International community closely monitoring situation in Afghanistan

Kabul, Aug. 21 (IANS): As the situation in Afghanistan remains uncertain following the Taliban’s swift takeover of most parts of the country on August 15, the international community has warned against potential humanitarian challenges and expressed a willingness to help the country establish peace and stability.

In a phone conversation with the UK’s First Secretary of State and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on Thursday, Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that after more than 40 years of war, the Afghan people yearn for stability and do not want another war or more chaos, reports Xinhua news agency.

It also shows that governance imposed from the outside has not been supported by the Afghan people, and lacks a social foundation, Wang said, adding that relying on military intervention to solve regional hotspot issues will lead nowhere.

Raab agreed that the international community should sum up experience and lessons from Afghanistan, saying that the country should not become an epicentre of terrorism once again.

The international community should cooperate on the issue of Afghan refugees, Raab said, noting that the UK has announced that it will take in 20,000 Afghan refugees and is ready to increase humanitarian and development assistance to Afghanistan in support of the UN in helping the neighbouring countries of Afghanistan accept refugees.

Also on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin held phone conversations with French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.

Putin and Macron noted the importance of ensuring the safety of civilians and addressing pressing humanitarian challenges.

They expressed a willingness to help establish peace and stability in Afghanistan through cooperation, including efforts within the framework of the UN Security Council and the G20.

During the talks between Putin and Draghi, both sides underlined the significance of preventing a humanitarian catastrophe and ensuring the safety of the Afghan people.

Putin and Draghi stressed the need to further counter the spread of terrorist ideology and deal with the drug threat emanating from Afghanistan.

The leaders called for consolidating international efforts to help establish peace and stability in the country.

As chaos continues at the Kabul airport amid the hasty withdrawal of US-led military troops, the G7 on Thursday sought to secure close cooperation in personnel evacuation and the resettlement of refugees.

The Foreign Ministers of the G7 as well as the high representative of the European Union met online and “spoke about the gravity of the situation and the significant loss of life and internal displacement in Afghanistan over recent days”.

The G7 will continue efforts to evacuate vulnerable persons from Kabul airport, the ministers concurred during Thursday’s meeting, which set the stage for a virtual meeting of G7 leaders on Afghanistan early next week.

At the same time, the blame game has intensified in Washington as the White House is scrambling to contain the fallout of a humiliating end to the 20-year war in Afghanistan and Republicans are sparing no efforts to exploit President Joe Biden’s handling of the messy withdrawal from Kabul.

Since the US troops started to pull out of Afghanistan on May 1, the Taliban has been advancing quickly on the battlefield.

During the past two weeks, the group has captured most of Afghanistan’s territories.

After the takeover of the capital city, the Taliban said it intends to form an inclusive government and does not want to have any internal or external enemies.