Voice of America, 22 December 2014
On its website, the US government radio, in its preview on Afghanistan’s 2015 challenges, extensively quotes AAN’s Kate Clark on the working relationship in the government of national unity and the general situation:
“We have got the [political] transition, we have got the two men in place. They strive to appear to be cordial in public and that’s all very good, however, we still don’t have a government, we still don’t have a cabinet. They have not managed to conclude the negotiations [on formation of the cabinet] with more than two months on from the establishment of their government. We still don’t know what Dr. Abdullah’s powers and authorities are, and we still don’t know whether this government is going to work or not,” said Clark.
Clark said the new Afghan leadership is running out of time in terms of dealing with worsening security in the wake of rising Taliban attacks and mounting economic problems after suffering setbacks due to the prolonged election process.
“Afghanistan is facing urgent problems. It’s got still a very violent insurgency. The Taliban showing no signs of wanting to put down their weapons. The economy has lost a lot of income. Yes, the economy has got huge problems. So, Afghanistan is facing, it’s facing very, very severe problems. And I don’t think we yet have any sense of urgency from the elites who would form the government that they need to get on with things they need to start really, really tackling some of those problems,” said Clark.
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This article was last updated on 9 Mar 2020
