‘Protected area’ in Kabul: Taliban already reject Macron’s ‘unnecessary’ proposal – BFMTV

After the end of French rotations and the imminent withdrawal of the United States, Emmanuel Macron is pushing for the establishment of a secure zone in Kabul to continue the evacuations. On France Info this Monday, a spokesperson for the Taliban rejected this hypothesis.

The discussion “is essential with the Taliban”. From Erbil, in the heart of Iraqi Kurdistan, which he was visiting this Sunday evening at the end of a two-day express trip to Iraq which took him first to Baghdad and then Mosul, Emmanuel Macron formulated France’s positions on Afghanistan of the Taliban But this discussion, mentioned in an interview with TF1, turns for the moment to a dialogue of deaf.

On the one hand Emmanuel Macron is pushing, supported by Germany and the United Kingdom, for the creation of a “protected zone” in Kabul, in order to continue humanitarian evacuations under the aegis of the UN. On the other, Suhail Shaheen, spokesperson for the Taliban Political Bureau, interviewed by FranceInfo in a report broadcast this Monday morning assitôt rejected this possibility.

He considers it an interference coupled with a snub. “It is not necessary, Afghanistan is an independent country. Can we create such a zone in France or in the United Kingdom?” he said, in English, on French public radio.

“We are trying to reopen the airport as soon as possible”

He continued, mixing the feminine with the masculine to emphasize the eligibility of women for departures: “As is the case in any country, he or she will have to have the appropriate documents: passport, visa. he has that, anyone can leave Afghanistan and come from another country “. “We are trying, because it is very important, to reopen Kabul airport as quickly as possible,” he conceded, however.

The voice – and therefore this end of inadmissibility – of Suhail Shaheen is all the more important as the man was in the meeting between the Taliban and a French delegation last Thursday in Doha, Qatar.

“We have relations with France. But these discussions cannot be conditioned. We ask and hope that France will recognize us,” he told France Info.

Dialogue of the deaf always, the tone of the President of the Republic was very different on this point on the antenna of TF1 Sunday: “The discussions do not prejudge a recognition”. An expression which shows, however, that Paris does not exclude it. But Emmanuel Macron says he wants guarantees, whether it is about human rights or the question of women.

No “blacklists”, swear the Taliban

And if the Taliban multiply soothing statements about the social status of women, their ability to continue their studies in new Afghanistan – between Sharia and banner of the restored “Islamic Emirate” – or promise their benevolence towards the departure abroad of their fellow citizens – commitments whose relative and purely verbal moderation seemed cruelly underlined by the attacks at Kabul airport carried out on Thursday by ISIS – fears of waves of persecution persist.

Ten days ago a team of experts commissioned by the UN assured that the new masters of the country had drawn up blacklists of people to be arrested. “This report is unfounded. (…). There is no such thing”, swept Suhail Shaheen to France Info.

The spokesperson concluded on a more directly political note, recalling his movement’s apparent desire to “form a new inclusive Islamic government that is accepted by all”. “I hope that it will be done within three to four days”, he gauged with the radio.