Taliban Gives Demands

At the emergency UN meeting this morning, the Taliban, now in control of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, stated “no longer will the East be corrupted and destroyed by the perverted morals and values of the West.” Additionally, the Taliban declared several demands that must be met including new leadership, the return of Sharia in legal matters, the retreat of foreign militaries out of the Middle East, the creation of an official Muslim state in the Philippines, no longer considering Israel as a state, Taliban soldiers who are being held hostage must be returned, and 80 billion rupees ($16 billion USD). If the demands are not met, the Taliban will shoot a nuclear weapon at Israel.

After hearing the Taliban’s demands, the countries shared their thoughts on the situation. Many countries were hesitant to put pressure on the Taliban because of the risk of nuclear war, but instead wished to end the conflict peacefully. During his statement, Iran’s representative, Kevin Bral, stated that “I have not and will not be involved with the Taliban unless it is to negotiate a peaceful end to this issue.”

Even though many countries want to end the crisis peacefully, Charlie Montgomery of Pakistan said: “I think we need to make it clear to the Taliban that we do have a strong military and that we can take them out” while Sarah Salek of the United States stated that, “the United States strongly supports Pakistan and urges the military to not stand down and to disconnect their focus from India so that this issue with the Taliban can be resolved at once.” Despite the fact that US and Pakistan both have faith in the Pakistani military, the majority of Pakistan’s army is situated on the border with India. In response to this, Pakistan said that they would remove “non-essential personal from the border with India.” Even with the addition of some Pakistani soldiers from the border, the chances of the Pakistani army defeating the Taliban are slim as the army showed their incompetence when they let the Taliban obtain nuclear weapons. Because of the incompetence of the Pakistani military in the past, there must be intervention by the biggest outside powers.

With the lingering threat of nuclear warfare, the UN Security Council races to find a solution to this crisis. However, many nations want to resolve the issue in different ways which will lead to conflict, and possibly nuclear war.

By Jeffrey Albrecht
Edited by Ashley Barlow