Don't Need Pakistan's Help For Talks With Afghan Taliban: US Envoy

United States Special Representative for Afghanistan Thomas West rejected the need for any third party to negotiate with the Taliban government. "I and my other colleagues in the US government are...

The US Special Representative for Afghanistan, Thomas West, said that Washington does not need help from Pakistan to facilitate communication with the Afghan Taliban, according to media reports.

West made the remarks in an interview with Voice of America Urdu in which he rejected the need for any third party to negotiate with the Taliban government, The Express Tribune reported.

Asked if Pakistan could facilitate talks with the Taliban, West said: "Frankly,

I don't think we need a third country to facilitate our engagement with the Taliban."

"My other colleagues and I in the US government are working on it," he said. In addition, West also rejected the suggestion that the United States needed Pakistani airspace for operational access to Afghanistan.

He also talks about his three-day stay in Islamabad,

West said he had discussed "our common interests in Afghanistan with the authorities as an important partner country."

Earlier, West called for a "serious" national political dialogue in Afghanistan as the people continue to bear the pressure of Taliban atrocities and human rights abuses in the country.

Thomas West emphasized,

"Without a serious national political dialogue about the country's future among Afghans who have real support in their community, I really fear....we can see the return of civil war in time," he made his remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, attacking the Taliban for their cruelty to Afghans,

TOLOnews reported.

"We hope to see and support the emergence of a peaceful and stable Afghanistan that does not harbor terrorists again...where the rights of all its people, women, men, boys and girls, are preserved," the US special envoy said. The Express Tribune reported.

"There is peace and security in the country. All the challenges that existed before have been resolved. The time for negotiations has come when there was a war in the country and there were many parties - there was an invasion - now here is the central point of the government and the people are in calm,

The newspaper "Tolonious" quoted the deputy spokesman of the Islamic Emirate, Bilal Karimi.

Recently, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) released a report summarizing the human rights situation in Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power.

The report summarized the findings of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan with regard to the protection of civilians,

Extrajudicial killings, torture and ill-treatment, arbitrary arrests and detentions, rights of women and girls in Afghanistan, fundamental freedoms and the situation in places of detention, according to Khama Press.

The Taliban regime in Afghanistan has come under fire around the world for a decree banning girls from attending school above the sixth grade.

The plight of Afghan women remains deplorable in the country. Contrary to Taliban claims,

Girls were banned from going to school after sixth grade on March 23 and a decree was issued against the women's dress code a month later.

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