By Janet Ekstract
UNITED NATIONS (TURKISH JOURNAL) – Mainstream media reported that President Trump had invited the Taliban for a sequestered meeting at Camp David that was to take place until the recent violence that hit Kabul.
Months of secret negotiations had been underway to finalize a peace deal between the Taliban and Afghan government with the Trump administration calling for a complete troop withdrawal.
Widespread criticism and backlash have followed Trump for extending an ‘invitation to terrorists’ as most experts and analysts have weighed in.
The Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) Tadamichi Yamamoto, released a statement that went as follows: “The violence this week across Afghanistan underscores the urgency of ending the conflict through a negotiated settlement. The suffering of the Afghan people must end.”
According to press reports, more than 100 civilian casualties were claimed by the Taliban in Kabul, Kunduz and Baghian, Yamamoto said one attack was on an international housing complex in Kabul on Monday that killed at least 16 people, media reported
The violence has become so pervasive that residents near compounds housing foreign staff are demanding that international groups be moved to other areas since even aid organizations were bombing targets.
Reuters news agency was told by one local man: “This isn’t once or twice, it’s the fourth or fifth time, all by the Taliban. A lot of my friends, a lot of my family have been wounded or killed.”
Yamamoto warned that the situation of violence has come to the point of immediate urgency in trying to reach a negotiated settlement to end the suffering of the Afghan people.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the violence, saying: “such indiscriminate attacks can never be justified.”
Yamamoto said the following: ”The Secretary-General believes that the only solution to the conflict in Afghanistan is through an inclusive process of intra-Afghan negotiations. He encourages all political leaders to work together during this period leading to presidential elections and stresses the urgency of ensuring security across Afghanistan.’
The Taliban are claiming that Monday’s bombing on Kabul’s Green Village – the center of several international organizations was retaliation for attacks by U.S.-backed government forces.
