‘Failure of Doha Talks on Afghanistan May Escalate Conflict Further’

Date: 16 April 2019 - 21:18

News ID: ۶۴۹۰۱

MOSCOW (Dispatches) – The failure of the inter-Afghan talks in Doha to achieve any political solution to the conflict will only lead to an exponential increase in fighting as compared to last year, the special representative of Doctors Without Borders in Afghanistan told Sputnik.
"We know that this fighting season there is a lot of expectation around the Doha talks, the different talks that are happening in Doha or in Moscow and if those talks don’t succeed, Afghans have told us that the fighting will be even worse this year," Christopher Stokes, the special representative of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, or Doctors Without Borders) in Afghanistan said.
Stokes added that MSF would be forced to step up a plea for donations if there was a large increase in fighting.
"We won’t do a specific drive unless there is a big deterioration in the fighting this year," the representative noted.
The MSF special representative also revealed that Doctors Without Borders intended to dispatch additional staff members to the western Afghan province of Herat and open a center to help internally displaced people (IDPs) in the region.
"We are expanding in Herat… We are adding staff and we are opening a project for the displaced. There are several 100,000 displaced who have arrived in Herat over the last couple of months, they are fleeing both fighting and the drought because there has been a major problem with the rains in that area. So we have expanded," Stokes said.
The United Nations Security Council denounced the Taliban’s launch of a spring offensive in Afghanistan, urging all parties to instead "seize the opportunity” to reach a political settlement.
The UNSC said in a unanimous statement on Monday that the Taliban’s announcement of the new offensive would "only result in more unnecessary suffering and destruction for the Afghan people.”
China, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States are permanent members of the Security Council. Belgium, Cote d’Ivoire, the Dominican Republic, the Equatorial Guinea, Germany, Indonesia, Kuwait, Peru, Poland, and South Africa are the other members.
The Taliban announced the beginning of their spring offensive on Friday.
Hours after the announcement, the militants launched attacks near the northern city of Kunduz and in the capital, Kabul, leaving at least nine people dead and scores of others wounded, according to Afghan officials.
The offensive comes despite the group’s involvement in peace talks with the U.S., and ahead of a new round of negotiations.
The last round of talks between the U.S. and Taliban wrapped up last month, with both sides citing "progress.”