INTERNATIONAL: The Taliban are out on the streets of Kabul to “protect people's property and lives”, amid an administrative vacuum following their takeover. A new government has yet to be named and few details about how the group intends to govern have been released. It’s causing anxiety around the world, but most especially on the streets of Kabul.
All we know is that this is the new “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”. We don’t know who’s in charge, what the government will look like, when it will first meet, or how it will actually govern. While Kabul residents say the security situation has improved, life is getting tough. Some banks, most hospitals and government offices remain open, but while local market vendors have things to sell, few people are buying, given the high levels of anxiety about what the next few days and weeks could bring. Prices are soaring and long queues outside banks underline just how worried residents of the capital are. The local currency, the Afghani, is fast losing its value against the US dollar. At the border with Pakistan, many money traders are refusing to exchange it. The fall in the exchange rate has seen prices for many basic foodstuffs ratchet up daily, squeezing people who have seen their salaries disappear and their savings put out of reach by the closure of the banks.
The Taliban says the problems will ease once a new government is in place. It’s appealed to other countries to maintain economic relations. One country that will be key is the United States, but its focus right now is getting its remaining nationals and Afghan contract workers out of the country after it’s shambolic airlift, according to Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland…
"You know, we have obviously had contacts with the Taliban. We had it during the effort that we were trying to midwife a negotiation. Those conversations have continued intensively to enable the evacuation of that we undertook and to try to get the kinds of guarantees of safe passage, et cetera, and tolerance and to talk about the standards set in the U.N. Security Council resolution to talk about the terrorist threat as well, because the expectation is that they they claim to be able to control the security of Afghanistan, we'll see if that if that is the case. That is a far cry from formal recognition. We will continue to have conversations that serve our interest, as will our allies and partners, but the first thing we want to see is them live up to the obligations that they have under the U.N. charter, as well as the public statements that they themselves have made about their expectation for an Afghanistan that respects human rights, respects international law, allows international citizens and Afghans who wish to leave." Back in Kabul, the Taliban is taking stock at the capital’s main airport. It says it hopes to restore operations there in the coming days.
