-Blinken says US is assessing whether Taliban is serious about peace
-Expresses serious concern if Iran fails to extend lapsed inspection deal with IAEA
Foreign Desk Report
PARIS: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday Washington was assessing whether the Taliban was serious about ending the conflict in Afghanistan, and that trying to take back the country by force was not consistent with peace efforts.
Blinken, who was visiting Paris, acknowledged attacks on Afghan security forces were increasing before planned talks in Washington between President Joe Biden, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Ghani’s former political opponent, Abdullah Abdullah.
The peace process has stalled as Afghan security forces battle a Taliban spring offensive that threatens several provincial capitals. Ethnic militias has been mobilised to help government troops.
“We are looking very carefully at the security on the ground in Afghanistan and we’re also looking very hard at whether the Taliban is, at all, serious about a peaceful resolution of the conflict,” Blinken told a joint news conference with France’s foreign minister. “But actions that would try take the country by force are, of course, totally inconsistent with finding a peaceful resolution.”
Biden decided in April to withdraw all US troops before September 11. Since then, fighting between US-backed Afghan forces and the Taliban has surged.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Secretary of State said on Friday that, any failure by Tehran to extend a monitoring agreement with the U.N. nuclear watchdog that expired this week would be a “serious concern” in talks to revive its nuclear deal with world powers.
Antony Blinken made the comments hours before the head of the IAEA was expected to update its board of governors on whether it had reached a deal to extend the monitoring agreement, which lapsed on June 24.
Iran has been in talks with world powers since April about reviving the 2015 deal under which it agreed to curbs on its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of sanctions. The Vienna talks are now in a pause expected to last until next week.
The United States abandoned the deal under then-President Donald Trump in 2018 and Iran responded by violating some of its restrictions. The new administration of President Joe Biden wants to revive the accord, but Tehran and Washington have yet to agree which side should take what steps, and when.
One of Iran’s moves to reduce compliance was a decision to end extra monitoring of its nuclear sites by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in February. The inspections were extended twice by temporary deals, the last of which ended this week. “This remains a serious concern,” Blinken told reporters at a news conference in Paris alongside his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian. “The concern has been communicated to Iran and needs to be resolved.”
A spokesman for the IAEA said that Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi would inform the IAEA Board of Governors on the matter during the course of Friday.
