Wanderlust

Tag: Taliban

  • BBC reporter’s terrifying days amid Taliban assault on Ghazni

    Symbol copyright Reuters Symbol caption Many citizens have now fled Ghazni after cowering in their houses for days

    The Taliban’s brazen attack on the strategic city of Ghazni, south of the capital Kabul, has come as a huge blow to the Afghan govt and its international allies. a minimum of ONE HUNDRED FORTY contributors of the security forces and 60 civilians died in 5 days of combating, at the side of possibly masses of Taliban opponents, before the militants had been pushed back.

    BBC Pashto journalist Assadullah Jalalzai spent 3 days beneath siege earlier than coping with to escape town, which now appears to be again in executive control. here is his account of what happened.

    Friday, 10 August – ‘They came dressed as soldiers’

    The silence in town was once unexpectedly damaged with speedy heavy gunfire at round 00:30. It woke everyone up. My childrens started crying. the first thing I did was once to move everybody away from the windows. Moments later I heard my elderly neighbour calling out loudly and warning: “do not step out of your houses.”

    My neighbour to the facet began knocking on the wall to just be sure that we have been alert and k. no person slept for the remaining of the night, not even the little ones.

    in the morning, residents may just see black smoke rising from many parts of the city. All of the telecommunications towers are located on a unmarried hill and all had been on hearth. there was a whole communications shutdown.

    Image caption BBC journalist Assadullah Jalalzai was an eyewitness to the Taliban assault on Ghazni

    The Reality used to be Taliban opponents had attacked Ghazni from all four directions and heavy clashes had endured all the way through the town for many of the primary day. We spent the evening paying attention to light gunfire and helicopters circling the skies.

    No-one knew what used to be going down to their next-door neighbours. It used to be simply too dangerous to step out of your entrance door.

    Saturday, ELEVEN August – ‘Running out of drugs’

    Taliban opponents had been now inside of the city, right within the centre of it. They set fire to a police training centre in Cinema Sq.. Some Other workforce of fighters stood on Damaged Bridge, retaining their system weapons and rocket launchers.

    Now Not distant there were Afghan army squaddies at the back of the golf green Mosque. The Gap between the 2 sides used to be not more than 100m. Gunfire erupted as quickly as a soldier or a Taliban fighter stepped out from behind a wall.

    And in the middle of all this there were citizens looking to flee, crouching as they moved to bypass a bullet to the top. In a desperate scenario, extra unhealthy information arrived. The electricity provide to town were close down.

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    The local clinic was overcrowded with masses of injured other folks. I saw dozens of dead our bodies lying on best of each different and those desperately in search of relatives a few of the useless and wounded. you would pay attention a noisy cry and also you could realize that they had identified one in all the lifeless.

    Then an ambulance arrived with more injured people. the driving force advised us they were Taliban warring parties.

    Image copyright Reuters

    The Top of the medical institution grew to become to him and stated: “Take them to another sanatorium. now we have injured cops inside of. The last item i would like is for them to begin firing at one another within the health facility.”

    The injured were lying on the sanatorium lawn. Six docs had been seeking to attend to them. Physician Baz Mohammad advised me: “we are working out of medicine. we won’t even provide first support.”

    In the center of all this chaos, other folks endured to go looking for members of the family. one in every of them, Ghulam Sanayi, stated he had no longer heard from his brother, a shopkeeper, since the morning. “i’ve been going from one health facility to a different the entire day.”

    Other People have been additionally running out of food. there were simplest two bakeries within the complete town still open. One unmarried piece of bread now cost 50-60 Afghanis (£0.54-0.64; $0.70-$0.85). It had been best 10 Afghanis days earlier.

    Sunday, 12 August – ‘They stopped those fleeing town’

    Fighting continued at the 3rd day. i’ll now not remove the photographs of utter chaos on the health center from my head as i made up my mind to escape the town.

    It was once night and dark outdoor. I noticed 4 army humvees in the north of Ghazni. there were safety forces personnel status round them, stopping those who have been looking to get out and asking them questions.

    i was stopped too. I advised them i used to be going to a close-by village just out of doors town. They allow the group i used to be with go. Moments later, we have been on the street to Kabul, NINETY miles (148km) north.

    Taliban warring parties tried to forestall our car when we reached the Sayed Abad space of Wardak province, approximately midway there. Our driving force circled neatly and sped away. After riding thru many villages we in the end arrived in Maidan Shar, an hour from Kabul.

    After 3 days of terror, we were out of danger.

    Image copyright Reuters Symbol caption Squaddies had been checking automobiles at the Ghazni-Kabul freeway

  • WHO ARE the Taliban?

    Austere rule

    The Taliban emerged in the early nineties in northern Pakistan following the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.

    Symbol copyright AFP/Getty Pictures Image caption The Taliban have introduced a sequence of fatal attacks in Kabul – including one at the Afghan parliament in June 2015

    A predominantly Pashtun motion, the Taliban got here to prominence in Afghanistan in the autumn of 1994.

    It is often believed that they first seemed in religious seminaries – mostly paid for through cash from Saudi Arabia – which preached a troublesome line form of Sunni Islam.

    The Taliban’s promise – in Pashtun spaces straddling Pakistan and Afghanistan – used to be to revive peace and security and implement their very own austere version of Sharia, or Islamic law, as soon as in power.

    In each international locations they introduced or supported Islamic punishments – reminiscent of public executions of convicted murderers and adulterers and amputations of these discovered guilty of theft.

    Men had been required to develop beards and women had to put on the all-overlaying burka.

    The Taliban banned tv, music and cinema and disapproved of ladies elderly 10 and over from going to school.

    Symbol copyright AFP/Getty Pictures Symbol caption Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud was once killed in a US drone strike in 2013

    The Taliban in Afghanistan have been accused of offering a sanctuary to Osama Bin Laden and the al-Qaeda motion who have been blamed for the attacks.

    Soon after NINE/ELEVEN the Taliban had been driven from energy in Afghanistan by means of a US-led coalition, although their chief Mullah Mohammad Omar was not captured.

    In latest years the Taliban re-emerged in Afghanistan and grew some distance stronger in Pakistan, the place observers say there’s loose co-ordination among different Taliban factions and militant groups.

    The primary Pakistani faction was once led by way of Hakimullah Mehsud till his loss of life. His Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is blamed for dozens of suicide bombings and other attacks.

    Observers warn in opposition to over-declaring the life of one unified insurgency towards the Pakistani state, however.

    For years the Taliban in Afghanistan were led by way of Mullah Omar, a village clergyman who misplaced his proper eye preventing the occupying forces of the Soviet Union in the 1980s.

    Afghans, weary of the mujahideen’s excesses and infighting after the Soviets were pushed out, normally welcomed the Taliban after they first seemed on the scene.

    Their early reputation was largely as a result of their luck in stamping out corruption, curtailing lawlessness and making the roads and the spaces under their control secure for trade to flourish.

    US onslaught

    From south-western Afghanistan, the Taliban briefly extended their influence.

    They captured the province of Herat, bordering Iran, in September 1995.

    Image copyright Reuters Image caption Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai was once shot by means of Taliban gunmen in October 2012

    Precisely 12 months later, they captured the Afghan capital, Kabul, after overthrowing the regime of President Burhanuddin Rabbani and his defence minister, Ahmed Shah Masood.

    By 1998, they had been in control of almost 90% of Afghanistan.

    They have been accused of various human rights and cultural abuses. One notorious instance used to be in 2001, when the Taliban went ahead with the destruction of the well-known Bamiyan Buddha statues in primary Afghanistan, despite global outrage.

    On October 7, 2001, a US-led military coalition invaded Afghanistan and by the first week of December the Taliban regime had collapsed.

    Mullah Omar and his comrades evaded seize despite one in all the most important manhunts within the global.

    Many senior Taliban leaders take refuge within the Pakistani town of Quetta, from the place they guide the Taliban, analysts say.

    however the existence of what’s dubbed the “Quetta Shura” is denied by Islamabad, despite the fact that there may be so much evidence to the contrary.

    Despite ever higher numbers of foreign troops, the Taliban have incessantly prolonged their affect, rendering huge tracts of Afghanistan insecure, and violence within the country has lower back to ranges not noticed because 2001.

    Their retreat in the years after 2001 enabled them to limit their human and subject matter losses and return with a vengeance.

    There had been a large number of Taliban attacks on Kabul in recent years and, in September 2012, the crowd performed a top-profile raid on Nato’s Camp Bastion base.

    In the similar month the u.s. army passed regulate of the arguable Bagram prison – housing more than THREE,000 Taliban fighters and terrorism suspects – to the Afghan authorities.

    In September 2015 the Taliban seized control of a provincial capital for the primary time due to the fact their defeat in 2001, taking regulate of the strategically essential town of Kunduz.

    The US is keeping with regards to 10,000 troops in Afghanistan, however the Taliban finds itself an increasingly more splintered service provider – that is also threatened by way of the upward push of the so-referred to as Islamic State militant workforce in Afghanistan.

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  • Jalaluddin Haqqani, founding father of Afghan militant network, dies

    Jalaluddin Haqqani Image copyright AFP Image caption Jalaluddin Haqqani and the network were behind many prime profile terror attacks

    The founder of the Haqqani militant network has died after a few years of illness, the Afghan Taliban has announced.

    Jalaluddin Haqqani used to be a significant militant figure in Afghanistan and had close ties to both the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

    The Haqqani community has been behind a lot of the co-ordinated attacks on Afghan and Nato forces in latest years.

    His son is thought to have taken over regulate of the gang in 2001.

    “Just as he persevered great hardships for the religion of Allah throughout his formative years and well being, he also persisted lengthy sickness all through his later years,” a press release from the Afghan Taliban said.

    there were no details within the statement about the date or place of his demise.

    Rumours about Haqqani’s demise have circulated for years.

    In 2015, assets with regards to the gang instructed the BBC that the leader had died no less than a 12 months sooner than. This was once never showed.

    ‘Exemplary warrior’

    Jalaluddin Haqqani was an Afghan guerrilla leader who fought Soviet troops that occupied Afghanistan in 1980s.

    US officials have admitted that at the time he was once a prized asset of the Vital Intelligence Agency (CIA).

    However, he later allied himself to the Taliban once they took energy in Afghanistan in 1996.

    In its observation, the Taliban known as Jalaluddin an “exemplary warrior… and among the great distinguished Jihadi personalities of this era”.

    The Haqqani workforce were blamed for a few of the deadliest attacks within the usa, together with a truck bomb explosion in Kabul in 2017 that killed more than A HUNDRED AND FIFTY people.

  • Afghanistan Islamic State leader ‘killed in air strike’

    A line of IS members in front of weapons Image copyright Reuters Symbol caption Approximately 150 participants of the gang surrendered in north-western Afghanistan this month

    The leader of the Islamic State (IS) workforce in Afghanistan was once killed in an air strike on Saturday, Afghan officers say.

    Abu Saad Erhabi and 10 different participants are said to have died in an operation within the jap province of Nangarhar, close to the border with Pakistan.

    He is the fourth Afghan chief of the crowd to be killed in contemporary years.

    The IS affiliate has been lively there because 2014, claiming a bunch of fatal up to date attacks.

    it’s occasionally referred to as Islamic State Khorasan after a historical identify for Afghanistan and surrounding areas.

    How a success has IS been in Afghanistan? Afghanistan u . s . profile

    The National Directorate of Security in Kabul said the moves that killed Erhabi were a part of a joint air and flooring operation carried out along US-led coalition forces.

    US officials didn’t ensure his dying however stated they’d performed a strike within the space focused on “a senior chief of a delegated terrorist employer”.

    The earlier chief of Islamic State Khorasan, Abu Sayed, was killed in a US strike on the group’s headquarters in Kunar province in July 2017.

    the group has been blamed for a bunch of assaults in Afghanistan this yr – together with a suicide bombing at a Kabul education centre that killed dozens of individuals.

    the crowd has no longer commented on the reviews of Erhabi’s loss of life.

  • Rockets hit Kabul’s diplomatic house all through Eid speech

    Afghan security forces arrive at the site of a rocket attack in Kabul, Afghanistan August 21, 2018 Symbol copyright Reuters Symbol caption Afghan security forces patrolled the realm after the rocket assault

    Militants have fired rockets at the diplomatic quarter of the Afghan capital Kabul all over a speech by way of the president to mark a Muslim holiday.

    President Ashraf Ghani was once speaking survive television to have a good time Eid al-Adha whilst explosions were heard, a few of them near the presidential palace.

    Smoke and helicopters may well be observed above the Reka Khana district, an AFP news company photographer said.

    Mr Ghani’s demand an Eid ceasefire was once rejected by way of Taliban militants.

    As troops secured the world centered, it used to be still not clear who had fired the rockets or if any casualties have been brought about.

  • Why are UK and US sending extra troops to Afghanistan?

    A US Army helicopter flies over Camp Shorab in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Image copyright Getty Pictures

    Top Minister Theresa May has announced that 440 more British military team of workers will sign up for the Nato venture in Afghanistan. But how do the uk and US allies see their position in the u . s . a .?

    the additional troops will be ferrying global advisors accurately round the country’s capital town, Kabul, in their Foxhound automobiles in what has been dubbed “Armoured Uber”. All a part of the Nato project to train, suggest and lend a hand the Afghan security forces.

    For British squaddies and most of Nato’s forces it is no longer a combat project. It Is now nearly four years for the reason that British troops left the warmth and dirt of Afghanistan’s Helmand province. It’s where loads misplaced their lives. As Of Late the Taliban still keep an eye on such a lot of Helmand.

    The Afghan military has been suffering to fill its ranks on account of the reluctance of guys to serve. Nowhere extra so than in Helmand.

    The unit we saw being skilled was already significantly under-strength. They Would been pulled off the battlefield after almost two years of “severe preventing”. We have been informed they would suffered top charges of attrition – a mix of casualties and desertions.

    Latest recruits were brought to their number. Continuously, the first time they understand they’re being sent to Helmand is once they get on a plane in Kabul.

    Lt Col Jon Connelly, The U.s. Marine overseeing the training of this unit, says it’s still “70% below strength”. I ask him if that is a worry. “it’s,” he says, but with “time and recruiting and loyal advising the senior leadership will enhance the situation”.

    They could also be short on numbers but there had been enhancements in the general high quality of the Afghan security forces. They do now have their very own fledgling air drive and effective elite combat units. Total, the Afghan army also seems to be better educated and supplied. But there’s still a long technique to pass.

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    We went out on patrol with them at the main path thru Helmand – Freeway 1. The Street is frequently targeted by Taliban roadside bombs. However some of our escorts seemed more in their entertainment along the way in which, with Bollywood hits piped via a stereo speaker. A Few have been smoking cannabis. They nonetheless don’t always look, sound and even scent like a professional army.

    But wish hasn’t utterly shrivelled in the intense warmth of Helmand. Gen Watson says he’d “never cross thus far as to mention we have turned a corner” however up to date events have proven “chances we’ve by no means noticed earlier than”.

    That sense of optimism is much more palpable in the capital, Kabul. It Is born out of a up to date three-day ceasefire over Eid, the competition marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. It’s the first time there is been a pause in the fighting in 17 years of war.

    In that brief respite, Taliban fighters entered the town and mingled with their enemy – the Afghan safety forces. the two sides even posed together, smiling for the cameras.

    Symbol copyright Getty Pictures

    Lt Gen Richard Cripwell, probably the most senior British army officer in Afghanistan, describes it as an “odd moment”.

    He says there’s now a chance for peace “that was virtually unimaginable six months ago”. “There Is A frame of the Taliban that desires to be part of the future of their u . s . a ..”

    Britain’s ambassador to Afghanistan, Sir Nicholas Kay, says the ceasefire was without precedent and an indication that Afghans “are speaking more and extra about peace”. “No-one,” he adds, “is speaking approximately fighting their approach to victory to any extent further.”

    Symbol caption Lt Gen Richard Cripwell says there’s an opportunity for peace within the u . s .

    the whole commander of Nato forces in the u . s ., The Us’s Gen John Nicholson, describes the scenes as an “nearly universal outpouring of give a boost to for peace”.

    That appears like a wildly positive observation. However he tells me the key components for talks now exist – namely, the be offering to the Taliban from The United States for direct talks and a dialogue about world troop numbers. He says: “the bottom is closing among the two aspects.”

    there’s some evidence to signify that may be happening. Just over every week ago, a senior US diplomat held mystery talks with Taliban officers in Doha. It follows a push by the Trump administration to interact straight away with the militants. it’s been defined as a initial dialogue.

    however the reality is there is still no “peace procedure”. An try to prolong the truce through the Afghan government, with an additional 10-day ceasefire, was left out by way of the Taliban.

    Image caption Troops from the Afghan National Army undergo coaching in Helmand province

    The Taliban have shown little need to have interaction in talks with President Ashraf Ghani’s executive, which they nonetheless view as a puppet of The United States. Nor are the Taliban the one ones involved within the combat.

    the group calling itself Islamic State now has a grasp in the east of the country. they have been liable for a spate of suicide attacks.

    While Britain may have turned its back on Helmand, it hasn’t given up on Afghanistan. There continues to be world unravel. Sir Nicholas Kay says: “the method is operating.”

    But alternatively that is exactly what I heard such a lot of occasions from so many senior British military officers during their time in Helmand.

    After 17 years of fighting, peace is still just a desire, no longer a truth, in Afghanistan.

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  • Ghazni: Afghans in battlefield city ‘can’t find food’

    An Afghan family, who have escaped from the volatile city of Ghazni province, poses for a photograph in the entrance gate of Kabul, Afghanistan, 13 August 2018. Symbol copyright EPA Image caption Some households have controlled to get out of Ghazni, where meals is operating low

    Meals provides in the Afghan town of Ghazni are working low, as a fight with the Taliban rages for a fourth day, the UN has warned.

    “Life is getting hard for people, they cannot get meals or water,” a person who fled the city on Sunday advised the BBC.

    More than 100 other folks, mostly government soldiers and police, were killed because the Taliban stormed Ghazni from 4 sides early on Friday.

    The town lies on the key highway between Kabul and Kandahar.

    Control of it will successfully allow the Taliban to cut off southern Afghanistan from Kabul, the capital. The good fortune of the militants’ attack has come as a blow to the government of President Ashraf Ghani.

    A Few Afghan lawmakers have also accused the federal government of ignoring their warnings about the worsening security situation in the region.

    Late on Sunday, Mr Ghani stated he was once sending urgent reinforcements to town “to consolidate operational profits”. The United States-led Nato venture in Afghanistan carried out 10 air strikes on Monday and said “clearing operations” were ongoing.

    It accused the Taliban of the usage of civilians as cover and said the group had “completed not anything”.

    Separately, it is reported that a minimum of 100 Afghan army commandoes have long past lacking in the east of Ghazni province, in Ajristan district. Officials have denied the reports.

    The fight for Ghazni and attacks elsewhere in Afghanistan come as force keeps at the Taliban to enter peace talks with the Afghan government.

    Secret talks have been recently held in Qatar among Taliban and US officials after an exceptional 3-day ceasefire during Eid celebrations in June that was once largely revered through both sides.

  • Taliban assault on Afghan city of Ghazni enters third day

    An Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier keeps watch at a checkpoint on the Ghazni highway, in Maidan Shar, the capital of Wardak province, Afghanistan August 12, 2018 Symbol copyright Reuters Image caption A soldier keeps watch at the Ghazni road

    A Taliban assault on the Afghan city of Ghazni has entered its third day – with intense combating and conflicting claims over who controls the strategic city.

    Mohammad Sharif Yaftali, the Afghan army’s chief-of-personnel, mentioned Ghazni was once no longer under risk of falling into the militants’ hands.

    But other folks within Ghazni say it has been overrun, with very little nonetheless underneath govt keep watch over.

    The Taliban introduced the attack in the early hours of Friday.

    By overdue Friday morning, at no less than 16 other folks were killed and many more injured. Native television station 1TV says the selection of fatalities has risen to greater than 100, but there is no official confirmation.

    A reporter for information company AFP in Ghazni stated the Taliban were not hiding in any respect, but roaming across the city, the place they are in control of a couple of police checkpoints and feature been setting fire to executive offices.

    There also are reports the street outdoor the town has been mined, making it tough for residents to escape.

    Abdul Wakil, who had managed to escape, advised Reuters: “There Has Been burning and fire and useless bodies all over within the town.”

    The assault comes as pressure keeps at the Taliban to enter peace talks with the Afghan executive.

    Secret talks had been not too long ago held in Qatar among Taliban and US officers after an unprecedented three-day ceasefire all through Eid celebrations in June that used to be in large part revered by all sides.

  • Midwife coaching centre attacked in Afghanistan’s Jalalabad

    Afghan security officials secure the road outside the scene of the attack Symbol copyright EPA Symbol caption Safety officials are attempting to rescue the rest midwives and scholars

    An Afghan midwife coaching centre has come underneath attack through militants, with a minimum of three folks injured.

    The attackers set off explosives and fired gunshots on the centre in Jalalabad, Nangarhar province.

    Some students and midwives were rescued, however others are still trapped inside the compound, experiences say.

    No staff has but stated it is in the back of the attack, even supposing Islamic State militants have claimed a number of latest attacks in the jap province.

    The attack started at round 11:30 local time (07:00 GMT) on Saturday, provincial spokesman Attaullah Khogyani mentioned.

    Symbol Copyright @TOLOnews @TOLOnews

    An eyewitness told AFP that the attackers looked as if it would have positioned explosive gadgets within the street close to the complex.

    It is not clear why the midwife coaching centre was targeted.

    However, militants regularly choose professional buildings and clinical amenities for their assaults, and plenty of Afghans are against unmarried women running outdoor their homes.

    More than 50% of births in Afghanistan take place without a educated midwife.

    the country has one in every of the highest maternal mortality charges in the global – 396 deaths in step with ONE HUNDRED,000 reside births – smartly above the worldwide average of 216 deaths.

    Media playback is unsupported on your tool

    Media captionTraining midwives in Afghanistan

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  • Pakistan official: U.S. should end Afghanistan war with Taliban

    The United States must abandon any hope of winning the war in Afghanistan on the battlefield and seek a peace deal with the Taliban, Pakistan’s top national security official said Tuesday.

    ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The United States must abandon any hope of winning the war in Afghanistan on the battlefield and seek a peace deal with the Taliban, Pakistan’s top national security official said Tuesday.

    “End the suffering of Afghanistan and of its people. Let us seek the closure of the conflict instead of winning it,” Pakistani National Security Adviser Nasser Khan Janjua, a former army general, said during an exclusive roundtable with reporters in the Pakistani capital.

    President Trump’s blueprint released last summer for the Afghanistan conflict, now in its 17th year, called for an escalated American military effort to force the radical Islamist Taliban to the bargaining table, but Mr. Trump questioned the idea of negotiations after a string of deadly Taliban and Islamic State strikes this year.

    The State Department says the U.S. government backs a peace process proposed by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani Feb. 28 that would allow the Taliban to organize as a political party if it agrees to end its insurgency and joins the political process. The U.S. has consistently rejected the Taliban’s demands for direct talks between Washington and the terrorist group and the immediate withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops from Afghanistan.

    Mr. Janjua called for the U.S. to forgo any hope of military victory amid reports that the U.S.-backed government in Kabul controls less than 60 percent of the war-torn country in the face of a resurgent Taliban.

    “It is not possible for the U.S. to win back 44 percent of Afghanistan,” he said, speaking at Pakistan’s National Security Division headquarters. “Let us resolve [the war] politically. Let us reconcile. How long do we want to continue to fight in Afghanistan?”

    Tensions between Islamabad and Washington soared in recent months in the aftermath of the Trump administration’s hard-line rhetoric against Pakistan’s role in the war on terrorist groups in South Asia, capped by a sharp cut in U.S. aid and military support programs in January.

    Members of the Financial Action Task Force, an international regulatory group combating terrorism financing, last month voted to put Pakistan on its watch list over its inability to curtail known terrorist groups’ funding and operations. The move could severely restrict foreign investment and movement of capital in and out of the country, Islamabad argues.

    Pakistan has rejected the criticism, citing its aggressive, costly four-year counterterrorism campaign against extremist groups along the volatile Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

    “We have already paid a heavy price,” Mr. Janjua said.

    Pakistan wants to repair relations with the Trump administration, he said, but is also prepared to take a step back from the U.S. and its regional goals in South Asia should the White House impose further economic sanctions or restrictions on the country’s armed forces.

    “Any unilateral action by the U.S. against Pakistan will create a huge, huge difficulty for us, and we will not be able to support the U.S.” in Afghanistan and the region, he said. Conversely, the White House’s embrace of a new peace road map in Afghanistan could bring the two longtime allies closer together.

    “Peace in Afghanistan means peace in Pakistan. Both countries have been suffering,” Mr. Janjua said. “This is the way forward. This is way to reduce the violence.”

    Mr. Ghani, who faces a national election in July, said late last month that he was ready to offer the Taliban a political role in the Afghan government, including the establishment of a political office in Kabul, should the organization’s leaders join stalled peace talks, an approach Mr. Janjua said was long overdue.

    “Why could he not have done this three years before?” he asked. “Ashraf Ghani has done a great thing” with the peace offer.

    While supporting Afghanistan peace talks that include the Taliban, Alice Wells, the State Department’s top diplomat on South and Central Asian affairs, flatly ruled out any support for bilateral talks between the Taliban and Washington.

    Mr. Ghani’s plan “is not a surrender that’s being offered to the Taliban, but a dignified process for reaching a political framework,” she told a group of reporters Tuesday, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

    Mr. Janjua urged Washington to be more flexible in dealing with the Taliban.

    “That is the U.S. way of thinking, so what can we do?” Mr. Janjua said regarding Washington’s opposition to face-to-face talks with the Taliban.

    An Afghanistan peace conference has been scheduled for late March in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent.