No Proof Of Taliban Plans Break From Al-Qaeda After Afghan Reconciliation Exists - UN Team

No Proof of Taliban Plans Break From Al-Qaeda After Afghan Reconciliation Exists - UN Team

There has been no evidence indicating that the Taliban will break from al-Qaeda terrorist organization (banned in Russia) once reconciliation in Afghanistan is achieved, so the risk of increased terrorist activity following the withdraw of US forces remains, the coordinator of the UN Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team concerning ISIL (banned in Russia), Al-Qaida and Taliban, Edmund Fitton-Brown, told Sputnik in an interview

GENOA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th November, 2019) There has been no evidence indicating that the Taliban will break from al-Qaeda terrorist organization (banned in Russia) once reconciliation in Afghanistan is achieved, so the risk of increased terrorist activity following the withdraw of US forces remains, the coordinator of the UN Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team concerning ISIL (banned in Russia), Al-Qaida and Taliban, Edmund Fitton-Brown, told Sputnik in an interview.

"The key part of what the Americans were looking for was credible assurances from the Taliban that they would suppress any future terrorist threat emanating from Afghanistan. Now the Taliban is already engaged in fighting against ISIL, so there isn't particular doubt about the Taliban's desire to suppress ISIL for a variety of reasons. But the question was would the Taliban be willing to break with al-Qaeda? There was no evidence of that," Fitton-Brown said when asked if the future withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan might open the possibility of the country once again becoming a launch pad for international terrorism.

"And was there a danger that if the Taliban went fully for Afghan reconciliation, would that mean that elements of the Taliban would break away and continue to work with the terrorist groups? And some of the Taliban aligned foreign terrorist fighters in Afghanistan, would they cease to respect any restraint and become a threat to neighboring or more distant foreign countries? I guess, the short answer to your question is that we don't know for sure, but your implied question about whether peace in Afghanistan could carry with it some risks in terms of aggressive terrorist groups � that's possible," he said.

"But of course, it's also possible that peace in Afghanistan would lead to a much stronger jurisdiction and much stronger safety and security forces inside Afghanistan, and that obviously would mitigate the threat," he added.