BERLIN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th August, 2021) Germany will cut financial support to cash-strapped Afghanistan if the Taliban (a terrorist group, banned in Russia) take over the country, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Thursday.
The Taliban captured the tenth provincial capital in less than a week on Thursday. The city of Ghazni lies on the road between the capital Kabul and militant-held territories to the south.
"This country is not viable without international aid... We will not give Afghanistan another cent if the Taliban take over the country and introduce Sharia law," Maas warned in an interview with the public broadcaster ZDF.
The minister estimated that Germany alone had been giving Afghanistan 430 million Euros ($505 million) in aid every year. An Afghan caliphate will not have this support, he stressed.
Maas said peace negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government in Doha were still ongoing but he admitted that the insurgency wanted to play the bigger part in a new unity government.
