Taliban advance in Afghanistan in 2021

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Territorial control of the Taliban in Afghanistan on August 15, 2021.
Gray: under the control of the Taliban, al-Qaeda and others.
Red: under the control of government troops or allied militias.
Green: contested or area control unclear.
The respective data on the capture of cities can be seen in the close-up view of the map.

Since the start of the withdrawal of US and NATO troops from Afghanistan in May 2021, the Islamist Taliban , which had ruled the country from 1996 to 2001 but had been pushed back in the war since 2001 , had quickly regained enormous territorial gains. The Afghan army gave up many provincial capitals almost without a fight and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country in mid-August, while the Taliban captured the capital Kabul and declared themselves victorious.

Many Afghans - especially those who had worked with the international forces and the democratic government, as well as women and girls - have since been on the run because they fear revenge actions by the Taliban and draconian measures to enforce their conception of a “state of God”. With the participation of at least 24 countries, an evacuation of persons authorized to leave the country (including local staff ) from Kabul Airport began, which lasted around two weeks . Over 120,000 people were evacuated from Afghanistan.

chronology

Cities and provinces in Afghanistan
Situation on July 25th

In February 2020 the then US President Donald Trump initiated the withdrawal of international troops with the Doha 2020 Agreement between the USA and the Taliban. There was a kind of mutual ceasefire between the US and the Taliban. Further concessions by the Taliban as well as a longer-term peace order, however, were to become the subject of further negotiations, which later never came about in view of a fait accompli (both due to the unconditional US withdrawal and the subsequent advance of the Taliban).

On April 29, 2021, the US and its NATO allies began their withdrawal from Afghanistan. Skirmishes broke out between Taliban fighters and government forces in southern Helmand province . On May 8, 85 people, most of them schoolgirls , died in an attack on a girls' school in Kabul . The government blamed the Taliban for this. On May 12, it was observed that the Taliban initially limited themselves to capturing rural areas and important connecting roads. In Wardak Province and Ghazni Province , they conquered territories with important routes between the capital Kabul and the city of Kandahar (500 kilometers from Kabul). Several provinces in the north of the country fell to the Taliban, including Faryab , Tachar and Badakhshan . On May 14, the US handed over its second largest base in Afghanistan, which was in Kandahar.

On June 22, the Taliban captured the important Shir Khan Bandar border crossing on the border with Tajikistan in the north of the country. According to the United Nations in May and June 2021 a total of 2,400 Afghan civilians were killed or injured - the highest death toll since the acquisition in 2009. soldiers of the Afghan National Army , offered resistance against the Taliban, but ultimately because of shortage of ammunition yield had, was executed. According to Amnesty International , the Taliban carried out a massacre of Hazara people in Malistan district who the Taliban consider to be infidels .

On July 2, US and NATO troops surrendered the important Bagram Air Force Base . On July 9, Taliban fighters captured the largest border crossing into Iran , Islam Kala. On July 14th, the Spin Boldak border crossing on the border with Pakistan was taken over by the Taliban. On July 22nd, 90% of the country's borders were controlled by the Taliban, according to their own statements. At the beginning of August, the Taliban increasingly advanced into provincial capitals. Government troops had withdrawn from large parts of the country to the larger cities. There were Lashkar Gah , Kandahar and Herat attacked.

On the night of Sunday, August 1, 2021, the runway at Kandahar Airport was hit by two rockets. The day before, there was an air raid on a small hospital in the city of Laschkar Gah , which the Taliban had occupied. It was destroyed. Three people were killed in the attack by government forces. (One dead and two injured). At that time, the Taliban fought with government forces in the outskirts of the provincial capitals Herat in the west and Lashkar Gah in the south of the country. Most of the fighting took place in the provinces of Indshil and Gusara . At that time, around half of the 400 or so districts in Afghanistan were in the hands of the Taliban.

On August 3, the Afghan defense minister and several MPs barely escaped an assassination attempt in Kabul. Eight people died. On August 6, the head of the government's press information office was shot dead in a mosque in Kabul. On the same day, the Islamists took the provincial capital Saranj in the south-west of the country. In the following days the cities of Sheberghan , Kunduz , Sar-i Pul , Talokan , Aybak , Farah and Pol-e Chomri , Faizabad fell . On August 12, the Taliban captured Ghazni , 150 kilometers from Kabul. After that, Herat and Kandahar fell in the south and west, the third and second largest cities in the country. In addition to Kabul, the government only controlled the cities of Mazar-i-Sharif in the north and Jalalabad in the east. As the TV broadcaster Tolo News reported, the Afghan President Ghani had handed over the business of government to the incumbent Defense Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi at this time . On August 13, the Taliban captured Kandahar, Laschkar Gah and Shaghtscharan .

Fall of Kabul

In mid-August 2021, the Taliban were only a few kilometers from the capital Kabul . Before that they conquered the province of Lugar , which lies directly to the south, and reached the district of Tschar Asjab . Heavy fighting has been reported in the vicinity of the city. After Ghani's flight to Tajikistan , the Taliban captured Kabul within a few hours and then announced that they would “ensure security” there. Both sides announced that they had agreed on a "peaceful takeover". However, Ghani has not officially resigned. Shortly before that, the Taliban had taken Jalalabad . Ghani is now in the United Arab Emirates . According to Afghan reports, he is said to have taken $ 169 million with him when he escaped. Ghani himself denied these allegations.

On August 15, a leading representative of the Taliban announced their victory. The Taliban had previously invaded the presidential palace. Contrary to the Taliban's announcement that it would act moderately in the future, there have been reports of lynching against former supporters of the democratic government and crimes against women and girls in conquered areas. In Herat, for example, the Taliban are said to have demanded the surrender of all unmarried women over the age of 15 to them. From there and from other provincial capitals that had already been conquered, atrocities were reported, especially against women and girls. Taliban fighters were released from prisons in Kabul.

According to the Russian embassy in Kabul, the country's president Ashraf Ghani fled in a helicopter full of money. It has been officially confirmed that the United Arab Emirates have welcomed Ashraf Ghani and his family on humanitarian grounds. In a video, Ghani denied allegations that he fled with money.

Evacuation and chaos at the airport

US soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division guarding the airport in Kabul, August 17, 2021
823 people aboard a crowded Boeing C-17 of the US Air Force in Kabul, August 15
US soldiers and refugees at the airport gate on August 20

After the Taliban captured Kabul, thousands of Afghans gathered at Hamid Karsei Airport in hopes of an escape route . Before the start of the evacuation, it had been secured by soldiers of the Turkish armed forces during the war . As the Taliban approached the capital, Kabul, the Pentagon dispatched 3,500 soldiers from the US armed forces to Kabul in mid-August to secure the withdrawal of their diplomatic personnel, while Great Britain wanted to send 600 soldiers from the United Kingdom Special Forces to Kabul to allow British citizens to leave and former Afghan local staff. The number of US soldiers at Kabul airport was increased to 4,500 on August 18 and rose by another 700 by August 22, according to the information that the soldiers, including at least 1,000 from the 82nd Airborne Division , are to temporarily reduce the number of US soldiers -Support embassy staff in Kabul. From Kabul, the aircraft of the US armed forces flew mainly to Doha and Dubai . The Bundeswehr set up its airlift between Kabul and Tashkent , from where the evacuees were flown to Germany. Around 600 soldiers, mainly paratroopers from the Rapid Forces Division , including the Special Forces Command , were ordered from Germany for the evacuation mission and six Airbus A400Ms were deployed. Switzerland, Great Britain, France, Canada, the Netherlands, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, India, Denmark, Belgium, Poland, Norway, the Czech Republic, Italy, Indonesia, Hungary, South Korea, Sweden, Singapore, Russia, and Turkey evacuated with their own military aircraft. In addition, military personnel from other countries were deployed at Kabul Airport, for example from Lithuania.

On or before August 16, US soldiers fired warning shots at the airport in Kabul to keep crowds away from the tarmac, according to the AFP news agency . Nonetheless, numerous people got onto the runways, some of whom clung to a Boeing C-17 and at least three people, including Zaki Anwari , died after take-off. According to eyewitness reports, five people died in the crowd. Human remains were later found in the aircraft's landing gear. In addition, there was a crowd of stationary machines, injuring 17 people. On August 15, a C-17 with 823 people took off from Kabul , although it was not designed for this. The chaos and the crowd continued at night, so stun grenades were used. The Taliban positioned themselves at several routes and entrances to the airport and began to use force to prevent people (in several cases using targeted firearms), otherwise with whips and warning shots, from coming to the airport, even though the Taliban had previously made promises to the contrary. By August 19, at least 12 people had been killed at the airport, partly due to unexplained causes.

From August 16, 2021, the airspace over Afghanistan for civil aircraft began. At night, the military aircraft had to head for a runway that was partly unlit and not available in full length. In order to only offer a target for possible enemy fire for as short a time as possible, steep vision approaches were carried out. An arriving Bundeswehr machine had to turn off again on August 16 due to chaos on the runways and fly back to Tashkent, but another machine was able to land a few hours later and the first people to fly out. Due to the mass influx of people who have no prospect of evacuation, conditions at the airport were chaotic in the days that followed. Every day, fighters from the Taliban who controlled the approaches to the airport, as well as US soldiers and soldiers from the collapsed Afghan National Army who controlled the nearby entrances to the military part of the airport, fired warning shots. It was confirmed that US soldiers shot two armed people at the airport. On August 18, the Federal Cabinet passed the mandate for the Federal Armed Forces.

The XVIII Airborne Corps carrying out an evacuation at Kabul airport

From the beginning of the evacuation on August 14 to August 27, 2021, more than 100,000 persons entitled to leave the country were flown out of the airport in Kabul. Most of them, around 82,000 people, were flown out by the US armed forces. Your airlift went mainly to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates . By August 22, the US armed forces also flew around 7,000 people to Ramstein Air Base before evacuees were flown from there to the United States. By August 27, Britain had flown 11,500 people out. Italy and Australia each flew about 4,000 people. At the request of the USA, the German Armed Forces flew two H145M helicopters to Kabul in order to take isolated persons who were not able to travel to the airport independently - for example because of an excessive security risk - to the airport from the city area. Squads of special units of the British armed forces evacuated isolated persons entitled to leave the country by land to Kabul airport. According to the inspector general of the Bundeswehr, Eberhard Zorn , between 5,000 and 7,000 people lived or waited in front of the airport gates in the days up to 23 August. According to other information, there were at times twice as many. People slept on the floor and had to be provided with food. Parents lost sight of their children; Missing persons notices were posted and in one case a child was taken into care by another family. Others gave their children or babies to the soldiers of the NATO member states at the airport for medical care or so that their children can be flown out. Several people died again due to a stampede at the gates of the airport. Warning shots were repeatedly fired in front of the airport entrance areas during the first week of the evacuation. At times, the German and US embassies advised their citizens against attempting to reach the airport due to the crowd and an escalating situation. So the gates were closed again and again because of the chaos. The second week began with a firefight between unknown attackers on one side and Afghan soldiers and NATO soldiers on the other. Even a week after the evacuation began, parts of the Taliban tried to force people on roads and driveways to prevent them from getting to the airport. On the other hand, after the end of the evacuation it became public that other parts of the Taliban were escorting groups of people to the airport several times a day following an agreement with the US military. Qatari diplomats did the same. During the evacuation became known that CIA boss William Joseph Burns in Kabul with the Taliban Abdul Ghani Baradar had met. A report by a British soldier as well as a video recording by a US soldier also suggest that soldiers from the western armed forces within reach of Taliban fighters at the gates of the airport controlled the entrance.

In the second week Russia announced, although its own embassy had not been evacuated, that it would send planes with relief supplies to Kabul and then evacuate citizens of countries of the former Soviet republics from Afghanistan. The US Department of Defense said that when the evacuation is completed, the 500–600 soldiers of the collapsed Afghan National Army, who helped secure the airport during the evacuation weeks, will also be flown out of Afghanistan. On August 26, the Bundeswehr (after 37 evacuation flights and 5,347 evacuees with citizenships of 45 countries, including 4,100 Afghans (some with dual citizenship; including 138 local staff and 496 members)) and the armed forces of Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium and Hungary ended their airlifts . On the same day, an explosives attack occurred in the middle of the crowd waiting to be admitted in front of an entrance area to the airport grounds. The attack claimed at least 93 lives and at least 150 people were injured. Several states had already warned of terrorist attacks at the airport on the basis of assessments made by their own secret services based on specific evidence. Spain, Italy, Sweden and France ended their airlifts on August 27th. Britain ended its own airlift on August 28th. On the same day, the US carried out a drone attack on a stationary car in Kabul that was loaded with explosives, according to US forces. According to the New York Times, seven children and three other bystanders were killed in the immediate vicinity of the car. On September 17th, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin apologized for the drone attack and spoke of a "terrible mistake". The car and those killed did not pose a threat to US troops.

Thanks to contacts with governments, three non-governmental initiatives succeeded in flying around 330 people and 150 dogs and cats from an animal shelter even after many airlifts had ended.

On the morning of August 30, five rockets were fired in the direction of the airport, according to the US government. Three of the missiles landed outside the airport. An approaching missile was destroyed by a missile defense system and one hit the airport premises without endangering personnel. ISIS-K claims the attack with six Katyusha missiles . On the night of August 31, 2021, the US armed forces ended their airlift. With the last flights, the last US soldiers withdrew completely from Afghanistan.

After the Taliban opened the airport, these dual citizenship Afghans allowed them to leave the country. Airplanes of the US armed forces also landed at Kabul Airport in September 2021 to fly further US citizens and citizens of other nations out of Kabul.

Taliban take power

On August 17, the Taliban held their first press conference from Kabul. Its spokesman, Sabihullah Mujahid , announced a general amnesty . Nonetheless, local staff are still afraid of revenge by the Taliban, also because, according to the ARD's former Afghanistan correspondent, Gabor Halasz , local Taliban leaders could decide for themselves how to proceed. The Taliban had already looked for local staff and other unpopular people and executed them in the past. In Kabul, the Taliban tried to give the impression of normality and security. So went z. B. Employees of ministries (after they were taken over by the Taliban) returned to their jobs and shops reopened. This contrasts with reports that relatives have gone missing government officials. Hundreds of journalists and judges also went into hiding or tried to flee the country.

The Taliban also set up checkpoints in Kabul, collected weapons from the population and occupied official buildings. Safe-houses had to be evacuated as the Taliban began searching houses to find local workers and other unpopular people, including journalists. They also killed relatives of wanted people.

While US President Joe Biden announced in the first months of his presidency that he would have withdrawn the US armed forces from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021, he announced in July 2021 that the armed forces should have withdrawn from Afghanistan by the end of August. In talks with the USA, which ran at the same time as the evacuation mission, the Taliban insisted that the announcement be adhered to and announced that August 31, 2021 would be a “red line” and that they would react if the NATO armed forces were to take effect on August 31, 2021. August be in Afghanistan. As announced by Biden, the last American soldiers left the country via Kabul Airport on August 30th.

Demonstrations in Afghanistan against the Taliban after they came to power

In Kabul, residents demonstrated against the Taliban and their proclaimed Islamic emirate in August and September 2021.

The first major protests against the Islamists took place on August 18, 2021. At least three people were killed in Jalalabad and dozen injured, as reported by the Al Jazeera broadcaster . Taliban fighters are said to have opened fire at a rally in Asadabad , the participants of which waved the flag of the Afghan Republic . The Taliban did not comment on the incidents. Since the Taliban came to power, the previous black, red and green national flag has increasingly developed into a sign of protest against the Islamists, who have their own flag - white, with the Islamic creed. Afghanistan gained independence from Great Britain on August 19, 1919 .

On September 8, 2021, the interim government issued its first official statement to ban demonstrations. The Taliban tried to use violence to stop demonstrations that took place afterwards.

Formation of resistance against the Taliban

After the Taliban captured Kabul, the Punjir Valley was the last region in Afghanistan that was still controlled by the disempowered government through government troops. Remnants of the Afghan army and police had withdrawn there and formed anew as the Punjjir resistance . Ahmad Massoud commanded a militia in the Punjir Valley. His father, Ahmad Shah Massoud, was an influential mujahideen commander in the country. Most of the up to 150,000 inhabitants of the valley belong to the Tajik ethnic group , while the majority of the Taliban belong to the Pashtuns . Taliban negotiators entered into negotiations with the leadership of the Punjjir Resistance.

On September 6, 2021, the Taliban claimed to have captured the Punjir Valley, but the Afghan ambassador to Tajikistan, Sahir Aghbar, denied it on September 8. The fighting would continue.

Evaluation and strategy of the Taliban

Humvee captured by the Taliban in Kabul, August 2021

Factors that contributed to the military defeat of the Afghan National Army (ANA) are explained in the history section of the ANA article .

In Afghanistan, due to a discrepancy between the accumulation of wealth by the relatively few and a high poverty rate and poor education, there was an influx of young Pashtuns into the Taliban. Parallel government structures in districts and provinces were already established by the new generation of the Taliban during the war, albeit only fragmentarily. The operation of schools and hospitals was a perspective of the government around Ashraf Ghani in order to still have an influence in the Taliban areas. The peace and conflict researcher Conrad Schetter said it was astonishing to him how homogeneous and disciplined the Taliban appeared. The leaders were originally "simple mullahs ". That is why their strategic approach is all the more remarkable. He said that the Pakistani intelligence service ISI was involved. The Pakistani security expert Ayesha Siddiqa said that Pakistan had supported the Taliban in their back conquest strategy and in cooperation with the Pakistani military. Pakistan is also said to have helped the Taliban during the talks in Doha. “Pakistan's establishment hopes that the Islamists will now turn their gaze to India , more precisely to the Kashmir conflict .” The USA and India have been criticizing for years that terrorists are tolerated on Pakistani territory. Wounded Taliban fighters, some of them from Pakistan, were treated in Pakistani hospitals and those killed were buried there. The border between Pakistan and Afghanistan is controversial. On August 13, the Taliban captured Torkham, one of the two major border crossings between the two countries.

Afghan Armed Forces (ANA) in action with the Taliban, August 2021

The journalist and war correspondent Wolfgang Bauer said there is a moderate wing, which is predominantly represented by the senior Taliban leaders, and a radical wing, which included a large number of young commanders and young fighters. He has the impression that these younger people have been heavily influenced by the ideology of the " Islamic State " in recent years . Afghanistan will be even poorer in the future because it is also affected by climate change due to the drought . The question is also what influence the leadership of the Taliban will have.

Political scientist Carlo Masala said that state building through external intervention powers has rarely been successful. This is also difficult if you don't invest enough. He said there were never enough troops in Afghanistan to stabilize the country. It would be a very tedious process. 20 years were not enough to build a functioning, democratic society. Even if the break-up of al-Qaeda was quite successful.

According to the Afghan-German religious philosopher Ahmad Milad Karimi , there is no longer any security for the population with the Taliban. He fears that the Taliban will disregard women's rights and destroy culture, art, music and education. The Taliban plan to shape the legal status of women and families according to their interpretation of Sharia law , which would mean a severe curtailment of women's rights (see women's rights under the Taliban ).

Since the Doha Agreement negotiated by the US administration under Donald Trump with the Taliban did not contain any provisions on a ceasefire with the Afghan troops, the treaty negotiations led to more attacks on the Afghan military because the Taliban hoped to gain a better negotiating position by gaining territories.

The Taliban stated that they would not support terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda , even in their own interests before retaliation by the US. The Taliban also gave assurances that they would not pose a threat to other countries. In Afghanistan itself, executions of government soldiers and civilians have been documented and are documented by UNAMA .

The Taliban knew how to use technology, said terrorist communications specialist at the Atlantic Council , Emerson Brooking . He said they had a robust Telegram presence back in 2015. "Insurgents generally have to adapt quickly to new technologies in order to hold their own against their more powerful opponents," says Brooking. As early as May 2011, shortly before the peak of the American troop presence in Afghanistan, the Taliban leadership began to communicate in English on Twitter.

The New York Times discovered since mid-August 2021 claims to have about 100 new Facebook and Twitter accounts, are apparently themselves, or sympathizers were operated by the Taliban. When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, it was forbidden to distribute photos of living things.

Political reactions to Taliban victory in August 2021

United States

US President Joe Biden and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani with the politician Abdullah Abdullah , June 25, 2021

US President Joe Biden declared in the White House on August 12, 2021 that the Afghans would now have to “fight for their own state”. He defended the withdrawal of the US military from Afghanistan, which he had ordered, despite the subsequent takeover of power by the Taliban. He is "rock solid" to his decision. Had the military stayed longer in Afghanistan it would not have made any difference, as it could not have changed the Afghan security forces' “unwillingness to fight”. It should be seen "worrying" that the political and military leadership did not have the "will" to resist the rise of Islamic militants, the spokesman said the US Department of Defense , John Kirby , the transmitter CNN . The UN Security Council had called for an immediate end to the fighting . A "new, united and representative government" must be formed in the country, in which women should also be involved. In an interview on August 18, Biden again defended his decision to ABC News that he could not imagine a withdrawal scenario that would not have resulted in chaos.

US President Joe Biden said that he was putting pressure on the Taliban and that aid to Afghanistan would be subject to "harsh conditions" during its rule. It will be followed closely how the Islamists treat their compatriots, especially women and girls.

Republican senators have requested a statement from the government about the whereabouts of US weapons and other military equipment: which has already fallen into the hands of the Taliban and the extent to which the government plans to retrieve or destroy equipment.

Germany

Demonstration for the rescue of people from Afghanistan on August 22, 2021 in Berlin.

Germany has been evacuating German nationals and other people at risk since August 16, 2021.

The German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) spoke in Berlin of "bitter hours" in Afghanistan. She made it clear how important it is to rescue German nationals, members of the embassy and local staff. On August 16, 2021, the news channel n-tv reported from groups of participants that Merkel said the federal government had identified 2,500 local employees months ago. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) admitted mistakes: “We all misjudged the situation,” he said, “nothing can be glossed over”. He explicitly named "the federal government, the intelligence services, the international community". Politicians from the opposition parties also severely criticized the late rescue operation.

Criticism was also leveled at the specific implementation of the evacuation. On the first flight of an Airbus A400M from Kabul to Tashkent, only seven people were flown out. Due to the already very extensive control of the Taliban over the country and because they control all entrances to the airport in Kabul, it seems unclear how many local workers can be rescued.

It was also criticized that the core families of the local workers, who were also classified by the federal government as authorized to leave the country, included unmarried adult daughters, but not unmarried adult sons.

On August 26, the Bundestag subsequently approved the deployment of up to 600 Bundeswehr soldiers in the evacuation operation with a large majority. 538 MPs voted in favor, 89 abstained and 9 voted against. Five MPs from the Left Party voted in favor. 69 members of the left-wing faction abstained and seven left-wing politicians voted against. Of the 86 AfD MPs, 45 AfD MPs abstained and one AfD MP voted against. A non-attached MP also voted against.

France

The French president Emmanuel Macron said that the development in Afghanistan represented a "turning point". The task of the international community is now to prevent the country from becoming a "safe haven" for terrorists again under Taliban rule. In a conversation with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson , he agreed on a British-French initiative in the UN Security Council. Two French military transporters and French elite soldiers of the Forces Spéciales were prepared to land in Kabul from the French base in Abu Dhabi to pick up threatened Afghan aid workers and the remaining French.

Russia

Unlike many Western embassies, the Russian embassy has not been evacuated. The Russian ambassador Dmitrij Schirnow described the situation in Kabul as "calm" and described a smooth transfer of the security forces in front of the embassy.

Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov announced on August 17 that a decision would be made at a later date whether to recognize the Taliban as the official government. He also spoke of “positive signals” from the Taliban regarding the promised education for girls as well, the willingness to involve other political forces in forming a government and to want to respect the “opinion of others”. He called for an "all-encompassing government".

Russia recently carried out military exercises with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan on the corresponding border. According to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov , the situation at the border is being monitored with the help of electronic air surveillance. Russia is also worried that the Taliban could spread to those neighboring countries and thus bring terror to Russia, Lavrov said.

The state television broadcaster RT distributed a fake photo on its Twitter profile that was intended to suggest that terrorists had been flown out of Afghanistan.

China

Beijing Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said, “The US has violated its responsibilities and commitments by rushing out of Afghanistan. They leave disorder and turmoil for the Afghan people and the neighboring countries. ”The Chinese government has already announced diplomatic contact with the Taliban and recognizes their government.

United Nations

On August 30, the United Nations passed a resolution on the initiative of Great Britain, France, the USA and Ireland, with Russia and China abstaining. The government is urged to allow Afghans to leave the country at any time and by any means. In addition, Afghanistan must not become a haven for terrorists and their attack plans. The need for unhindered humanitarian access and the protection of human rights, in particular “the rights of women, children and minorities”, are underlined. The United Nations did not specify any specific sanctions for non-compliance with the requirements.

Individual evidence

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  4. ↑ Nicole Gaouette, Jennifer Hansler, Barbara Starr and Oren Liebermann CNN: The last US military planes have left Afghanistan, marking the end of the United States' longest war. Retrieved September 1, 2021 .
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  18. ^ Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani in UAE, officials say. August 18, 2021, accessed August 18, 2021 .
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