Pentagon concedes Taliban seeking military victory, not peace deal, in wake of US exit
by Jamie McIntyre, Senior Writer |
| July 13, 2021 07:10 AM
TALIBAN ‘CLEARLY HAVE GOVERNANCE DESIGNS’: The U.S. position is that with American troops gone, the Afghan government, supported by a U.S.-equipped, 300,000 strong military force, will be able to negotiate a sustainable and lasting peace with the Taliban from a position of strength.
Meanwhile, the Taliban, racking up battlefield gains and flushed with success, smell all-out victory and are making no moves to restart the moribund peace talks in Doha.
“I'm going to make it a habit not to get inside the Taliban's headspace here, and I'm certainly not going to talk about intelligence assessments,” said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby at yesterday’s briefing. “It is clear from what they are doing that they have governance designs certainly of a national scale. It is clear from what they are doing that they believe there is a military solution to the end of this conflict.”
“We continue to believe that the most sustainable and the most responsible end and solution to this war is a political one, one through negotiated diplomacy. A negotiated settlement that is Afghan-led. Nothing has changed about our desire to see that be the outcome,” Kirby said.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/pentagon-concedes-taliban-seeking-military-victory-not-peace-deal-in-wake-of-us-exit
