President Ghani to address nation, say reports, as Taliban captures more provinces

Kabul: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is to deliver a speech to his embattled nation, even as the Taliban have captured 18 provinces in a rapid surge, news reports said Friday.

According to an Afghan TV channel, “President Ghani is to deliver a speech in connection with the critical situation of Afghanistan today or tomorrow”.

This comes as the Taliban have taken the provincial capitals Qalat, Terenkot, Pul-e Alam, Feruz Koh, Qala-e Naw and Lashkar Gah within hours, after capturing Herat and Kandahar cities.

It so far has control over 18 provincial capitals across Afghanistan.

In another development, the Taliban detained Mohammad Ismail Khan, one of Afghanistan’s prominent warlords, on Friday after they seized Herat. Photographs of the warlord after his capture were doing the rounds on social media.

The Taliban are rapidly advancing towards capital Kabul.

In another development, Russian news agency Tass quoted the Afghan Foreign Minister Mohammad Haneef Atmar as saying that the Afghan government has made a power-sharing offer to the Taliban.

"Such an offer [by the government of Afghanistan on power-sharing with the Taliban] was made and it was announced by our delegation as part of a general discussion of the issue. This offer consists of three parts or three phases. The first phase is a ceasefire and the second relates to reaching agreements. The third phase is some transitional period to establish shared power," he said in an interview with the Ekho Moskvy radio station, a fragment of which was posted on the media outlet's Telegram channel.

"The only condition that the government of Afghanistan put forward was that the Afghan people should determine the future system and regime in the country. This system should be achieved by the free expression of the will of the Afghan people so that Afghanistan does not turn into a base of international terrorism again," Atmar added.

"If the Taliban rejects this proposal, it will, therefore, reject not only a proposal of the state of Afghanistan. They will reject a proposal of both the regional scope and international nature, in which Russia also took an active part," the Afghan foreign minister said, Tass reported. (UNI)