Preventing the coronavirus spread in Afghanistan is almost impossible if violence continues, top US commander of international forces in Afghanistan has said.
“It’s something that affects the entire world, and it will affect coalition forces and Afghan security forces as well,” General Scott Miller said as reported by Public Broadcasting Service, an American public broadcaster and television program distributor.
“The focus on this particular virus has to be on preventing the spread, which is difficult under even normal circumstances, but almost impossible if we have violence,” he added.
Afghan officials have registered over 1,000 cases of coronavirus and more than 30 deaths attributed to it.
The US signed a peace deal with the Taliban in late February, but the continue to carry out attacks in Afghanistan at a level which the US sees as unacceptable.
The deal stipulated the release of up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners in exchange for 1,000 government prisoners before March 10 when intra-Afghan talks would begin.
However, few hundred prisoners have been released so far.
In March, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slashed $1 billion in aid to the Afghan government over leadership feud between President Ashraf Ghani and former Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah.
“In the past the US was, I wouldn’t just say unwilling, I would say unable to make those kinds of threats, because — certainly not able to make those kinds of threats credibly, because the US had a strategy in place that depended on the success and survival of the Afghan government,” said Laurel Miller, a former US special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“The fact that the US is now willing to make those kinds of threats, I think credibly, suggests that the US is turning towards a strategy that doesn’t see the success and survival of the Afghan government as important to American security interests,” she said.
