(Afghanistan Times): US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad said that attacks have been on the rise in recent weeks in Afghanistan that\u00a0 threatening the peace process and alarming the Afghan people and their regional and international supporters. In series of tweets, Khalilzad said, \u201cFollowing several meetings General Miller and I had with the Taliban, we agreed to re-set actions by strictly adhering to implementation of all elements of the U.S.-Taliban Agreement and all commitments made.\u201d This means reduced numbers of operations he said, adding \u201cat present too many Afghans are dying. With the re-set, we expect that number to drop significantly.\u201d \u201cWe will do our part and will monitor implementation actively. All parties must deliver on their responsibilities. We thank our international partners for their assistance and support,\u201d he added. Meanwhile, NATO Chief Jens Stoltenberg met with US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in Brussels and the two sides discussed the situation in Afghanistan. \u201cThe Doha talks offer the best chance for peace, but Taliban must keep their promises and reduce the unacceptable level of violence. NATO remains committed to Afghanistan\u2019s security,\u201d Stoltenberg tweeted. This is as UNAMA in a statement said that the violence \u201cunleashed in Helmand this week has forced thousands of Afghanistan civilians to leave their homes and initial reports suggest civilians have been killed and injured, including women and children.\u201d Moreover, the US Charg\u00e9 d\u2019Affaires Ross Wilson in a tweet said \u201cI stand behind UNAMA\u2019s call to protect civilians in Helmand, who should have safe passage to leave dangerous areas. It is indefensible that the Taliban continues to put civilians at risk through needless violence. Afghanistan needs peace now.\u201d Furthermore, the UK embassy in Kabul condemned the Taliban offensive in Helmand where \u201calarming numbers of civilians\u201d have been \u201cdisplaced, injured or killed\u201d and says the attacks \u201cundermine the crucial peace talks\u201d and all sides \u201cmust urgently reduce the violence and work towards a ceasefire.\u201d \u201cWe continue to support the ANDSF and the brave efforts made to create lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan,\u201d the UK Embassy said in a statement. Taliban fighters carried large-scale attacks on Lashkargah six days ago. Ongoing fighting has forced thousands of people to flee and take refugee to the surrounding provinces. Acting Defense Minister, Gen Assadullah Khalid visited Helmand province and said security situation will return to normal soon. \u2018Taliban had planned to capture Lashkargah city; by Allah\u2019s grace, ANDSF and people repelled the attack. ANDSF will clear areas at the outskirts of Lashkargah from Taliban soon,\u2019 he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(Afghanistan Times): US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad said that attacks have been on the rise in recent weeks in Afghanistan that\u00a0 threatening the peace process and alarming the Afghan people and their regional and international supporters. In series of tweets, Khalilzad said, \u201cFollowing several meetings General Miller and I had with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archived-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3058"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3059,"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3058\/revisions\/3059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}