Game of Conspiracies: U.S, Russia and Taliban

The U.S president “Donald Trump” has been part of many conspiracies since his venture began in the white house. But these are high times when the U.S is fighting with the coronavirus and became the worst-hit country by the pandemic with over 3.2 million and 136k deaths. The presidential elections are due in the upcoming November and another allegation on Mr Donald Trump unveils when reports accused the president of not taking any action against threats of attacks on U.S troops which led to the death of 20 U.S troops in Afghanistan. The concern is that Mr Trump might have had access to the information about threats to the U.S forces but he chose not to act.

These reports arrived when Mr Trump was trying to end the 19-year war in Afghanistan and trying to improve relations with Russians. These reports will surely have a severe impact on the relations between the U.S and Russia.

The role of Russia and Taliban: -

20 U.S troops died in Afghanistan in 2019, the New York Times said the deaths were under suspicion. Now, reports by many newspapers such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, etc. claimed that a Russian intelligence unit paid bounties to Taliban-related militants for the killings of the Americans. The newspapers acclaimed that the reports came from trusted yet unnamed U.S officials.

Although, Russia has denied these reports by calling it “an outright fake, that even Trump and his administration have denied”. Moreover, the Kremlin has not been made aware of the accusations, as per the sayings by Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary for President Vladimir V.Putin of Russia. While Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesperson for Taliban said it had never made any deals with government intelligence of any country and called the reports an attempt to defame them.  However, the Russians have been open about building ties with the Taliban to stop the growth of the Islamic State extremist group in Afghanistan and Central Asia.

Any links of the Taliban with Russia which lead to the killings of the Americans will point towards Russia`s so-called Hybrid-war towards America; a strategy of spreading fake news, cyber-attacks, covert, and deniable military operations.

How the U.S and Taliban war started: -

When Osama bin laden, the leader of al-Qaeda took the responsibilities of the 9/11 attacks, the U.S invaded Afghanistan and started a war against the Taliban who was giving refuge to Osama bin laden. The Taliban has ruled Afghanistan since 1996 but the U.S forced them to flee to Pakistan. Since the invasion, the Taliban and the U.S have been fighting the war. The U.S has reported over 2000 soldier`s death and more than 20 thousand wounded in the war against the Taliban.

U.S and Taliban peace treaty: -

After more than 18 years of war in Afghanistan, the U.S and The Taliban made efforts to achieve peace and end the war. The Taliban guaranteed that Afghanistan will not become a safe haven for terrorists and the U.S agreed to draw down the number of U.S troops from Afghanistan. Although many Afghans fear that the U.S withdrawal could spark new conflict and eventually allow the Taliban to regain control of Afghanistan.

After 9 rounds of negotiations, a peace agreement was finally signed in February 2020 which concentrated on four main issues:

● Cease-fire: -Reduction in violence and cease-fire has been done between both the parties.

● Withdrawal of foreign forces: - The U.S has agreed to withdraw a large number of U.S troops from Afghanistan within 135 days and all of them within 14 months.

● Intra-Afghan Negotiations: - All through the negotiations, the Taliban opposed talking straightforwardly to Afghan government calling them "the American puppet" however after exchanges, the Taliban head Sirajuddin Haqqani expressed, “if we can reach an agreement with a foreign enemy, we must be able to resolve intra-afghan disagreements through talks.”

● Counterterrorism assurance: - The Taliban has assured the U.S to help Afghans fight against terrorism.

Allegation on President Donald Trump: -

American intelligence officials concluded that a Russian based military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to the Taliban linked militants for killing forces in Afghanistan including targeting U.S troops amid the peace talks to end the war. The intelligence stated that President Donald Trump was made aware of the threats to the U.S troops but the officials denied the information by claiming that the President was not “Personally” informed about the alleged plot in Afghanistan. However, the reports say that the U.S president received a written briefing but chose to not act.

The Written daily brief report is a document with key government intelligence provided daily to the U.S president. The New York Times citing two unnamed U.S officials claimed the information was included in the President`s daily brief report. Now, the allegation on Donald Trump is that he never reads the written reports and relies on oral briefing by the officials a few times a week due to which the information was missed.

Although the President officials came to the rescue saying that “he does read the reports and also consumes verbal intelligence”. The official Ms McEnany also stated that “This president is the most informed person on the planet when it comes to threat we face”.

No sources have confirmed that allegations on the President are true or false but these will deeply impact the forthcoming elections but the White House is under pressure to explain how much the administration knew about the information that led to the killing of the U.S troops.

Relations between Russia and America:`

The relations between the two countries are the worst in the current times. The Russian`s interference in the 2016 U.S presidential elections and the attempts to affect the 2020 elections has raised an alarm in the White house. From the starting of a war in Ukraine to the help for Syria`s Bashar al-Assad in his civil war and Venezuela`s Nicolas Maduro by the Russians have raised genuine pressures between the two nations.

The U.S President Donald Trump came into the office with a mindset to improve relations with the Russians while the rest of the executive branch used tough policies towards Russia; they even expelled the Russian diplomats which also raised tensions. The U.S National Security Strategy declared Russia and China as the two top threats to the U.S.

The recollections of losing at any rate 15,000 Russians are likewise in the psyches on the Russians which was the aftereffect of the battle between the U.S-supported mujahideen and the Soviet intruders. Russia took a back seat during the U.S invasion of Afghanistan but kept a close eye on the situation.

London-based security analyst Mark Galeotti says “Russia sees Afghanistan as key to its security”.

Relations between Afghanistan and the U.S:

Afghanistan has been an important partner for the U.S in the fight against terrorism. Afghanistan forces worked with the U.S troops to eliminate al-Qaeda, ISIS, and their partners in Afghanistan. The U.S has invested its resources in Afghanistan to strengthen the government and to improve the lives of people of Afghan. The U.S invests in Afghanistan to improve its economy, security, governance, and other important and essential factors.

The peace treaty between the Taliban and the U.S has also helped the Afghan government to make peace with the Taliban which was causing insurgency against the government of Afghanistan.

The U.S troops also helped Afghanistan to train their armies and local police.

Now we have discussed every aspect of the controversies and allegations going on between the three “U.S, Russia and Taliban”. There are no official statements that can tell the truth but there are definitely allegations that are passed from one to another. At last, the final word is that Russia and U.S being the two nuclear superpowers of world bear some responsibilities like keeping the peace around the world, terrorism, actions on climate changes, and right now the fight against the COVID-19 Pandemic. The two countries need to find a way to work together for the betterment of the world.

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