Archive for September 23rd, 2020

Analyst: Pakistan could normalise ties with Israel

A British-Pakistani analyst said he expects Pakistan to follow Gulf Arab countries and normalise ties with Israel, Israel Hayom reported on Monday.

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Taliban Want ‘Islamic System’ of Government as Focal Point of Afghan Talks

Delegates of Afghanistan’s government and the Taliban continue finalizing “rules of negotiations” for a power-sharing deal a week after the two foes launched their historic U.S.-brokered direct peace dialogue.

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The Taliban sanctions

THE initiation of the intra-Afghan dialogue in Doha has raised optimism about achieving political reconciliation in Afghanistan. The stakeholders are apparently aware that this could be a patchy and lengthy process, and that they may need to review their positions from time to time during the whole discourse.

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Dozens of Taliban militants killed in air strikes on base in Afghanistan

At least 11 civilians were killed and more than 10 others wounded on Saturday in twin air strikes on a Taliban base in the northeastern Afghan province of Kunduz, a provincial official said.

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Gilgit-Baltistan Is The New Hotspot

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has announced to make Gilgit-Baltistan, a part of the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir, as the fifth province of Pakistan on September 17, 2020, making it the new hot spot in the region. India retorted by saying that ‘Government of Pakistan or its judiciary has no locus-standi on territories illegally and forcibly occupied by […]

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Nineteen Years After 9/11, Afghanistan Faces a New Foe: The Islamic State | Opinion

Nineteen years after the al-Qaeda attacks of September 11, 2001, American troops are still deployed in Afghanistan, although there is a new enemy that has emerged to destabilize the country—the Islamic State Khorasan Province, or ISKP. The Afghan Taliban—the same group that provided sanctuary to al-Qaeda as it planned the 9/11 attacks—is on the verge of entering into a power-sharing […]

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Conflict trends

Afghanistan Representatives from the Afghan government and the Taliban met in Doha this week to begin intra-Afghan peace talks, which were supposed to immediately follow the U.S.-Taliban agreement in February. Crisis Group expert Andrew Watkins says that after persistent delays, expectations for the first round of talks should remain modest as both sides still need to agree on an agenda […]

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Pompeo says fewer than 200 al Qaeda left in Afghanistan today

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday that there are fewer than 200 al Qaeda left in Afghanistan today. Pompeo was speaking at an Atlantic Council event.

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Taliban Tell Afghan Government They Have No Aim to Seize Power

Taliban leaders told their government counterparts at the Afghan peace talks they wouldn’t seek to seize power and that their struggle was to free the country from foreign forces and establish an Islamic system.

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National Assembly passes bill to curb terrorism financing

The National Assembly (NA) on Tuesday passed the Anti-Terrorism (Third Amendment) Bill, 2020 aimed at using new techniques to investigate terrorism and its financing.

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