Blinken addresses stalled Afghanistan peace talks amid Taliban offensive

Taliban claim to want a deal but are pushing their battlefield momentum

Abdullah Abdullah (L) shakes hands with the leader of the Taliban negotiating team, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in Doha. AFP

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday spoke to the top Afghan official overseeing Kabul’s stalled peace talks with the Taliban, reiterating the importance of an “inclusive political settlement” even though the hardliners have the upper hand on the battlefield and have ignored pleas to cut violence.

The Taliban and the team led by Afghan High Council for National Reconciliation Chairman Abdullah Abdullah have been meeting sporadically in the Qatari capital Doha for months but have failed to take any concrete steps towards a peace deal.

While the Taliban's supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada claims he “strenuously favours” a political settlement, western diplomats fear this is mere lip service as on the ground the Taliban are carrying out a sweeping offensive across Afghanistan.

Mr Blinken spoke with Mr Abdullah “to reiterate the US commitment to seek a just and durable political settlement that ends the war in Afghanistan,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said.

“Both leaders deplored continuing Taliban attacks, loss of innocent Afghan lives and displacement of the civilian population and underscored the widespread international condemnation of these attacks,” Mr Price said.

The two also discussed “ways to accelerate peace negotiations and achieve a political settlement,” Mr Price said without elaborating.

President Joe Biden in April declared an end to the longest war in US history and almost all American forces have already left Afghanistan, with the few remaining due out by the end of August.

The US insists it will maintain an “over-the-horizon” capability to strike the Taliban from overseas, and on Wednesday, the US struck Taliban targets in southern Helmand.

The strikes came after the Taliban overran much of the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah.

But occasional air strikes are of little reassurance to Afghanistan's security forces, who have relied for years on western strategic and financial support.

The demoralised military far outnumbers the Taliban but has long suffered from corrupt leadership and poor provisioning.

An Afghan security personnel stands at the site of a car bomb explosion in Kabul.

The bomb exploded near the residence of Afghanistan's Acting Minister of Defence Gen Bismillah Mohammadi in the Shirpur area of Kabul.

Afghan security personnel inspect the site of the explosion.

The blast took place before a planned citywide protest against Taliban attacks.

Cars and buildings were damaged by the night-time explosion.

Gen Mohammadi survived the blast as he was not home when the attack took place, ministry representative Fawad Aman said.

While many casualties are feared, no figures have been released by authorities.

Extensive damage to buildings in Kabul's Shirpur area has been reported.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price said the bombing bore 'all the hallmarks of the spate of Taliban attacks that we have seen in recent weeks'.

An emergency hospital near the site of the explosion tweeted they had received six patients.

Afghan security personnel assess the damage caused by the attack that apparently targeted the country's acting defence minister.

Attacks have risen sharply in Afghanistan since US President Joe Biden announced US troops would leave by September.

The US and the Taliban made a deal in Doha last year that cemented the American departure from Afghanistan.

But as soon as they signed the accord, the Taliban dramatically stepped up their military campaign across the country.

US Afghanistan envoy Zalmay Khalilizad said on Wednesday that the Taliban seek “the lion’s share of power” in any new Afghan government.