AP, United Nations :
Hillary Clinton urged Afghanistan’s supporters on Tuesday to ensure that women are included in negotiations to end the country’s long war – and to never again allow the Taliban to impose “a reign of terror against women and girls.”
The former U.S. first lady, senator and secretary of state said Afghan women today are rightly afraid that the gains they have made since the Taliban were ousted from power in 2001 “will be washed away in a rush to achieve a peace that will not hold anyway.”
“This is not just morally wrong, this is dangerous, dangerous to every country represented here,” she told a crowded U.N. meeting of the Group of Friends of Women in Afghanistan, co-sponsored by Afghanistan and the United Kingdom.
Clinton, who lost the 2016 elections to Donald Trump, spoke following the U.S.-Taliban deal signed Feb. 29 which was touted as Washington’s effort to end 18 years of war in Afghanistan and bring American troops home.
The next crucial step was to be talks in which all Afghan factions including the Taliban would negotiate a road map for their country’s future.
