Afghanistan: Taliban 'cooperating' with UK forces and not behaving in 'medieval way', says chief of defence staff
"We are cooperating with the Taliban on the ground and that seems to be a very straightforward relationship," General Sir Nick Carter tells Sky News.

Samuel Osborne
News reporter @samuelosborne93
Wednesday 18 August 2021 10:41, UK


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhJNtFoU_vU
'I do think Taliban have changed' - defence chief

The Taliban is "cooperating" with British forces as they work to evacuate people from Afghanistan and is not behaving in a "medieval way", the chief of the UK defence staff has said.

General Sir Nick Carter told Sky News: "We are cooperating with the Taliban on the ground and that seems to be a very straightforward relationship.

"They are keeping the streets of Kabul very safe and indeed very calm. They are helping us at the airport."

He said the militants are "keeping the streets calm, they are avoiding public disorder" - and added: "What we're not getting are reports of them behaving in a medieval way like you might have seen in the past."

Sir Nick suggested the Islamist movement, which has taken power in Afghanistan, could be more moderate than when it was last in control in the 1990s.

He said he does not think the Taliban "want to become international pariahs again", adding: "I do think that they have changed."

However, the shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy disagreed with Sir Nick's comments, saying the UK is "dealing with a very oppressive regime".

"I think that's a very difficult and unpalatable message to the very many Afghans, including women and girls, who are not just suffering at the moment but are also very, very fearful about the future," she told Sky News.

"I spoke to a friend from Afghanistan last week who told me the Taliban were going door-to-door, they were arresting people, they were threatening people who'd worked with British troops or women who'd worked in high profile jobs.

"I think we ought to be talking to the Taliban, that's absolutely right. But we ought to be talking to the Taliban about getting guarantees around human rights and the future for women and girls."

She added: "I think it's very difficult to judge people by their words when their actions are so at odds with the reality. I think we're dealing with a very oppressive regime and I think we need to be clear-eyed about that."

WHY DO PEOPLE FEAR THE TALIBAN?
The Taliban was condemned internationally for enforcing a strict and extreme version of Sharia law during its rule from 1996 to 2001, which included administering punishments such as public stonings, whippings and hangings.

The militant group also banned music and musical instruments, with the exception of the daf - a type of frame drum - and cut off the hands of thieves and stoned adulterers.

Along with their allies, they committed massacres against Afghan civilians, denied UN food supplies to 160,000 starving people, and conducted a policy of scorched earth - burning vast areas of fertile land and destroying tens of thousands of homes.

Under the Taliban's ruling, activities and media including paintings, photography and movies that depicted people or other living things were banned.

Many Afghans fear the Taliban will reimpose this harsh interpretation of Islamic law - leading to thousands of people trying to flee the country.

It comes as Boris Johnson told MPs that events in Afghanistan "unfolded" faster "than even the Taliban predicted", but he said the government had not been caught "unawares".

MPs have been recalled from their summer holidays for an emergency sitting in Parliament on Wednesday to take part in a five-hour debate on the situation in Afghanistan.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9vsCwABXSU
The Taliban said one of its leaders and co-founders, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, had returned to Afghanistan after 10 years.

On Tuesday night, the prime minister announced a new settlement scheme will allow up to 20,000 vulnerable Afghan refugees to come to the UK over the coming years.

The Taliban has claimed it is not seeking revenge after regaining control of the country after being ousted two decades ago.

Speaking from the Afghan presidential palace on Tuesday, Zabihullah Mujahid referred to Afghanistan as the "Islamic Emirate" and said the group is committed to the rights of women within the framework of Sharia, or Islamic law.

Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told Sky News that "thousands" of schools continue to operate following the Taliban takeover and claimed women will have the right to work and be educated up to university level.

https://news.sky.com/story/afghanistan-taliban-cooperating-with-uk-forces-and-not-behaving-in-medieval-way-says-chief-of-defence-staff-12384312

1) General Sir Nick Carter, the UK's Chief of Defence Staff.

2) Taliban fighters patrol the capital city of Kabul.

Good news

I wrote earlier that Biden did the right thing. See why: https://www.nairaland.com/6706495/opinion-biden-right-withdraw-us

THE GOOD THING IS THAT, SOON THE WORLD WILL BE RULED BY ISLAMIC LAW. NO U.S,UK,ISRAEL CAN STOP IT

In 2020, Zalmay Khalilzad signed a peace deal with Taliban political chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.

Zalmay Khalilzad was the US Ambassador to the United Nations under Presidents Bush and Obama. He's a former US Ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq. he was even considered for Secretary of State in the Trump administration.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is one of founders of the Taliban and he is the one in the video posted above being welcomed back to Afghanistan after 10 years.

The US is playing a game.

Idiots trying to massage their ego.
See their mouth "They are cooperating with UK" to fool Ignorant Nairalanders that doesn't know anything in history.
Before you Western ass lickers start praising UK, it might interest you to know that they were the first to be defeated in Afghanistan 1919 before Russia and then USA.
The British own was funny because they fought Afghanistan three times and won only one (colonial).
They lost the first, won the second of which they colonised Afghanistan and some parts of Pakistan, barely few years, the Afghans revolted and won Britain, forcing Britain to recognise them as an independent country of which the obliged Shamelessly.
Apart from Black people, Britain are easily defeated by their fellow humans, especially Japanese that gave them Humialting defeat in all theatres of Second world war that the two met. Most especially in Australia
Infact, Afghans are the modern Spartans

Ok oo

The west will report smth in the morning and report smth else in the afternoon, confused media

Confusion everywhere

UK! UK!

Well one thing you must know about them is that they are the worst snaky country in the world. They can talk, dine and smile with the worst sets of people as long as they TAP YOUR RESOURCES, if you like be a terrorist.

You see this cooperation, it is a build-up to what to TAP(tap uranium, tap copper, tap opium and all the mountainous minerals in Afghanistan).

No matter how evil and dirty you are, you can befriend the UK. Just bring your money, investment and resources to London, you are GOOD, and if you don't have any even if you are a 'Christian' don't ever ever deal with them

That defense staff is naive.
Taliban have to present a good face to outsiders for now.
They want to have access to about $10 billion dollars frozen in the US and elsewhere.

Ordinary afghans are the one bearing the brunt.

kambili999:
Confusion everywhere

Indeed

Hope this doesn’t come to NIGERIA

People way America call terrorist, lol. Eyes are opening to America's deception

Interesting...


@SENIORWRITER

The population of Muslims in UK is on the rise. So I understand why UK is somehow supporting the Taliban.

spartan50:
Hope this doesn’t come to NIGERIA

They already have Sharia in the North. They've been trying to export terrorism to the South but they have been failing.
They are now trying to use instruments of state and political power to suppress Christians, Christian and Southern interests.
That is why you see them move against anything that benefits the South and Christians.

Let's hope they continue this non violent approach

My confusion is the fact after 20years of U.S invasion and Taliban intention of regaining the power, today they speedily took the mantle of leadership without a bloodshed even in democracies today transition doesn't occur without a casualty. There is something fishy somewhere. U.S at it again, they must have had an agreement with the Taliban for certain interest they would stand to gain.

You think modernism abi modernization will not rub off on these so-called Talibans?
Let's see if they will burn the gyms, swimming pools, telecommunication apparatus, not watch TV, destroy every relic of modernization.
We are watching

Very contradictory report

they are now the Government.

There needs to be recognition and cooperation from international communities

Na them talk am oo