Show an ad over header. AMP

U.S. envoy warns Taliban of international cutoff if Afghanistan is taken by force

10 August 2021
Dan Ackermann

Zalmay Khalilzad, the United States' special representative on Afghanistan reconciliation, warned the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, Tuesday that any government formed by force will not be recognized internationally, according to AP.

Why it matters: Nine out of 34 Afghan provincial capitals have fallen to the Taliban in recent days as the U.S. military withdraws, raising fears that the Afghan military will be unable to hold off the insurgent group.

  • Khalilzad and the Biden administration are attempting to pressure the Taliban to negotiate a power-sharing agreement with the Afghan government to stabilize the country and prevent further violence and civilian causalities.
  • The capitals of Farah, Baghlan and Badakshan provinces fell to the Taliban on Tuesday, according to the New York Times.

The big picture: Afghan Foreign Minister Haneef Atmar called for sanctions against Taliban leadership in response to the provincial seizures, saying they violated commitments that the group gave to the U.S. in 2020.

  • “The world community should come together to stop Taliban attacks on cities. This is a threat to international peace and security, not just a threat to Afghanistan,” Atmar told the Wall Street Journal.
  • “Attacks on cities will have destabilizing consequences for the region and the international community—not only by sending refugees but also with the arrival of more foreign fighters to Afghanistan, which will pave the ground for other terrorist groups to come.”

The U.S. intelligence community has warned that the Afghan government could collapse as soon as next year as the Taliban's battlefield offensive grows.

  • President Biden has called those assessments "wrong," saying the Afghan military outnumbers the Taliban and is better equipped.
  • On Tuesday, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said the Afghan military would need to halt the Taliban's encroachment.
  • “These are their military forces, these are their provincial capitals, their people to defend and it’s really going to come down to the leadership that they’re willing to exude here at this particular moment,” he said.

Go deeper:State Department urges U.S. citizens to leave Afghanistan

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

Section2

Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.