{"id":37823,"date":"2019-03-28T16:23:24","date_gmt":"2019-03-28T16:23:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=37823"},"modified":"2019-03-28T16:23:24","modified_gmt":"2019-03-28T16:23:24","slug":"sigar-reintegration-economy-among-top-risks-after-taliban-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=37823","title":{"rendered":"SIGAR: Reintegration, economy among top risks after Taliban peace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Afghanistan<\/a> will remain dependent on foreign donors and international help even after a peace deal with the Taliban is reached, a watchdog in the United States has said, adding that\u00a0that prospect of a potential end to fighting raises its own risks to rebuilding efforts.<\/p>\n

The comments on Thursday by the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, which monitors billions of dollars in US aid to the country, came in a new report identifying main high-risk areas for Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

“A peace agreement would be welcomed by the long-suffering Afghan people,” John Sopko, the head of SIGAR, said in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n

“But it could bring its own challenges to sustaining what the United States, coalition partners and the Afghan government have achieved.”<\/p>\n

Reintegration of Taliban<\/h2>\n

Washington’s nearly two-decade involvement in Afghanistan is the longest war in US history, with tens of thousands of civilians killed since 2001.<\/span><\/p>\n

In recent months, US and Taliban officials have held several rounds of peace talks<\/span>, raising hopes for an end to the long-running war.<\/p>\n

The latest ended<\/a> earlier this month in Qatar’s capital, Doha,\u00a0<\/span>with both sides citing progress.<\/p>\n

If a peace deal is struck, SIGAR said a concern would be the reintegration of as many as 60,000 heavily armed Taliban fighters and their families back into Afghan society.<\/p>\n

The report said other points of concern include widespread insecurity, underdeveloped civil policing capability, endemic corruption, sluggish economy, a\u00a0burgeoning illicit opium trade<\/span> and threats to women’s rights.<\/p>\n

More of the US reconstruction effort has gone into the Afghan National Army than to its national police, and a strategy for a “competent” police force, sustained by foreign assistance, would also be required, SIGAR wrote. Corruption has hampered reconstruction and remains the “top strategic threat” to the government’s legitimacy, it said.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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INSIDE STORY: Is peace finally possible in Afghanistan? (24:30)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

US-led forces deposed the Taliban in 2001 after the September 11, 2011 attacks in the US but the fighters regrouped and have steadily extended their influence.<\/p>\n

A study last year by\u00a0the\u00a0Brown University’s\u00a0Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0some 38,480 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan\u00a0due to the so-called “war on terror” launched by the US.<\/p>\n

Donor countries are expected to finance approximately 51 percent of Afghanistan’s 2019 government spending of $5bn. Yet the Afghan government’s capabilities are generally weak and it often lacks the capacity to manage and account for donor funds, the report said.<\/p>\n

The US has spent $132bn since 2002 on training Afghan forces, strengthening institutions and other initiatives.<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly voiced his eagerness to end his country’s involvement in Afghanistan, where 14,000 US troops are still deployed.<\/p>\n

Afghanistan has been enmeshed in nearly constant conflict since the Soviet invasion of 1979, which was followed by civil war, the Taliban 1996-2001 rule and the US invasion in late 2001.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n SOURCE:
\n Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Afghanistan will remain dependent on foreign donors and international help even after a peace deal with the Taliban is reached, a watchdog in the United States has said, adding that\u00a0that prospect of a potential end to fighting raises its own risks to rebuilding efforts. The comments on Thursday by the Special Inspector General for Afghan…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":37824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}