Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents said they will release 20 government officials in the first phase of their commitments under a historic peace deal with the United States.
The deal calls for the Afghan government to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners in exchange for 1,000 government officials held by the insurgents.
The Afghan government released its first 100 Taliban prisoners last week and Jawed Faisal, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s national security adviser, said the government has so far released 300 Taliban prisoners overall.
Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman for the Taliban’s political office, said in a tweet on Sunday that the first government prisoners would be handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross in the southern Kandahar province.
The exchanges come after the Taliban met the head of US forces in Afghanistan to call for an end to what the group says is an increase in American attacks since the peace deal was signed in February, allegations the US military denied.
On Saturday, a US military spokesman called on the Taliban to stop attacking Afghan security forces. He said American troops would continue to assist government forces in accordance with the agreement.
The peace deal is aimed at paving the way for the US to extricate itself from the 19-year war, America’s longest.
The spokesman confirmed that Gen Scott Miller met with the Taliban “as part of the military channel established in the agreement” to discuss ways to reduce the violence.
According to the Taliban spokesman, the meeting was held late on Friday in Qatar, where the insurgent group maintains a political office. Shaheen tweeted that the two sides held “serious” discussions. He said the Taliban called for a halt to attacks against civilians. The US military says it does not target non-combatants.
At the meeting with Gen Miller, the Taliban accused the US of bombing its insurgents in their homes, contrary to the peace deal.
Earlier last week, the US State Department’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs tweeted a harsh statement expressing frustration at the continued political turmoil roiling Kabul.
“As the world gets slammed by Covid-19, with devastating economic consequences for all, donors are frustrated and fed up by personal agendas being advanced ahead of the welfare of the Afghan people.”
Afghanistan has imposed a lockdown in several cities to curb the spread of the new virus and has so far recorded 607 confirmed cases and 19 deaths.
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Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi
From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
