Nikki Haley, Indian American politician from South Carolina and the former US ambassador to the UN on 22 August said that the US has surrendered to the Taliban and abandoned its allies in the Asian country.
While speaking to the CBS news, she expressed the need for the United States government to extend the 31 August deadline - to get people out and to make sure that the Taliban knows that.
We've got to get our Americans out. We've got to stay true to those Afghan allies that we made promises to. We have got to make sure we do this in a very strong way going forward.Nikki Haley to CBS News, 22 August
'Joe Biden Did Not Negotiate, He Surrendered'
The Republican and diplomat, has on multiple occasions been critical of the Joe Biden administration and their way of withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. She criticized the government and said that they have not negotiated but surrendered to the Taliban. "It's a scary time," she said, "The Taliban has held our Americans hostage."
She believes that the Taliban is "barbaric" and that "they're going to be nice until 31 August and and then all of those women, all of those girls, everything is going to go back to the way it was."
There are 10,000 Americans and 38 million Afghans at the mercy of the Taliban, she wrote on 22 August, in the Washington Post.
"You're going to have sex slaves. You're going to have child marriages. You're going to have kids that are -- girls that are no longer allowed in school. You're going to have our Americans. Any that are there will be in danger. And all of our Afghan allies will be killed if we don't do something.” she added.
Haley is being seen as one of the presidential candidates for 2024. She mentioned that the Republican government under former president Donald Trump had managed to keep terrorism at bay, and that the Biden administration in seven months humiliated America in front of the world. "We have no leverage" over the Taliban, she said.
UN - Not Doing Enough
Haley has also pointed out the UN's fallacy in not criticizing the Taliban's actions.
The former Ambassador to the UN fears that the International Organisation may even recognise the Taliban as the legitimate government of the people of Afghanistan owing to what she called the UN's "horrendous track record of legitimizing world's worst regimes" while speaking to the Washington Examiner.
The UN should refuse to allow the Taliban to represent Afghanistan," Haley said. "The UN already has a terrible track record when it comes to giving human rights abusers a seat at the table, but this would be a new low. A barbaric group like the Taliban that harbors some of the world’s worst terrorists and sets off suicide bombs in marketplaces has no place in an organization founded to maintain international peace and security.Nikki Haley to the Washington Examiner
America Must Not Recognise the Taliban
While she criticizes both the UN and the United States government, Haley hopes that they do not legitimize the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan. "Doing so" she wrote in the Washington Post, "will bring the US lower while raising up a regime that deserves nothing but scorn and isloation."
While praising Britian and the European Union for rejecting to recognise the Taliban, she said that the US rally to oppose Taliban's legitimacy in the UN which might make it difficult for the UN to consider them as Afghanistan's true representatives. "China and Russia have already cozied up to Afghanistan," Haley said.
She believes that with the rushed withdrawal of troops, Biden has already insulted the work of the US forces who fought t=he Taliban for the last 20 years and recognising the Taliban would just worsen the situation, even if it masked as a means of sending aid to the Afghans.
(With inputs from Washington Post, Washington Examiner, CBS News and Times of India)
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