‘Enough is enough’: Pakistan claps back at US senators’ controversial bill
ISLAMABAD – Federal Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari lashed out at the US senators in reaction to a proposed bill tabled in the US Senate seeking assessment of the alleged role of Pakistan before and after the fall of Afghanistan and in the Taliban’s recent action in Panjshir valley.
Taking to Twitter, Mazari said: “Enough is enough. It is time for those powers that were present in Afghanistan to look to their own failures instead of targeting Pakistan which paid a heavy price […] for being an ally and suffering constant abuse in a war that wasn’t ours”.
She said that Pakistan will once again be made to pay a heavy price for being an ally of the US in its “War on Terror”.
“So again Pak will be made to pay heavy price 4 being an ally of US in its “War on Terror” as a Bill (see pp 25-26) is introduced in US Senate in aftermath of the US’s chaotic Afghan withdrawal followed by collapse of ANA & Ashraf Ghani’s flight to UAE,” she wrote.
She said that twenty years of presence by economically and militarily powerful US and NATO left behind chaos with no stable governance structures.
“Pak now being scapegoated for this failure.This was never our war; we suffered 80000 casualties, a dessimated economy, over 450 drone attacks by r US ‘ally’ & disastrous fallout of these attacks on our tribal ppl & area,” Mazari added.
She urged the US Senate to do “serious introspection: Where did $ 2 trillion disappear? Why did the heavily-invested-in ANA simply dissolve? Who asked Pak to free TTA ldrship? Who signed Doha agreement with TTA & hosted them in DC?”
US Senators’ Bill
Twenty two US senators from Republican party tabled the Afghanistan Counterterrorism, Oversight, and Accountability Act in the Senate bill earlier this week to addressed issues related to the President Joe Biden administration’s “rushed and disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.”
The lawmakers have sought a report on who provided assistance to the Taliban during America’s longest war in Afghanistan, helped the group to recapture Kabul in August and supported their offensive on Panjshir Valley.
The report, as per the proposed legislation, must reach the relevant committees “not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this act, and not less frequently than annually thereafter”.
It added that the first report shall include “an assessment of support by state and non-state actors, including the government of Pakistan, for the Taliban between 2001 and 2020,” including the provision save heaves, financial assistance, intelligence support, logistics and medical support, training, equipping, and tactical, operation or strategic direction.
It also demands “an assessment of support by state and non-state actors, including the government of Pakistan, for the September 2021 offensive of the Taliban against the Panjshir Valley and the Afghan resistance”.
“We continue to see the grave implications of the Biden administration’s haphazard withdrawal from Afghanistan,” Senator Risch said in a statement issued by his office.
“We face a renewed terror threat against the United States, and the Taliban wrongly seek recognition at the United Nations, even as they suppress the rights of Afghan women and girls.”
The proposed bill also calls for imposing sanctions on the Taliban and others in Afghanistan for terrorism, drug-trafficking, and human rights abuses, as well as on those helping the group, including foreign governments.
It also calls for the safe evacuation of American citizens struck in Afghanistan and bringing back military equipment from the country.
Democrats Block Bill To Sanction Trillion-Dollar Trade Between China and the Taliban
Adam Kredo • September 29, 2021 4House Republicans tried to attach an amendment to the recently passed National Defense Authorization Act, the sprawling annual defense-funding bill, that would sanction any person or business that attempts to work with the Taliban to purchase rare earth minerals, a lucrative natural resource coveted by China and used to power most modern electronics. The Communist regime has used the American exit from Afghanistan to boost its presence in the war-torn country, in part to gain access to its natural resources, which are valued at anywhere from $1 to $3 trillion.
The GOP measure was rejected last week by Democrats on the House Rules Committee and by House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Gregory Meeks (D., N.Y.). According to congressional sources briefed on the matter, Meeks's staff cited concerns about any legislation that could provoke the Taliban. Meeks's office said it is concerned that any additional sanctions that target the Taliban could complicate ongoing efforts to rescue Americans still stranded in war-torn Afghanistan. Meeks aides also said that sanctioning the Taliban will push them to sell illegal drugs, which GOP sources say the terror group will do and is doing anyway.
Republicans will reintroduce the measure on Tuesday as a standalone bill in a bid to force Democrats into voting on a measure that will increase pressure on the Taliban, according to congressional sources familiar with the matter. GOP leaders say China's increased focus on Afghanistan poses a national security risk, particularly as it seeks to work with Taliban leaders to export precious materials that U.S. companies will end up buying.
"House Democrats proved once again that they are unwilling to compromise with Republicans by blocking my amendments to the [National Defense Authorization Act]," Rep. Greg Steube (R., Fla.), who is spearheading the measure, told the Washington Free Beacon. "It's outrageous that Democrats would not even allow a vote on something so commonsense as banning the Taliban and China from profiting off of rare earth minerals. Pretty soon Americans will be carrying around products with rare earth minerals sourced from the Taliban due to the reckless policies of the left."
The measure is part of a larger effort by the Republican Study Committee, the largest GOP caucus in Congress, to block the Taliban's access to cash resources and stop the group from aligning itself with malign regimes, such as China, Russia, and Iran.
"The Taliban's control of these minerals likely now makes it the wealthiest terrorist organization in the world," the Republican Study Committee wrote Tuesday in a private memorandum sent to 154 GOP offices, according to a copy obtained by the Free Beacon. "Unless conservatives in Congress act quickly to limit the damage done by the Biden administration, it is likely that soon products as varied as iPhones to laptops to the electric vehicles championed in Democrats' reconciliation package will contain raw earth minerals sourced from Taliban-run Afghanistan and developed by communist China. This would allow both the Taliban and China to profit and put American national security in jeopardy."
Rare earth minerals have become an increasingly hot button topic. China controls around 35 percent of all rare earth minerals reserves in the world and exports a large portion to the United States for use in a range of consumer products. Around 80 percent of the United States' rare earth mineral imports come from China.
China has prioritized an expansion in this market, injecting itself into a range of countries known for their stockpiles.
Since the United States withdrew its forces from Afghanistan, China has inked business deals with the Taliban that will expand its footprint in the country and also provide the Communist regime with billions in revenue. China inked a 30-year contract worth $3 billion dollars with Afghanistan's former government and has expressed its willingness to follow through on the deal with the Taliban leadership.
While the Taliban is subject to many American and international sanctions, the Biden administration and Democrats have expressed a willingness to work with the terror group and recognize it as Afghanistan's official government. Republican leaders in Congress want current sanctions enforced and additional ones implemented to prevent partnerships like the budding one between Beijing and the Taliban.
"It's not enough that we left Afghanistan vulnerable to a Taliban takeover and let them seize $85 billion worth of our military equipment," Rep. Jim Banks (R., Ind.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee and the chairman of the Republican Study Committee, told the Free Beacon. "We've also left them access to $1 to $3 trillion worth of rare earth minerals, which they plan to develop and sell with China. Instead of working to stop them, House Democrats are enabling them. Is this part of a new strategy to reward the Taliban that they're not telling us?"
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