Archive for October 2nd, 2021

First shipment of aid arrives from China

China has sent its first shipment of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan since the fall of the previous government. Wang Yu, China’s ambassador to Kabul, said in a tweet on Wednesday that the aid included blankets and warm clothes. “The assistance shows deep love and friendship of Chinese people to Afghan people and reflects China’s role as a major country that […]

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Collapse of former govt, military rooted in US deal with IEA: CENTCOM chief

Senior Pentagon officials said Wednesday the collapse of the Afghan government and its security forces in August could be traced to a 2020 U.S. agreement with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) that promised a complete U.S. troop withdrawal. General Frank McKenzie, the head of the U.S. Central Command, told the House Armed Services Committee that once the U.S. troop […]

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Khalilzad reflects on fall of Kabul govt and military

US special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad said this week that many questions remain unanswered on why former president Ashraf Ghani fled the country unexpectedly and why the Afghan military forces dissolved within just a few hours. He also stated that in his opinion, the leadership of the former government made a “grand miscalculation” – that the US would never […]

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Taliban, China Decry Afghan Airspace Violations By US

The Taliban and China called Wednesday for the United States to stop flying drones over Afghanistan’s airspace, saying such actions were in breach of Afghanistan’s sovereignty and a mutual agreement. “We recently saw [the] United States violating all international rights, law and …commitments [made] to the Islamic Emirate [the Taliban] in Doha, Qatar, as Afghanistan’s sacred airspace is being invaded […]

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DOD Leaders Address Bagram Departure In Afghanistan, Noncombatant Evacuation Operation Timing

Following the U.S. departure from Afghanistan in August, some questioned the hand-over of Bagram Air Base — about 27 miles north of the capital city, Kabul — saying the move was ill-advised and had been a tactical mistake. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III said maintaining a presence there would have been costly, and would not have helped the […]

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On Afghanistan And China-Pakistan: Is Quad Becoming A Lost Cause? – OpEd

The Quad grouping will graduate from the last virtual meet of four leaders to the physical summit on September 24, when US President Joe Biden hosted Japanese outgoing Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in Washington DC. But then Quad has been a doubters’ paradise ever since it was coined due […]

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Counterview: Iran-Taliban Romance And US Withdrawal From Afghanistan – OpEd

Tehran used to continuously assure the West that the danger did not lie in Shia Islam to global peace, and the episode of 9/11 occurred on the right time for the Iranians to prove their claim. Though Irans then President Mohammad Khatami provided intelligence to the United States and IRGC-QFs (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – Quds Force) Qassem Soleimani oversaw […]

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On Afghanistan and Legitimate Resistance

An urgent task is awaiting us: considering the progression of events, we must quickly liberate ourselves from the limits and confines placed on the Afghanistan discourse, which have been imposed by US-centered Western propaganda for over 20 years, and counting. A first step is that we must not allow the future political discourse pertaining to this very subject to remain […]

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US, UK prepare to re-engage Taliban

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has written yet another opinion piece in the Washington Post, sensing a turning point lies ahead with the Biden Administration assembling a sustainable, durable policy toward Afghanistan taking into account the new reality of the Taliban government. Quintessentially, Imran Khan revisited his argument in the earlier WaPo piece in July where he had concluded: “I […]

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Afghanistan’s Impoverished People Live Amid Enormous Riches

On September 25, 2021, Afghanistan’s Economy Minister Qari Din Mohammad Hanif said that his government does not want “help and cooperation from the world like the previous government. The old system was supported by the international community for 20 years but still failed.” It is fair to say that Hanif has no experience in running a complex economy, since he […]

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