Blinken: Taliban can only earn ‘legitimacy and support’ by ‘respecting the basic rights of women and minorities’
BY ROBERT SPENCER
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:
Here’s a prediction: the Taliban will gain legitimacy and support long before it begins respecting the basic rights of women and minorities.
“Blinken outlines the path to legitimacy for Taliban,” by Joel Gehrke, Washington Examiner, August 30, 2021:
Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged the prospect of additional diplomatic contact with the Taliban in a speech marking the end of a dangerous evacuation effort and the withdrawal of the last U.S. forces from Afghanistan.
Going forward, any engagement with the Taliban-led government in Kabul will be driven by one thing: “our vital national interests,” Blinken said. “If we can work in the new Afghan government in a way that helps secure those interests … and in a way that brings greater stability to the country and the region, and that protects the gains of the last two decades, we will do it.”…
“The United States will continue to support humanitarian aid to the Afghan people,” Blinken confirmed. “Consistent with our sanctions on the Taliban, the aid will not flow through the government, but rather through independent organizations, such as U.N. agencies and [non-government organizations.] And, we expect that those efforts will not be impeded by the Taliban or anyone else.”
Blinken listed a series of factors in any more fundamental diplomatic recognition of the Taliban.
“The Taliban seeks international legitimacy and support. Our message is: any legitimacy and any support will have to be earned,” he said. “The Taliban can do that by meeting commitments and obligations on freedom of travel, respecting the basic rights of the Afghan people, including women and minorities, upholding its commitments on counterterrorism, not carrying out reprisal violence against those who choose to stay in Afghanistan, and forming an inclusive government that can meet the needs and reflect the aspirations of the Afghan people.”…