{"id":1420928,"date":"2022-04-05T21:29:54","date_gmt":"2022-04-06T01:29:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1420928"},"modified":"2022-04-05T21:29:58","modified_gmt":"2022-04-06T01:29:58","slug":"biden-admin-praises-taliban-for-alleged-ban-on-opium-poppies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-admin-praises-taliban-for-alleged-ban-on-opium-poppies\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden Admin Praises Taliban for Alleged Ban on Opium Poppies"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbiden-admin-praises-taliban-for-alleged-ban-on-opium-poppies%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1420928&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\"><span>Ian McCary, the U.S. Charge d\u2019Affaires for Afghanistan, on Monday praised the Taliban regime for supposedly banning the cultivation of opium poppies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cOutlawing the production of narcotics in Afghanistan is a positive first step but enforcement will be key. Having a healthy and licit agricultural sector will help Afghanistan\u2019s economy and ultimately the Afghan people,\u201d McCary <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/USAmbKabul\/status\/1510938568918589443\"><span>said<\/span><\/a><span> on Twitter.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p><span>Some of the responses to McCary\u2019s tweet questioned the validity of the Taliban edict against opium production or dismissed it as a fraudulent effort to fleece money from the international community.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The Taliban\u2019s deputy prime minister, Abdul Salam Hamafi, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/afghanistan-taliban-outlaw-opium-poppy-cultivation-drug-trade\/a-61348766\"><span>asked<\/span><\/a><span> for international donations to shift Afghanistan\u2019s farms to other crops soon after the ban was announced. The U.N. has already asked donors for another $4.4 billion in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>According to the United Nations, Afghanistan supplies over 80 percent of the world\u2019s opium products, and the illicit industry generates nearly $2 billion in income that would be difficult to replace, to put it mildly.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p><span>Most Afghan farmers in the major opium provinces <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/afghanistan-taliban-outlaws-growing-of-lucrative-opium-poppy-as-it-seeks-easing-of-sanctions-12581378\"><span>devote<\/span><\/a><span> at least some of their land to growing poppies and some have abandoned other crops entirely, exacerbating the national food shortage. Poppies are used as a form of currency, with farmers using the promise of the next harvest to buy food and supplies on credit. Under Taliban rule, Afghanistan is already <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/news\/2022\/03\/17\/time-running-out-address-afghanistans-hunger-crisis\"><span>teetering<\/span><\/a><span>\u00a0on the brink of mass starvation because its people cannot afford to buy food.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The alleged opium ban was presented on Sunday as a decree from Taliban Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhunzada that said: \u201ccultivation of poppy has been strictly prohibited across the country.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIf anyone violates the decree, the crop will be destroyed immediately and the violator will be treated according to the Sharia law,\u201d Akhunzada said at a Kabul news conference.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2022\/4\/3\/taliban-bans-drug-cultivation-including-lucrative-opium\">Al Jazeera News<\/a> cited Afghan farmers and Taliban sources who said \u201ctough resistance\u201d to the poppy prohibition was expected since production surged in recent months and prices have nearly doubled based on rumors of an impending ban.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cOther crops are just not profitable,\u201d a poppy farmer told Al Jazeera.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p><span>\u201cWe will be forced to steal,\u201d another complained to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/video\/20220404-we-will-be-forced-to-steal-taliban-bans-poppy-cultivation\"><span>AFP<\/span><\/a><span>, which noted the opium industry supports tens of thousands of jobs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The U.N. has long <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/national-security\/2019\/07\/31\/drought-cripples-talibans-record-high-opium-production-amid-peace-talks\/\"><span>regarded<\/span><\/a><span> the Afghan opium trade as a major security risk \u2013 and a major source of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/asia-pacific\/profits-poppy-afghanistans-illegal-drug-trade-boon-taliban-2021-08-16\/\"><span>funding<\/span><\/a><span> for the Taliban insurgency. Although the Taliban claims poverty when asked to feed or care for the people they rule, U.S. officials believe Taliban leaders have hundreds of millions of dollars in drug revenue stashed away.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Heroin sourced from Afghanistan is a relatively minor factor in the deadly U.S. drug scene, but it plays a much larger role in Canada, Europe, and Africa.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Opiates are also popular in neighboring Iran, whose heavily patrolled border was penetrated by enterprising Afghan smugglers using <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/afghan-drug-runners-latest-ruse-medieval-catapult-456337\"><span>catapults<\/span><\/a><span>. Afghanistan itself has a notorious community of drug users camped around the Pul-e-Sukhta bridge in Kabul.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The Taliban claimed to try banning opium harvesting several times before the U.S. invasion in 2001 but rescinded the bans under pressure from irate harvesters.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Taliban negotiators <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/national-security\/2019\/03\/28\/afghanistan-watchdog-u-s-must-deal-talibans-opium-trade-make-peace-possible\/\"><span>promised<\/span><\/a><span> to \u201creduce poppy cultivation and drug trafficking to zero throughout the country\u201d during peace negotiations in 2019, although they demanded foreign financial assistance in exchange for shutting down the narcotics trade.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The Taliban also reportedly made <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/national-security\/2019\/09\/10\/talibans-opium-fields-blocking-chinese-conquest-of-afghanistan\/\"><span>commitments<\/span><\/a><span> to China to reduce the drug trade when bargaining for railroads built by China\u2019s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Some of China\u2019s proposed rail lines would pass through Afghanistan\u2019s top opium-producing region.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The Taliban <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/asia\/2022\/02\/13\/report-kabul-heroin-user-encampment-growing-under-taliban\/\"><span>said<\/span><\/a><span> it was \u201csaddened\u201d to find so much drug abuse when it took control of Kabul in August 2021. \u201cFrom now on, Afghanistan will be a narcotics-free country.\u201d the group pledged.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Foreign observers noted the Taliban\u2019s idea of drug rehabilitation was characteristically brutal, with no provisions made for the pain and sickness of withdrawal.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ian McCary, the U.S. Charge d\u2019Affaires for Afghanistan, on Monday praised the Taliban regime for supposedly banning the cultivation of opium poppies.\u00a0 \u201cOutlawing the production of narcotics in Afghanistan is<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1420928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1420928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1420928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1420928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1420928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1420928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1420928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}