Blinken to Taliban: Any legitimacy ‘will have to be earned’

By CHRISTOPH NOELTING and GEIR MOULSON
Associated Press

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that any legitimacy or international support for the Taliban “will have to be earned” after Afghanistan’s new rulers announced an interim government that drew a deeply skeptical Western response. Blinken said Wednesday that the new Afghan government “certainly does not meet the test of inclusivity and it includes people who have very challenging track records.” The secretary of state and his German counterpart met at a U.S. base in Germany that has become a key transit point for evacuees from Afghanistan. They hosted a virtual meeting of officials from 22 countries and NATO, the European Union and U.N. the day after the Taliban announced their all-male interim government.