The Taliban have offered to protect major government projects such as the mining of a big copper deposit and an international natural gas pipeline project to assist the development and prosperity of war-torn Afghanistan.

The insurgents have been behind much of the violence over the last 15 years that has frightened off investors, leaving Afghanistan unable to tap its vast natural resources and build the infrastructure necessary to wean itself off foreign aid.

Afghan civilians killed in NATO air strike in Kunduz

The armed group, which calls itself the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, maintains its fight is against foreign military forces and the foreign-backed government, not ordinary Afghans.

"The Islamic Emirate not only backs all national projects which are in the interest of the people and result in the development and prosperity of the nation but are also committed to safeguarding them," the Taliban said in a statement.

"The Islamic Emirate directs all its mujahideen to help in the security of all national projects that are in the higher interest of Islam and the country."

The fighters identified the $3bn Mes Aynak copper deposit in Logar province, near Kabul, as one project they would protect.

A Chinese company was awarded the mining contract nine years ago, but has yet to start production because of poor security and a lack of transport infrastructure.

The Taliban also mentioned the $10bn Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India (TAPI) gas pipeline project, and a regional electricity-generation effort linking Central Asia and South Asia, known as CASA-1000.

The Taliban statement came a day after the official launch of a railway link with neighbouring Turkmenistan.

Afghanistan: Explosion hits US airbase in Bagram

The armed group has been responsible for damaging millions of dollars worth of bridges and other infrastructure in just the last three months, however, the presidential palace noted.

"We are waiting to see the Taliban turn their statements into practice," said palace spokesman Shah Hussain Murtazawi.

The vulnerability of Afghanistan's infrastructure was underlined this year when power lines supplying the capital, Kabul, were cut, causing weeks of blackouts. The Taliban denied responsibility. </s> The Afghan Taliban, accused by the government of destroying millions of dollars’ worth of national improvements, vowed Tuesday to protect a new natural gas pipeline, a cooper mine, and upgrades to highways and railways.

A Taliban statement released by the group’s spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, said Taliban leadership does not oppose development projects that benefit the Afghan people and will work to guard projects from harm.

“The Islamic Emirate [Taliban movement] not only supports all national projects, which are in the interest of the people and result in the development and prosperity of the nation, but are also committed to protecting them,” according to the Taliban statement.

The Afghan government, which is battling Taliban insurgency in dozens of provinces across the country, called the statement disingenuous.

The government has accused the Taliban of repeatedly targeting infrastructure projects in the country, crippling Afghanistan’s ability to make improvements needed to decrease its dependency on foreign aid.

“Over the past few months, they [Taliban] have inflicted more than two billion Afghanis [about $300 million] of damage to infrastructure and public properties in 11 provinces,” Shah Hussain Murtazawi, a deputy presidential spokesman, told VOA’s Afghan service.

Murtazawi said the Taliban has destroyed 302 schools, 41 health clinics, 50 mosque minarets, 5,305 houses, 1,818 shops, a government building, six bridges, 293 overpasses, and 123 kilometers of roads in 11 provinces.

Last winter, millions of Kabul residents were left without a dependable power source for more than a month after the Taliban cut a critical power line providing electricity from neighboring Uzbekistan, in the country’s north.

“They have to prove their promises in action,” he added.

In some areas, the Taliban has allowed national projects to continue in return for receiving a financial percentage of project revenue, experts in Kabul said.

But Tuesday, Taliban leaders ordered its members to help protect the projects that are in the “higher interest of Islam and the country,” including the $10 billion Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project and the multibillion-dollar Mes Aynak, the Afghan-Chinese copper mine venture near Kabul.

Analysts said Tuesday’s statement reflects a Taliban effort to win over Afghan sentiments as it continues to push for more territorial control and also show foreigners that it will protect their investments.

The government is in control of 258 of the 407 Afghan districts, while the insurgent group controls 33, and 116 districts are “contested,” according to a recent U.S. military assessment.

The Taliban “aims to project itself as a more moderate version of other regional militant groups, including the Pakistani Taliban. For this reason, an expression of public support for a national project should not come as a surprise,” said Michael Kugelman, an Afghan analyst at the Wilson Center, a global policy research group.

The Taliban promise comes a day after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his Turkmen counterpart, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, inaugurated the Asian International Railway, which connects Afghanistan with countries in the region and, one day, with Europe. The Taliban has said it will not interfere in the railway operation.

Wahid Muzhda, a Kabul-based Taliban analyst, said the Taliban is attempting to assure neighboring Turkmenistan of its support.

“A delegation from Taliban’s Qatar office recently visited Turkmenistan to discuss the railway project,” Muzhda said. “They not only did not oppose the project, but also promised not to attack Afghan security personnel assigned to the security of the railway line project.”

But analyst Kugelman said the Taliban often goes back on its promises.

“There’s also good reason to believe that it would publicly praise a railway link like this one and then end up trying to blow up its infrastructure without admitting to doing so,” he said. </s> KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Ashraf Ghani offered recognition of the Taliban as a legitimate political group on Wednesday as part of a proposed political process that he said could lead to talks aimed at ending more than 16 years of war.

The offer, made at the start of an international conference aimed at creating a platform for peace talks, adds to a series of signals from both the Western-backed government and the Taliban suggesting a greater willingness to consider dialogue.

Ghani proposed a ceasefire and a release of prisoners as part of a range of options including new elections, involving the militants, and a constitutional review as part of a pact with the Taliban to end a conflict that last year alone killed or wounded more than 10,000 Afghan civilians.

“We are making this offer without preconditions in order to lead to a peace agreement,” Ghani said in opening remarks to the conference attended by officials from around 25 countries involved in the so-called Kabul Process.

“The Taliban are expected to give input to the peace-making process, the goal of which is to draw the Taliban, as an organisation, to peace talks,” he said, adding that he would not “pre-judge” any group seeking peace.

The comments, a month after a suicide attack in central Kabul killed around 100 people, represented a change in tone for Ghani, who has regularly called the Taliban “terrorists” and “rebels” although he has also offered to talk with parts of the movement that accepted peace.

The United Nations mission in Afghanistan welcomed the offer and said it “strongly supports the vision for peace through intra-Afghan dialogue”.

The Taliban, fighting to restore Islamic rule after their 2001 defeat by U.S.-led troops, have offered to begin talks with the United States but have so far refused direct talks with Kabul. It was unclear whether they would be prepared to shift their stance, despite growing international pressure.

However Ghani, who recently helped launch the latest stage in a major regional gas pipeline from Turkmenistan, said the momentum for peace was building from neighbouring countries that increasingly saw the necessity of a stable Afghanistan.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani speaks during during a peace and security cooperation conference in Kabul, Afghanistan February 28, 2018. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani

“The Taliban show awareness of these contextual shifts and seem to be engaged in a debate on the implications of acts of violence for their future,” he said.

POLITICAL OFFICE

Ghani said a framework for peace negotiations should be created with the Taliban recognised as a legitimate group, with their own political office to handle negotiations in Kabul or another agreed location.

Taliban officials have acknowledged that they have faced pressure from friendly countries to accept talks and said their recent offers to talk to the United States reflected concern that they could be seen to be standing in the way of peace.

There was no immediate response to Ghani’s offer although one Taliban official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was being studied by senior Taliban leaders.

Ghani said the process would be accompanied by coordinated diplomatic support including a global effort to persuade neighbouring Pakistan, which Kabul has regularly accused of aiding the Taliban, of the advantages of a stable Afghanistan.

He renewed an offer of talks with Pakistan, which rejects the accusations and points to the thousands of its citizens who have been killed by militant groups over the years.

In return for Ghani’s offer, the Taliban would have to recognise the Afghan government and respect the rule of law, including the rights of women, one of the priorities for Afghanistan’s international partners.

In addition, Taliban prisoners could be released and their names removed from international blacklists, while security arrangements could be made for Taliban agreeing to join a process of reconciliation. Former fighters and refugees could be reintegrated and provided with jobs.

Slideshow (5 Images)

The United States last year stepped up its military assistance to Afghanistan, notably through a sharp increase in air strikes, with the aim of breaking a stalemate with the insurgents and forcing them to the negotiating table.

While the U.S. military says the strategy has hit the Taliban hard, they still control or contest much of the country and continue to inflict severe casualties on Afghan forces.

They also claimed responsibility for two major attacks in Kabul last month that killed or wounded hundreds of civilians. </s> ISLAMABAD (AP) — In a rare diplomatic foray and the strongest sign yet of increasing Taliban political clout in the region, the head of the insurgents’ political office led a delegation to Uzbekistan to meet senior Foreign Ministry officials there, Uzbek and Taliban officials said.

Taliban political chief Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai represented the insurgents in the four-day talks that ended on Friday and included meetings with Uzbekistan’s Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov as well as the country’s special representative to Afghanistan Ismatilla Irgashev.

The meetings follow an offer made by Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev in March to broker peace in Afghanistan.

Suhail Shaheen, spokesman for the Taliban’s political office in Qatar, said in a statement to The Associated Press on Saturday that discussions covered everything from withdrawal of international troops from Afghanistan to peace prospects and possible Uzbek-funded development projects that could include railway lines and electricity.

Shaheen said Uzbek officials discussed their security concerns surrounding the development projects.

“The Taliban also exchanged views with the Uzbek officials about the withdrawal of the foreign troops and reconciliation in Afghanistan,” he said in the statement.

Uzbek’s Foreign Affairs Ministry website offered a terse announcement on the visit, saying “the sides exchanged views on prospects of the peace process in Afghanistan. “

Still, the meetings are significant, coming as the Taliban are ramping up pressure on Afghan security forces with relentless and deadly attacks. Washington has held preliminary talks with the insurgents in an attempt to find a negotiated end to Afghanistan’s protracted war.

The Taliban have gained increasing attention from Russia as well as Uzbekistan, which view the insurgency as a bulwark against the spread of the Islamic State group in Afghanistan. The United States has accused Moscow of giving weapons to the Taliban.

Still, Andrew Wilder, vice president of Asia programs at the U.S. Institute of Peace said Washington would welcome a “constructive” Russian role in finding a way toward a peace pact in Afghanistan.

“What wouldn’t be helpful would be if the Uzbek efforts to facilitate lines of communication with the Taliban are not closely coordinated with the Afghan government,” he said.

“High profile talks by foreign governments with the Taliban that exclude the Afghan government risk providing too much legitimacy to the Taliban without getting much in return,” Wilder said.

On Sunday, Ehsanullah Taheri, the spokesman of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council, a wide-encompassing body tasked with finding a path to peace with the government’s armed opponents, said Uzbek officials had the Afghan government’s approval for the meeting.

“Afghan government welcomes any effort regarding the Afghan peace process, especially those attempts which can lead us to an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led peace process,” said Taheri.

Still, there was no indication from either side that progress toward substantive talks between the Taliban and the government was made.

For Uzbekistan, the IS presence is particularly worrisome as hundreds of its fighters are former members of the radical Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a declared terrorist group considered the architect of some of the more horrific attacks carried out by IS in Afghanistan.

Last year, there were reports that the son of Tahir Yuldashev, the powerful Uzbek leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, who was killed in a U.S. missile strike in Pakistan in 2009, was leading efforts to help expand IS influence in Afghanistan.

Last week, Afghan security forces reportedly rescued scores of Afghan Uzbeks who had declared their allegiance to IS when they came under attack by Taliban fighters in northern Afghanistan, not far from the border with Uzbekistan. The rescued Uzbek warriors subsequently declared they would join the peace process.

Most of those rescued were Afghan Uzbeks loyal to Afghanistan’s Vice President Rashid Dostum who wet over and joined IS after Dostum fell out with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and fled to Turkey in May last year to live in self-imposed exile there.

Coincidentally, the rescue of Afghan Uzbeks from the battle with the Taliban came just days after Dostum returned to Afghanistan and reconciled with Ghani’s government.

Associated Press Writer Rahim Faiez in Kabul, Afghanistan contributed to this report </s> Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the head of the Taliban’s political office in Qatar has travelled to Uzbekistan last week where he has held talks with senior officials from Uzbekistan’s Foreign Ministry, Taliban and Uzbek officials confirmed.

The Uzbek Foreign Ministry said that the two sides have “exchanged views on peace prospects in Afghanistan”. The Taliban insurgent group also confirmed the visit in a statement posted online on Sunday.

According to the statement, a delegation of Taliban has visited Uzbekistan from August 6 to August 10 after a formal invitation from Uzbekistan.

The talks focused on a range of issues, including the withdrawal of international forces from Afghanistan, peace and Uzbek development projects in Afghanistan such as security for railroad and power lines, the statement said.

The insurgent group added that their delegation has met with Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdul Aziz Kamilov and the Special Representative of the President of Uzbekistan for Afghanistan Ismatulla Irgashev.

There was no immediate reaction from Afghan officials in Kabul.

The development came months after Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev offered to host talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

“We stand ready to create all necessary conditions, at any stage of the peace process, to arrange direct talks between the government of Afghanistan and Taliban movement,” President Mirziyoyev had told an international peace conference in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent on March 28.

The conference on the ‘Peace Process, Security Cooperation and Regional Connectivity’, which endorsed the Afghan government’s unconditional offer of direct talks with the Taliban, was backed by the international community.

The ‘Tashkent Declaration’ issued at the conference called upon the Taliban to accept the offer for a peace process in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council.’ </s> KABUL (Reuters) - A delegation from the Afghan Taliban met officials in Uzbekistan during a five-day trip to the country last week to discuss issues including transport and power lines and peace in Afghanistan, the movement’s political office said.

Muhammad Sohail Shaheen, spokesman for the Taliban’s political office, said on Saturday Taliban representatives met Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdul Aziz Kamilov and Special Representative for Afghanistan Ismatulla Irgashev during the Aug. 6-10 visit.

He said they “discussed current and future national projects such as security for railroad and power lines.”

“Views were also exchanged with officials of Uzbekistan about the withdrawal of foreign forces and how to achieve peace in Afghanistan,” he said.

The statement, issued as Taliban fighters were battling government forces for control of the central city of Ghazni, adds to a mixed series of signals since an unexpected three-day truce during the Eid al-Fitr holiday in June.

Taliban representatives have met U.S. officials to talk about the framework for possible peace talks and the Western-backed government is considering offering a second ceasefire during the Eid al-Adha holiday later this month.

But at the same time, fierce fighting has continued in different parts of Afghanistan, inflicting heavy casualties on soldiers and police and threatening the security of parliamentary elections scheduled in October.

The attack on Ghazni, which controls a vital highway between the capital Kabul and southern Afghanistan, has given the insurgents their highest profile success since they came close to taking the western city of Farah in May.

The rail and power links from Uzbekistan are vital both for cross-border trade and for maintaining Afghanistan’s shaky power supplies, which are already subject to frequent blackouts.

The Taliban, fighting to topple the Western-backed government and drive out international forces, have generally refrained from sabotaging vital infrastructure and have sought to reassure neighbouring countries about their aims.

A senior Taliban official said the movement had established a political office in the Uzbek capital Tashkent aimed at developing better ties and showing that they did not intend to support local insurgent groups. </s> KABUL (Reuters) - A delegation from the Afghan Taliban met officials in Uzbekistan during a five-day trip to the country last week to discuss issues including transport and power lines and peace in Afghanistan, the movement’s political office said.

Muhammad Sohail Shaheen, spokesman for the Taliban’s political office, said on Saturday Taliban representatives met Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdul Aziz Kamilov and Special Representative for Afghanistan Ismatulla Irgashev during the Aug. 6-10 visit.

He said they “discussed current and future national projects such as security for railroad and power lines.”

“Views were also exchanged with officials of Uzbekistan about the withdrawal of foreign forces and how to achieve peace in Afghanistan,” he said.

The statement, issued as Taliban fighters were battling government forces for control of the central city of Ghazni, adds to a mixed series of signals since an unexpected three-day truce during the Eid al-Fitr holiday in June.

Taliban representatives have met U.S. officials to talk about the framework for possible peace talks and the Western-backed government is considering offering a second ceasefire during the Eid al-Adha holiday later this month.

But at the same time, fierce fighting has continued in different parts of Afghanistan, inflicting heavy casualties on soldiers and police and threatening the security of parliamentary elections scheduled in October.

The attack on Ghazni, which controls a vital highway between the capital Kabul and southern Afghanistan, has given the insurgents their highest profile success since they came close to taking the western city of Farah in May.

The rail and power links from Uzbekistan are vital both for cross-border trade and for maintaining Afghanistan’s shaky power supplies, which are already subject to frequent blackouts.

The Taliban, fighting to topple the Western-backed government and drive out international forces, have generally refrained from sabotaging vital infrastructure and have sought to reassure neighboring countries about their aims.

A senior Taliban official said the movement had established a political office in the Uzbek capital Tashkent aimed at developing better ties and showing that they did not intend to support local insurgent groups. </s> In a rare diplomatic foray and the strongest sign yet of the Taliban’s increasing political presence in the region, the head of the militant group’s political office led a delegation to Uzbekistan to meet senior Foreign Ministry officials, Uzbek and Taliban officials said.

Taliban political chief Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai represented the insurgents in the four-day talks that ended Friday and included meetings with Uzbekistan’s Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov as well as its special representative to Afghanistan Ismatilla Irgashev.

The meetings follow an offer made by Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev in March to broker peace in Afghanistan.

Suhail Shaheen, spokesman for the Taliban’s political office in Qatar, said in a statement to The Associated Press on Saturday that discussions covered everything from international troop withdrawal to peace prospects to possible Uzbek-funded development projects that could include railway lines and electricity.

Mr. Shaheen said Uzbek officials discussed their security concerns surrounding the development projects.

“Taliban also exchanged views with the Uzbek officials about the withdrawal of the foreign troops and reconciliation in Afghanistan,” he said in the statement.

Uzbek’s Foreign Affairs Ministry website offered a terse announcement on the visit saying “the sides exchanged views on prospects of the peace process in Afghanistan. ”

Still, the meetings are significant coming as the Taliban ramps up pressure on Afghanistan’s Security Forces with relentless and deadly attacks and Washington holds preliminary talks with the insurgents in an attempt to find a negotiated end to Afghanistan’s protracted war.

The Taliban have gained increasing attention from Russia as well as Uzbekistan, who view the insurgency as a bulwark against the spread of the Islamic State group in Afghanistan. The United States has accused Moscow of giving weapons to the Taliban.

Still, Andrew Wilder, vice president of Asia programs at the U.S. Institute of Peace said Washington would welcome a “constructive” Russian role in finding a way toward a peace pact in Afghanistan.

“What wouldn’t be helpful would be if the Uzbek efforts to facilitate lines of communication with the Taliban are not closely coordinated with the Afghan government,” he said.

“High profile talks by foreign governments with the Taliban that exclude the Afghan government risk providing too much legitimacy to the Taliban without getting much in return,” Mr. Wilder said.

There was no immediate comment from the Afghan government, but neither the Taliban nor the Uzbek foreign ministry statement mentioned the Afghan government.

For Uzbekistan, the IS presence is particularly worrisome as hundreds of its fighters are former members of the radical Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a declared terrorist group considered the architect of some of the more horrific attacks carried out by IS in Afghanistan.

Last year, there were reports that the son of Tahir Yuldashev, the powerful Uzbek leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, who was killed in a U.S. missile strike in Pakistan in 2009, was leading efforts to help expand IS influence in Afghanistan.

Last week, Afghan security forces reportedly rescued scores of Afghan Uzbeks who had declared their allegiance to IS when they came under attack by Taliban fighters in northern Afghanistan not far from the border with Uzbekistan. The rescued Uzbek warriors declared they would join the peace process. Most of those rescued were Afghan Uzbeks loyal to Afghanistan’s Vice President Rashid Dostum who had gone over to IS after Mr. Dostum fell out with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and fled to Turkey in May last year.

Coincidentally their rescue from the Taliban came just days after Mr. Dostum returned to Afghanistan and reconciled with Ghani’s government. </s> The Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, has offered recognition of the Taliban as a legitimate political group as part of a proposed political process that he said could lead to talks aimed at ending more than 16 years of war.



The offer, made on Wednesday at the start of an international conference aimed at creating a platform for peace talks, is the latest signal from both the western-backed government and the Taliban suggesting a greater willingness to consider dialogue.

Ghani proposed a ceasefire and a release of prisoners as part of a range of options including new elections, involving the militants in the political process, and a constitutional review as part of a pact with the Taliban.

“We are making this offer without preconditions in order to lead to a peace agreement,” Ghani said in opening remarks to the conference attended by officials from around 25 countries involved in the so-called “Kabul Process”.

“The Taliban are expected to give input to the peacemaking process, the goal of which is to draw the Taliban, as an organisation, to peace talks,” he said, adding that he would not “pre-judge” any group seeking peace.

The comments represented a significant shift for Ghani, who in the past has regularly called the Taliban “terrorists” and “rebels”, although he has also offered to talk to parts of the movement that accepted peace.

The Taliban, fighting to restore Islamic rule in Afghanistan after their 2001 ousting by US-led troops, have offered to begin talks with the US but have so far refused direct talks with Kabul. It was unclear whether they would be prepared to shift their stance, despite growing international pressure.

However, Ghani, who recently helped launch the latest stage in a major regional gas pipeline from Turkmenistan, said the momentum for peace was building from neighbouring countries that increasingly believed in the necessity of a stable Afghanistan.

“The Taliban show awareness of these contextual shifts and seem to be engaged in a debate on the implications of acts of violence for their future,” he said.

Ghani said a framework for peace negotiations should be created with the Taliban recognised as a legitimate group, with their own political office to handle negotiations in Kabul or another agreed location.

Taliban officials have acknowledged that they have faced pressure from friendly countries to accept talks and said their recent offers to talk to the US reflected concern that they could be seen to be standing in the way of peace.

In return for Ghani’s offer, the Taliban would have to recognise the Afghan government and respect the rule of law, he said.

In addition, Taliban prisoners could be released and their names removed from international blacklists, while security arrangements could be made for Taliban agreeing to join a process of reconciliation. Former fighters and refugees could be reintegrated and provided with jobs.
Taliban officials make an offer to protect national interests such as copper mines and an international gas pipeline to assist the development of Afghanistan.