TASHKENT, Uzbekistan (AP) ‐ U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday demanded "demonstrable evidence" from the Taliban that they can and will reduce violence before signing a deal that would lead to Afghanistan peace talks and a withdrawal of American troops from the country.
Speaking at a news conference in neighboring Uzbekistan, Pompeo said a deal is close but that they have been close before and failed because the Taliban was unable to demonstrate seriousness. He said more work remains to be done so that peace talks can get started.
"We’re working on a peace and reconciliation plan, putting the commas in the right place, getting the sentences right," he said. "We got close once before to having an agreement: a piece of paper that we mutually executed and the Taliban were unable to demonstrate either their will or capacity or both to deliver on a reduction in violence."
"So, what we are demanding now is demonstrable evidence of their will and capacity to reduce violence, to take down the threat, so the inter-Afghan talks ... will have a less violent context," he said. "We’re hopeful we can achieve that but we’re not there yet, and work certainly remains."
Pompeo’s comments came just two days after U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad arrived in Kabul and told Afghan President Ashraf Ghani there has been "no notable progress" in talks with the Taliban. However, Khalilzad said he was hopeful of reaching an understanding with them on a reduction of hostilities, without offering any time frame.
Khalilzad had been in Pakistan last week to rally support for getting an agreement with the Taliban to reduce their attacks, as a first step toward a peace agreement to end 18 years of war in neighboring Afghanistan.
Earlier, the Taliban said they offered Khalilzad a 10-day cease-fire window in which to sign a peace agreement that would be followed by intra-Afghan negotiations.
#1
Since those at the peace talks only represent one branch of the Taliban, never mind all the other groups infesting the landscape for the purpose of killing any who oppose them ruling that particular neighbourhood, including native warlord types, it is simply impossible for the Taliban in question to reduce overall violence in Afghanistan. So there’s that.
#2
It's like the old frontier. Chiefs were nominal leaders not in the sense of the Western Civ concept of leaders. Negotiating with them didn't necessarily obligate members of the 'tribe' to adhere or follow the agreed aspects of 'treaties'. Besides, as long as Pakistan is still here, there will be no peace.
Libyan parliament members Alsalhin Abdulnabi Al-Obaidi : The #MuslimBrotherhood is the just as bad if not worst then #ISIS and #AlQaida as they embraced and funded them in libya not mentioning the local out law #militias in which they used to imbed their control over #libya#GNApic.twitter.com/9AaxVXUeXy
Libyan parliament members Alsalhin Abdulnabi Al-Obaidi : The #MuslimBrotherhood is the just as bad if not worst then #ISIS and #AlQaida as they embraced and funded them in libya not mentioning the local out law #militias in which they used to imbed their control over #libya#GNApic.twitter.com/9AaxVXUeXy
Libyan parliament member Ali Al-Saeedi : If the presidents of #Algeria and #Tunisia accept to negotiate with #AlQaida and #ISIS that threaten their countries then let them be an example to us all and start such a deluge. As for us we refuse to negotiate with #terrorists. #Libyapic.twitter.com/4SEDGUg51e
[i24 News via Zero] Over the past couple of years European capitals have been pursuing war crimes charges against anti-Assad 'opposition' fighters once widely referred to in Western press as "moderate rebels". In an irony which is certain to be ignored by the same US mainstream media that shilled for them in the first place, the CIA and Pentagon had for years through the first half of the war backed the anti-Assad jihadist insurgency with millions of dollars and weapons.
One such so-called 'moderate rebel' arrested days ago in France is Islam Alloush ‐ a former leader and spokesman for Jaish al-Islam ...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In September 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powerful... , which also happens to be the very Saudi-backed group that had been in control of eastern Ghouta outside of Damascus at the time of the alleged April 2018 Douma "chemical attack".
According to the AFP, Alloush was detained in the city of Marseille following criminal complaints filed last year by human rights groups, which detailed a history of war crimes, torture and kidnapping against civilians and activists.
He "is among the senior officials of Jaish Al Islam," who led some 20,000 combatants in the jihadist militia, and "caused terror to reign in the rebel areas it controlled, mainly in eastern Ghouta, which it lost control in April 2018," according to a joint press release issued by the human rights groups which helped track his whereabouts to the south of France.
Not only had he been freely moving about Europe for what appears to be at least a year... it gets better: this brutal jihadist warlord and terrorists was actually in France on a student visa.
From the i24 article, the gentleman’s nom de guerre:
According to a joint press release by three NGOs, FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights), SCM (Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression) and LDH (League for Human Rights), the man arrested was identified as Islam Alloush, also known as Majdi Mustafa Nameh.
Zero Hedge has more photos of the blue-eyed, shaven-head brute and a tweet of his internship application — he’s apparently been studying political science and international relations in Istanbul.
CAIRO, Feb 2 (Reuters) - An audio recording purporting to be from the Islamist militant group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) claimed responsibility on Sunday for a fatal shooting in December at a U.S. naval base in Pensacola, Florida, but provided no evidence.
"We congratulate our Muslim nation and embrace the operation of the martyr hero, the daring knight Muhammad bin Saeed Al-Shamrani," said the audio, released by al Qaeda's Yemen branch.
Three people were killed in the shooting.
Reuters was unable to verify the authenticity of the recording.
A U.S. government source familiar with official reporting and analysis, said the United States did not believe the claim by AQAP that the Florida Saudi shooter was acting for them or on their behalf.
The source said that AQAP could have put out the claim to counter reports in recent days about the killing of their leader in a drone strike.
Reports in Yemen have suggested in recent days that AQAP leader Qassim al-Raymi had been killed in a drone strike in Marib.
Reuters was not able to verify these reports.
One Yemeni government official told Reuters there had been a drone strike in Marib but it was not Raymi who had been killed.
We knew they were corrupt, but the Jerusalem Post lays it in enough detail to get President Trump started. Meanwhile, Breitbart reports the UNWRA wants a $1.4 budget boost to better succor Palestinian refugees.
[Jpost] The notion that humanitarian aid to the PA reaches the Paleostinian Arab people has no basis in reality.
When it comes to humanitarian aid to the Paleostinian Authority, transparency does not exist.
The result is a rich Paleostinian elite, which builds exclusive neighborhoods around Ramallah, leaving thousands of shoddily constructed apartments without services for the rest of Paleostinian society.
Continued on Page 49
[Jpost] Dore Gold, who advised the US team, explains how this plan might actually work.
When US President Donald Trump ...Oh, noze! Not him!... and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made their joint statement on Tuesday about "Peace to Prosperity," the latest US plan for Israel and the Paleostinians, all the expected players were in the East Room of the White House: Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner; daughter Ivanka Trump; Jason Greenblatt, the former head of the peace team; and US Ambassador David Friedman.
Continued on Page 49
Iranians must have the “right to choose” between different political movements, President Hassan Rouhani says, as controversy grows over the disqualification of thousands of candidates in upcoming polls.https://t.co/ECwMNAKiOL
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[i24 News via Zero] Over the past couple of years European capitals have been pursuing war crimes charges against anti-Assad 'opposition' fighters once widely referred to in Western press as "moderate rebels". In an irony which is certain to be ignored by the same US mainstream media that shilled for them in the first place, the CIA and Pentagon had for years through the first half of the war backed the anti-Assad jihadist insurgency with millions of dollars and weapons. 
