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WASHINGTON: The United States has denied providing financial assistance or any kind of support to Afghanistan’s Taliban-led regime.
“I have made clear in previous briefings, we do not provide any funding to the Taliban,” US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said while speaking at a press briefing in Washington.
The official’s remarks came in response to a question which cited State Department’s Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Pate’s remarks regarding the provision of $300 million to the war-torn country via United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in different forms.
Highlighting the United Nations report on the treatment of women and girls and moral oversight in Afghanistan, Miller called out Kabul for its unpredictable and arbitrary enforcement of the Taliban’s morality code, terming it as something which undermines human rights in the country.
The spokesperson further said that Washington continues to closely monitor the Taliban’s treatment of the people of Afghanistan, adding that the Biden administration expects them to honour their assurances to the Afghan people and the international community in this regard.
“Their [Taliban’s] relationship with the international community depends entirely on their actions,” he noted.
Miller was further asked about the scourge of terrorism in Pakistan, especially recent incidents including last week’s assassination of former senator Hidayat Ullah via a “remote-controlled” bomb explosion in Bajaur last week and Pakistan Army Captain Muhammad Osama bin Arshad’s martyrdom in a gun battle with terrorists this week.
At this, the spokesperson stressed that Islamabad and Washington share an interest in combating threats to regional security.
“We partner with a range of Pakistani civilian institutions and regularly engage the government of Pakistan to identify opportunities to build capacity and strengthen regional security,” he added.
