Taliban vow to implement Islamic laws, honour women's right
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said they do not have any animosity towards anybody.
KABUL (Dunya News) – Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid on Tuesday said that Afghanistan faces major challenges and assured that there will be no confrontation with anyone.
Addressing a press conference in Kabul on Tuesday, he said that freedom was our ligitimate right, adding that they do not have any animosity towards anybody. The spokesperson also congratulated the Afghan people.
“I would like to assure the international community, including the United States, that nobody will be harmed,” he said and added Afghanistan would not be part of any war.
Zabihullah Mujahid asserted that rights of women will be protected within the limits of Islamic law. “The women are going to be very active in the society, but within the framework of Islam,” he said.
He said private media could continue to be free and independent in Afghanistan, adding the Taliban was committed to the media within its cultural framework.
Mujahid went on to say that the Taliban would soon be establishing a government, but gave little detail of its make-up apart from saying they would "connect with all sides".
Asked what the difference between the movement that was ousted 20 years ago and the Taliban of today, he said: "If the question is based on ideology, and beliefs, there is no difference... but if we calculate it based on experience, maturity, and insight, no doubt there are many differences." "The steps today will be positively different from the past steps," he added.
The spokesperson further said security of embassies in Kabul is very important and full security will be provided to embassies. He also assured security of embassies and diplomatic missions in Afghanistan.
He said the incompetence of the previous government had created a security problem in Kabul, adding, “We did not want to enter Kabul before the transfer of power but we entered Kabul to deal with an unfortunate incident.” “We had to enter Kabul to save the city from looting,” he added.
"We will act according to our religion and culture," the spokesman said, adding that the Western world should not be bothered by our values and culture.
NATO Secretary General
Earlier, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called on the Taliban to facilitate the departure of all those who want to leave Afghanistan, and said the Western defence alliance has agreed to send additional evacuation planes to Kabul.
He said that the member countries will send additional evacuation planes to Afghanistan’s capital city of Kabul. Jens Stoltenberg said that the Taliban should not allow Afghanistan to become a center of global terrorists.
The NATO Secretary General went on to say that the Afghan leadership and forces fail to fight Taliban. "Ultimately, the Afghan political leadership failed to stand up to the Taliban and to achieve the peaceful solution that Afghans desperately wanted," he said.
"This failure of the Afghan leadership led to the tragedy we are witnessing today."
Biden defends US pullout
Earlier today, US President Joe Biden had defended the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, even in the face of the Taliban s stunning victory, which prompted panic in Kabul with thousands mobbing the airport in a desperate attempt to flee.
In his address at the White House -- his first public appearance since the Islamist insurgents took control of the country in astonishing fashion at the weekend -- he admitted the Taliban advance had unfolded more quickly than expected.
And he did not shy away from heaping criticism at the Western-backed government that was overthrown in Kabul, saying US troops could not defend a nation whose leaders "gave up and fled," as did President Ashraf Ghani.
"We gave them every chance to determine their own future. We could not provide them with the will to fight for that future," Biden said, adding he could no longer ask US soldiers to risk their lives in the country, 20 years on.
"Our mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been nation-building."
Failure
Critics say the US reputation as a global power has been badly tarnished by the Taliban s victory, nearly 20 years after they were ousted from power by a US-led invasion over their support for Al-Qaeda.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the US-led NATO operation in Afghanistan "has not been as successful and has not been achieved in the way that we had planned".
Britain s Defence Secretary Ben Wallace described the Taliban takeover as a "failure of the international community", assessing that the West s intervention was a job only half-done.
The US government has insisted that its two decades of war in Afghanistan was a success, defined by quashing the Al-Qaeda threat, and that the mission had far expanded beyond its original goals.
Biden said he was "left again to ask of those who argue that we should stay: how many more generations of America s daughters and sons would you have me send to Afghanistan s civil war when Afghan troops will not?"
The United Nations Security Council said Monday the international community must ensure Afghanistan does not become a breeding ground for terrorism under the Taliban, following an emergency meeting in New York.
"The following days will be pivotal," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. "The world is watching. We cannot and must not abandon the people of Afghanistan."
