{"id":3158,"date":"2019-02-28T14:13:54","date_gmt":"2019-02-28T14:13:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/?p=3158"},"modified":"2019-02-28T14:13:54","modified_gmt":"2019-02-28T14:13:54","slug":"ex-taliban-official-no-afghan-peace-deal-if-air-raids-continue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/2019\/02\/28\/ex-taliban-official-no-afghan-peace-deal-if-air-raids-continue\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Taliban official: &#8216;No Afghan peace deal if air raids continue&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Syed Mohammad Akbar Agha accuses President Ghani&#8217;s government of &#8216;sabotaging&#8217; talks with attacks that kill civilians.<\/em><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Agha is a former leader of Taliban&#8217;s Jaish-e-Muslimeen wing, which fought against Afghan forces after the US toppled the Taliban government in 2001 [Sorin Furcoi\/Al Jazeera]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Kabul, Afghanistan<\/strong> &#8211; A return to peace is not possible in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/topics\/country\/afghanistan.html\">Afghanistan<\/a> if its government continues to conduct air strikes which have resulted in countless civilian casualties, a former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/topics\/organisations\/taliban.html\">Taliban<\/a>official has said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a press conference in Kabul on Wednesday, Syed Mohammad Akbar Agha, who is the current leader of Rah-e-Nejat (High Council of Salvation), said President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/indepth\/features\/2014\/07\/profile-ashraf-ghani-20147883632825529.html\">Ashraf Ghani<\/a>&#8216;s government is sabotaging peace talks being held in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/topics\/country\/qatar.html\">Qatar<\/a> between Taliban representatives and US officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The government doesn&#8217;t want peace. They are still targeting civilian areas while claiming to have targeted Taliban hideouts,&#8221; Agha told Al Jazeera, adding that air raids are being carried out &#8220;almost every day&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<table class=\"wp-block-table\"><tbody><tr><\/tr><tr><td><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/y2skTOmI_ps\">Afghans follow peace talks with Taliban closely (3:03)<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We are all positive about peace and very serious, especially now that Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is directly involved in the talks in Qatar,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We are expecting positive results for peace in Afghanistan.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ADVERTISING<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.teads.tv\/viewable-outstream-formats\/?utm_source=inread&amp;utm_medium=credits&amp;utm_campaign=invented%20by%20teads\">inRead invented by Teads<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Taliban and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/topics\/country\/united-states.html\">United States<\/a> officials are meeting for the third day on Wednesday in Qatar&#8217;s capital Doha, where two main issues being discussed in the high-level talks are: the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, and assurances that Afghanistan will not be used by foreign armed fighters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The talks have gained momentum in recent months after the US decided to engage with the Taliban, which has been waging a deadly armed rebellion since the group was removed from power in 2001.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">US President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2016\/11\/profile-president-donald-trump-161109050153947.html\">Donald Trump<\/a>&#8216;s administration is seeking to end the 17-year war, the US&#8217;s&#8217;s longest, that has left thousands dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/topics\/organisations\/un.html\">United Nations<\/a>, at least 32,000 civilians have been killed and another 60,000 wounded in the last decade, when the organisation began compiling the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Civilian deaths<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Baradar, one of the Taliban founders, is attending the talks in Doha for the first time. He is the highest-level representative to take part in negotiations with the US special envoy for peace, Zalmay Khalilzad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<table class=\"wp-block-table\"><tbody><tr><\/tr><tr><td>Talks for peace in Afghanistan have gained momentum in recent months after the US decided to engage with the Taliban [Sorin Furcoi\/Al Jazeera]<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Taliban have repeatedly refused to negotiate with the Afghan government, calling it a &#8220;puppet&#8221; of the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We, like all the Afghans, want peace in this country. The Taliban are now sitting down to talk, which means they are ready for peace as well,&#8221; Agha told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;But if innocent civilians are killed this way in air strikes, they will never trust the government and will, in fact, stand against it.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Agha, former leader of Taliban&#8217;s Jaish-e-Muslimeen wing, fought against the Afghan forces after the US toppled the Taliban government in 2001. His council is currently seen making efforts to restore peace in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<table class=\"wp-block-table\"><tbody><tr><\/tr><tr><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Officials from the Afghan government were not immediately available for their reaction on Agha&#8217;s comments in the press conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last year, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) expressed its &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2019\/02\/afghanistan-civilian-deaths-hit-record-high-2018-190224071129307.html\">strong concern<\/a>&#8221; at the rising number of civilian casualties from air raids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The report said aerial attacks killed 149 people and wounded more than 200 civilians in the first half of 2018, up by 52 percent from the same period a year before that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Among the deadly incidents was the one in the northern province of Kunduz in April 2018, when an Afghan air raid killed or wounded 107 people, mostly children, at a religious gathering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The government said the bombing had targeted a Taliban meeting where senior members of the group were planning more attacks.<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Syed Mohammad Akbar Agha accuses President Ghani&#8217;s government of &#8216;sabotaging&#8217; talks with attacks that kill civilians. Agha is a former leader of Taliban&#8217;s Jaish-e-Muslimeen wing, which fought against Afghan forces after the US toppled the Taliban government in 2001 [Sorin Furcoi\/Al Jazeera] Kabul, Afghanistan &#8211; A return to peace is not possible in Afghanistan if its government continues to conduct&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/2019\/02\/28\/ex-taliban-official-no-afghan-peace-deal-if-air-raids-continue\/\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3158"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3159,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3158\/revisions\/3159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}