Turkey signals support for Taliban-led Afghanistan

NEW YORK — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants Western powers to provide aid to Afghanistan “regardless of the political process” in Kabul, in an apparent break with trans-Atlantic attempts to use foreign aid as leverage to restrain the Taliban’s human rights abuses.

“The people of Afghanistan have been left alone; they were abandoned with the consequences of instability, and the conflicts that have lasted for more than four decades,” Erdogan told the United Nations General Assembly through an interpreter. “Regardless of the political process, Afghanistan needs the help and solidarity of the international community.”