Afghanistan live news flights resume at Kabul airport reports Taliban leader in capital for talks

Germany has stopped development aid for Afghanistan for now, the minister responsible said on Tuesday. AFP reports: “State cooperation on development is suspended for the time being,” Development Minister Gerd Mueller said in an interview with the Rheinische Post newspaper. “We are working at pace to evacuate from Afghanistan those local development officials and NGO workers who want to leave.”

The German government had agreed to send 430 million euros ($506 million) to Afghanistan a year, making it one of the biggest donors to the country. This money was intended to support the training of local police forces and strengthen the justice system, as well as furthering the rights of women and fighting corruption.

Speaking last week, German foreign minister Heiko Maas said the country was not “viable” without the support of international aid, AFP reports. “We will not send another cent to this country if the Taliban take complete control, introduce Sharia law and turn it into a caliphate,” Maas said.

China has accused the US of leaving “an awful mess of unrest, division and broken families” in Afghanistan, as Beijing indicated it was ready to cooperate with the Taliban on development following the US withdrawal.

Speaking at a regular press briefing, Hua Chunying, spokeswoman for China’s foreign ministry, also lambasted Washington’s record of foreign interventions, saying: “America’s strength and role is destruction, not construction.”

Beijing fears Afghanistan, with which it shares a rugged 47-mile border, could become a staging point for Uyghur separatists in the sensitive border region of Xinjiang. A top-level Taliban delegation met with Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, in Tianjin last month, promising that Afghanistan would not be used as a base for militants. In exchange, China offered economic support and investment for Afghanistan’s reconstruction.

Hua on Monday said China was ready to continue “friendly and cooperative” relations with Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, as she urged it to both “make a clean break with international forces” and “prevent Afghanistan from becoming a gathering place for terrorists and extremists again”.

The UN has urged the Taliban to keep its “promises,” including pledges to grant an amnesty to former government workers, show inclusiveness for women and allow girls to remain in school.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva on Tuesday, Rupert Colville, the UN human rights spokesman, said:

The Taliban have made a number of statements that on the surface are reassuring. But their actions speak deeper than words, and it’s very early now it’s very fluid.

He said the Taliban’s promises “need to be honoured”, adding:

Understandably, given their past history, these declarations have been greeted with some skepticism. Nevertheless, the promises have been made, and whether or not they are honoured or broken will be closely scrutinised.

A Taliban spokesman has given an interview with a female newsreader on the private Afghan broadcaster Tolo, in what some are saying is an indication of a slightly milder attitude towards women.

Under Afghanistan’s previous Taliban regime, 1996-2001, women were rarely allowed outside the home. But earlier Enamullah Samangani, a member of the Taliban’s cultural commission, suggested under a new Taliban administration, women could even serve in government.

“The Islamic Emirate doesn’t want women to be victims,” Samangani said. “They should be in the government structure according to Shariah law.”

Meanwhile, in Kanul women in hijabs staged a brief demonstration, holding signs demanding the Taliban not “eliminate women” from public life.

Saad Mohseni (@saadmohseni)

TOLOnews and the Taliban making history again: Abdul Haq Hammad, senior Taliban rep, speaking to our (female) presenter Beheshta earlier this morning. Unthinkable two decades ago when they were last in charge ⁦@TOLOnews⁩ pic.twitter.com/XzREQ6ZJ1a

August 17, 2021

The UN refugee agency has called for the suspension of forced returns of Afghan nationals, including those whose claims for asylum have been rejected, until the political situation in the country has stabilised.

In a new position paper, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said it was concerned about the risk of human rights abuses in the country, particularly against women and girls, and against Afghans who had worked with occupying forece, NGOs and the previous Afghan government.

It calls for countries to give civilians fleeing Afghanistan access to their territories, and to respect their right not to be returned to where they will be at risk of persecution.

Afghans who had already claimed asylum abroad and been refused may need to be reconsidered in light of the new circumstances in Afghanistan, the paper says.

It adds: “A moratorium on forced returns to Afghanistan would need to stay in place until the situation in the country has stabilised, pending an assessment of when the changed situation in the country would permit return in safety and dignity.

“The bar on forcible return serves as a minimum standard and needs to remain in place until such time as the security, rule of law, and human rights situation in Afghanistan has significantly improved to permit a safe and dignified return of those determined not to be in need of international protection.”

Ah, it turns out that the Taliban workout video posted earlier was not filmed in the Afghan presidential palace gym, as earlier reported.

Here is an update from Sune Engel Rasmussen, the Wall Street Journal correspondent who posted the tweets I had embedded in the blog.

Sune Engel Rasmussen (@SuneEngel)

I deleted two videos of Taliban fighters as someone smarter than me helpfully pointed out that one of the videos was not from the presidential palace as initially thought. I took both videos down to avoid confusion. Apologies.

August 17, 2021

Britain will increase humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, “probably by 10%”, the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has said.

The aid budget would be reconfigured for development and humanitarian purposes in Afghanistan and the Taliban would not get any of the money previously earmarked for security, Raab said.

“I don’t think we will condition the humanitarian relief we provide to ordinary Afghans on what the Taliban does,” he was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.

The first German military plane to land in Kabul since the Taliban takeover only managed to evacuate seven people, after “chaotic” conditions on the ground made it too dangerous for many to get to the airport, writes Philip Oltermann, the Guardian’s Berlin bureau chief.

“We have a very chaotic, dangerous and complex situation at the airport,” the German defence minister, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, told broadcaster ARD.

“We had very little time, so we only took on board people who were on site.”

A spokesperson for the German foreign ministry said: “Due to the chaotic situation at the airport and the regular exchange of fire at the access point yesterday, further German citizens and people to be evacuated could not be given access to the airport without the protection of the Bundeswehr [German army].

“The retrieval of people located in the civilian part of the airport was not made possible by partners responsible for security at the airport.”

According to Germany’s Bild newspaper, the seven individuals evacuated included five German citizens (two of them dual nationals), one Dutch and one Afghan local hire.

The German government’s original plan had been to get as many as 145 individuals on the plane, German media reported on Tuesday. But a 9pm curfew in Kabul as well as the increased presence of Taliban fighters around the airport had prevented the embassy from getting people near the airfield in time.

Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday briefed parliamentarians that US and Turkish troops only had control over an “island” in the military part of the airport, the news magazine Spiegel reported, while the Taliban were controlling access to the site.

Associated Press has more on continuing discussions in Kabul between the Taliban and Afghanistan’s remaining political leadership.

Talks to expand a future Afghan government beyond only Taliban members are continuing in Kabul.

Officials close to the discussions on Tuesday are hoping for “some good news” within a day or two. They spoke on condition of anonymity because until now no one wanted details of negotiations released to the media.

Senior Taliban leader Amir Khan Muttaqi has already held several rounds of talks with Kabul’s political leadership, including Abdullah Abdullah, who once headed the country’s negotiating council, and the former president Hamid Karzai.

At least one round of the talks went through the night. Discussion appeared to focus on how a Taliban-dominated government would respond to rights gained over the last 20 years.

The announcements of general amnesty and urging women to return to work appeared to indicate progress may have been made.

Muttaqi, a former higher education minister when the Taliban last ruled, began making contacts with Afghan political leaders even before President Ashraf Ghani secretly slipped away from the presidential palace at the weekend.

Ghani’s departure left a devastating vacuum that Taliban who were surrounding the city strode in to fill.

Muttaqi had reached out to US-allied warlords prior to Kabul’s collapse, seemingly starting the process of greater inclusivity in their government.

The talks under way are aimed at bringing other non-Taliban leaders into the government, which Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen earlier said would be an “inclusive Afghan government”.

Shaheen earlier told AP a government would be announced after negotiations were completed.

It was impossible to predict the Taliban would retake Afghanistan so swiftly after the withdrawal of international troops, Dominic Raab has said, arguing: “No one saw this coming.”

Speaking to the media following his return from holiday, after chaotic and deadly scenes at Kabul airport on Sunday, the UK foreign secretary said US and British troops had stabilised the airport, allowing evacuations to resume.

If you want more details on the UK government’s response this morning to events in Afghanistan, Peter Walker, of the Guardian politics team, has the story.

In the UK, ministers are expected to announce plans for a new settlement scheme for Afghan nationals following the Taliban takeover of the country. Similar to a scheme put in place for Syrians in 2014 amid the country’s civil war, this would be in addition to existing structures to assist some Afghan nationals.

Our political correspondent, Peter Walker, has looked at how it may work.

Turkey’s Anadolu agency has the latest on the Turkish foreign ministry’s position on the new political situation in Afghanistan.

ANADOLU AGENCY (@anadoluagency)

#BREAKING Turkey in dialogue with all sides in Afghanistan, including Taliban, says Turkish foreign minister

August 17, 2021 ANADOLU AGENCY (@anadoluagency)

Turkey welcomes messages given by Taliban so far, says Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu

August 17, 2021 ANADOLU AGENCY (@anadoluagency)

Turkey will continue to support Afghanistan's economic development, stability, peace, says Cavusoglu during joint press conference with Jordan's foreign minister

August 17, 2021

States should halt forced returns of undocumented migrants to Afghanistan, the International Organization for Migration has said, as it announced it was pausing its reintegration programme for returnees to the country.

In a statement published on Tuesday, the agency, which has 174 member states, said its operations had been hampered by instability and recent security developments in Kabul, which had made movement in and out of the country more difficult.

Nearly 400,000 Afghans have been displaced since the beginning of the year as a result of ongoing violence, IOM said; more than 5 million others are already internally displaced and reliant on humanitarian aid. Programmes to support those displaced people would continue as far as possible.

The statement, published on the IOM website, added:

Considering the prevailing insecurity across the country, the Organization’s Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) programme, as well as post arrival reintegration assistance to returnees, have been put on hold for now.

IOM also commends the decisions by several States to halt forced returns to Afghanistan and calls for wider adoption of this moratorium.

Ensuring the safety of civilians is paramount and should be a priority for all concerned. IOM urges all parties to continue efforts to maintain dialogue and works towards a peaceful resolution of the situation, prioritising the welfare of the Afghan people.

We echo the call by United Nations secretary-general António Guterres for an immediate end to violence and the protection of the rights of civilians.

It seems the Twitter account from which I earlier posted videos of Taliban fighters enjoying funfair rides, apparently in Kabul, has been deleted. Mediavenir, a French news publication, also has them on its Twitter feed.

Mediavenir (@Mediavenir)

🇦🇫 #Afghanistan : les #talibans ont pris le contrôle d’un parc d’attractions à #Kaboul. (témoins) pic.twitter.com/BukACDf5v2

August 16, 2021 Mediavenir (@Mediavenir)

🇦🇫 #Afghanistan : d’autres images de la prise de contrôle du parc par les #talibans. (témoins) #Kabul #Kaboul pic.twitter.com/oqzb07KOLb

August 16, 2021

Earlier videos were circulating that appeared to show Taliban mujahideen fighters enjoying the rides at a Kabul funfair. Now, in the latest surreal scenes from the Afghan capital, militants have found their way into the presidential palace gym. It looks like they could do with a few tips on working out.

Sune Engel Rasmussen (@SuneEngel)

Surreal scene from Kabul v 2: Talibs working out in the presidential palace gym (mistaking the gym for a carousel) pic.twitter.com/Y2TsUK8EIa

August 17, 2021

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