Military takeover of Kabul will cast insurgents as ‘global pariahs’ warns US ambassador as more towns fall
A US peace envoy to Afghanistan has warned the Taliban that any government that comes to power through force in Afghanistan will not be recognised internationally, after the hardline Islamist movement captured five out of 34 provincial capitals in less than a week.
As the Taliban appeared to consolidate its hold across a swath of the country’s north, and pressed attacks across the country, the US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad went to Doha, Qatar, where the Taliban maintain a political office, to tell the group that there was no point in pursuing victory on the battlefield because a military takeover of Kabul would guarantee they would be global pariahs.