad Ashraf Ghani has threatened the Taliban with military defeat unless they accept the option of negotiation, while the movement rejected his accusations.

And the US embassy in Kabul published - on its Twitter account - a joint statement issued by the American and British embassies, which said, "If the Taliban cannot control its fighters now, it will have no place in the next government."

The statement added that the Taliban killed dozens of civilians in retaliation at the "Spin Boldak" crossing in Kandahar province, considering that the killing amounted to a war crime that requires accountability for the perpetrators.

The United States and Britain urged the Afghan parties to immediately cease fire.

Accusations

For his part, the Afghan president said in a speech before the parliament that the sudden withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan created a security vacuum, and that filling this void rests with the Afghans.

Ghani explained that his government faced an unexpected situation in the past three months, but stressed that the government has a security plan to control the situation within 6 months and that the United States supports the plan.

Ghani accused the Taliban of maintaining ties with terrorist groups and of carrying out attacks on women.

Ghani vowed, "Either the Taliban will sit at the negotiating table or we will break their fighters' feet on the battlefield. We have made our choice and they have to choose."

In his speech, he pointed to the importance of interdependence and collective action among the components of the political scene in Afghanistan, in light of the challenges surrounding the country.

The Taliban denied Ghani's accusations, and their spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said - on Twitter - "war declarations, accusations and lies will not prolong the life of Ghani's government, his time has run out, God willing."

A senior government official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters that Taliban fighters penetrated into the city of Lashkar Gah, capital of southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, on Monday, stressing that heavy fighting is taking place near the National Security Directorate, the prison and the police headquarters.

Later, Reuters quoted the commander of the Maiwand government forces unit, Syed Sami Sadat, as saying, "In the afternoon, the fighting subsided (in Lashkar Gah) and the Taliban suffered heavy losses after air and ground operations."

Members of the Special Forces in Kandahar (Reuters)

collaborators file

On another issue, the US State Department announced the expansion of the asylum program for Afghans cooperating with it, to include journalists who worked for American media organizations, employees of American non-governmental organizations, in addition to their families.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs justified this decision by the increasing levels of violence on the part of the Taliban movement.

She added that Washington is keen to provide more opportunities to settle Afghans who are at risk because of their cooperation with it.

border file

In Islamabad, the Pakistani Interior Minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, denied the presence of any Taliban members in Pakistan, and stressed - in a press conference - that his country's borders were safe, and did not witness any escape of Afghan civilians or anything abnormal.

"The Pakistani army is deployed on the border, there are civilian militants, and we are monitoring border security closely, with anticipation and caution, and our borders are completely fenced," he added.

For its part, the Russian Defense Ministry announced the start of joint military exercises with the Uzbek forces in the Sarkandaria region bordering Afghanistan.

These maneuvers, according to observers, aim to secure the borders of Uzbekistan against the backdrop of the current military developments in Afghanistan, and to enhance military coordination and cooperation between the two countries.

The maneuvers will continue until the tenth of this month, with the participation of about 1,500 soldiers from the two countries, and 200 military pieces, including Russian fighters stationed at the Russian air base in Kyrgyzstan.

These exercises coincide with joint Russian-Tajik-Uzbek exercises, which will be launched on the fifth of this month in Tajikistan.