Former FBI agent Ali Soufan has investigated numerous terrorism cases, inside and outside the United States, including the 1998 US embassy bombings in East Africa and the 2000 attack on the guided-missile destroyer USS Cole. His role in shedding light on the 9/11 attacks also raised his profile. It is believed that he came very close to preventing the terrorist […]

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, Deputy Prime Minister of Afghanistan, said that Afghanistan wants good ties with all countries. Deputy PM on Thursday met with a number of Ambassadors of foreign countries in Kabul, where he assured the diplomats of having friendly relations with all nations. “If anyone has a problem with us, we are ready to solve it through dialogue. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Love jihad is a highly debated topic in India today. Whenever the issue starts to peter out someone will come up with a statement or an action to bring it back to the limelight. The latest being Pala Bishop’s controversial statement about both love jihad and narcotics jihad. Narcotics jihad is something that was hitherto unheard of , the credit […]

Tajikistan is interfering in the internal affairs of Afghanistan, Abdul Ghani Baradar, the acting deputy head of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) said on Sunday. “Tajikistan interferes in our affairs, for every action there is a reaction,” Baradar said in an interview with al Jazeera TV channel. A day earlier, IEA spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter that the […]

US special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad said this weekend that former president Ashraf Ghani’s decision to leave Afghanistan without warning took everyone, including Washington, by surprise. In an exclusive interview with Ariana News, Khalilzad said that the night before his departure, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had spoken to Ghani on the phone. He said Ghani had […]

On 18 July, Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada said the group seeks strong diplomatic, economic and political relations with all countries including the United States. The Taliban soon revealed it had opened several channels of communication with foreign countries. China is among the first in the region to embrace — albeit cautiously — the new political reality shaping Afghanistan. For Beijing, […]