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The second flight from Afghanistan under a new air corridor with India, created to help the two countries to boost trade without depending on land routes through Pakistan, took off from Kandahar with 40 tons of fruits and vegetables on Saturday.

President Ashraf Ghani inaugurated the direct air cargo link and the first flight carried 60 tons of hing (asafetida) from Kabul to New Delhi on June 19.

Subsequently, a flight from Delhi to Kabul transported 100 tons of goods, mainly pharmaceuticals and medical equipment.

The flight from Kandahar carried 10 tons of fruits and 30 tons of vegetables and medicinal plants. Indias consul general in Kandahar, NP Singh, and the governor of the Afghan province were present at the airport when the flight took off.

NP Singh, Indias consul general in Kandahar, with Afghan officials at Kandahar airport. (Twitter)

The idea of creating the air freight corridor was put forward by Ghani during his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September last year. The two leaders reached an agreement on the air cargo service when they met in Amritsar in December.

The air corridor aims to enhance the annual volume of trade between the two countries, which currently stands at around $700 million.

Landlocked Afghanistan depends on neighbouring countries for all its imports and exports. Even before relations between Kabul and Islamabad became strained over accusations of harbouring militants, Pakistan has stymied Afghanistans efforts to trade with India.

After Afghanistan and Pakistan signed a transit trade agreement in 2010, Islamabad allowed Afghan trucks to carry goods up to the Indian border but barred them from ferrying any Indian goods through Pakistani territory.

The Afghan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ACCI) said the medicinal plants carried on the first flight were valued at $11 million.

There are plans for up to five flights a week from Kabul and Kandahar to New Delhi.

Read more here:
Second flight in Afghanistan-India air corridor takes off from Kandahar - Hindustan Times

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Ireland and Afghanistan become the first new Test nations in 17 years - The Economist (blog)

Anti-Israel protesters in Iran unveiled a digital countdown showing 8,411 days to what they said would be the "destruction of Israel", as part of an annual rally in support of the Palestinian Territories.

The time frame appears to stem from comments made in 2015 by Iran's supreme leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said there would be "nothing" left of Israel by the year 2040.

Demonstrators chanted death to Israel as crowds assembled on Friday forAl-Quds day (Arabic for Jerusalem), whilepeople touted placards condemning Israel, Saudi Arabia and the US. The Revolutionary Guard took the opportunity to display its ballistic missiles, including the type which was used in Syria where the government claimed it killed a "large number of terrorists, although agencies could not verify the report.

The display was in Tehran's PalestineSquare, and state media claimed that more than one million people participated in the demonstrations.

Similar protests popped up across Iran, with protesters condemning Israelis occupation of Palestinian territories and burning the Israeli and American flags.

President Hassan Rouhani and Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani were amongst the officials who attended the demonstration.

In a speech to marching people who were going to Friday prayers at the Tehran University grounds, IranianTasnim News Agency reportsMr Larijani said: Israel is the most malignant terrorist in history.

Iranian Protesters unveil a digital countdown showing 8411 days until Israel is destroyed (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

[Israel is the] mother of terrorism, he added.

Iran is fiercely critical of the country for its allegedhuman rights violations, and President Rouhani told the IRNA news agency that Israel supports terrorists in the region.

Tensions between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran have intensified as of late, in part due to theological disagreements, as well as Donald Trump'sincreasing support of the former, and condemnation of the latter.

Last month Saudis King Salman called Iran the spearhead of global terrorism.

Continued here:
Iranian protesters unveil countdown showing 8411 days 'to the destruction of Israel' - The Independent

Pakistan's claim this week that it shot down an Iranian drone that had crossed into its airspace is heating up tensions already on the rise over cross-border skirmishes and diplomatic rifts over alleged militancy, analysts say.

"This is an unfortunate situation as it will only increase the mistrust which already exists between Pakistan and Iran," Zubair Iqbal, an analyst at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, told VOA.

Both sides of the porous 900-kilometer (560-mile) Pakistan-Iran border have long been rife with drug smugglers, separatists and militant movements. The drone apparently went down Tuesday in violence-racked Balochistan, Pakistan's southwestern province, where insurgents and nationalists are active in launching attacks against government interests and neighboring countries.

"The drone was hit by the Pakistan Air Force as it was unidentified and flying around 3-4 kilometers inside Pakistani territory," Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

No comment from Tehran

The Iranian government remained quiet about the incident, although some Iranian media outlets have quoted Pakistani newspapers on the drone claim.

An anti-Iran Sunni Muslim militant group Jaish al-Adl, or the Army of Justice claimed responsibility for an attack in Iran last month that killed 10 Iranian border guards.

Iran responded by warning Pakistan it would hit militant hideouts inside the fellow Muslim country if it failed to curb militancy. Consequently, Iran and Pakistan formed a joint commission in May to secure borders and control militancy.

Iran also beefed up security measures along the boundary with Pakistan and frequently has used drones to monitor the region since the attack.

The "IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] Air and Space force has been using the early-generation drones to track drug traffickers and militant groups such as Jaish al-Adl on the eastern borders with Pakistan," Babak Taghvaee, a military expert based in Malta, told VOA.

Iqbal suggested the drone might have entered Pakistan by "mistake" because "there's a tension in the region, and all the countries are trying to enhance their intelligence capabilities."

Iran-India ties

Geopolitical developments in the region also have strained relations.

Iran's robust ties with India make Pakistan uncomfortable. Islamabad accuses Iran of allowing its soil to be used by Indian spy agency RAW to sponsor, recruit and arm separatists and insurgents in Balochistan and infiltrate Pakistan with Indian spies via the border with Iran.

Iran seems exasperated about Jaish al-Adl's alleged hideouts in Balochistan and about Pakistan's alleged role in promoting Sunni-Shi'ite proxy wars in the region.

The diplomatic rift seemed to widen further after Pakistan accepted a role in the 39-nation Islamic Military Alliance to Fight Terrorism initiated by Iran's regional rival, Saudi Arabia. Pakistan's former army chief, General Raheel Sharif, was named to lead the alliance, which Iran sees as a move against it.

While Pakistan has tried to remain neutral in the recent dispute between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and even ventured into an unsuccessful effort to negotiate a settlement, the country is seen to be leaning toward Riyadh. Security analysts point out that Pakistan didn't hesitate to gun down the Iranian drone.

"Pakistan never seemed to have any issues with Iranian drones [in the past]. Gunning down an Iranian drone might be an effort to prove loyalty to Riyadh," Taghvaee said.

Original post:
Will Downing of Tehran Drone Hurt Pakistan-Iran Relations Further? - Voice of America

House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., right, and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Calif. walk to a security briefing for lawmakers on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 14, 2017, after a gunman opened fire wounding House Majority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise of La., and others during a Congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Va. J. Scott ApplewhiteAP

(WASHINGTON) House Republicans are stalling a hugely popular bill to slap Iran and Russia with economic sanctions over a procedural issue that they're blaming the Senate for creating.

"The problem is the Senate screwed up," Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters Wednesday.

At issue is a constitutional requirement that legislative measures involving revenue originate in the House. The sanctions bill was crafted by the Senate, which passed the measure overwhelmingly last week 98-2 and then sent it to the House for action.

McCarthy said the Senate can repair the bill or the House can write its own sanctions legislation. But he didn't provide a timetable for either pathway or specify the provisions in the Senate bill that caused the breach.

Democratic lawmakers and aides are mystified over the delay. They fear the House is seeking to water down the Russia-related portions of the bill at the Trump administration's behest. The sanctions aimed at Russia are intended to punish Moscow for meddling in the presidential election and for its aggressive actions in Ukraine and Syria.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has offered only lukewarm support for the Russia sanctions. He said during congressional testimony that President Donald Trump needs to have "the flexibility to adjust sanctions to meet the needs of what is always an evolving diplomatic situation" with Russia. An overly aggressive sanctions bill, Tillerson has suggested, could lead Moscow to shut off potentially promising talks with Washington.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., accused House Republicans of dredging up the procedural issue, known in bureaucratese as a "blue slip," to provide cover for a president who has been far too soft on Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin.

"What has Russia concluded from all this?" Schumer said. "Putin now knows that he will not suffer any consequences for disinformation campaigns, buzzing our ships and planes, for threatening our European allies, for cyberattacks, energy coercion, or his ongoing support for Russian separatists in Ukraine."

In addition to hitting Russia and Iran with additional financial penalties, the bill would give Congress a much stronger hand in determining Russia sanctions policy. The bill would require a 30-day congressional review period if Trump attempts to ease or end penalties against Moscow.

The Senate bill also would impose mandatory sanctions on people involved in Iran's ballistic missile program and anyone who does business with them. The measure would apply terrorism sanctions to the country's Revolutionary Guards and enforce an arms embargo.

Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the Republican chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and one of the bill's primary authors, cast the party differences over the sanctions bill as minor and easily fixable.

"I see no reason to believe that this is anything other than a parliamentary issue that needs to be resolved," Corker said. "The whole issue is so minute."

Rep. Eliot Engel of New York, the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, has called for the House to immediately hold an up-or-down vote on the sanctions legislation.

Engel's staff on Wednesday posted on Twitter a recounting of a similar "blue slip" situation in 2014 that was handled speedily by the House. The Senate passed a sanctions bill to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. The legislation arrived in the GOP-led House and hit the same procedural snag. But instead of stalling the bill, the House simply introduced identical legislation that fixed the problem and passed it the same day.

"Republican leadership shouldn't allow this bill to fade into history," the staff wrote of the new sanctions legislation. "A blue slip problem is a procedural hiccup, not an excuse for delaying a critical piece of legislation."

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'The Problem Is the Senate Screwed Up.' House Stalls Russia-Iran Sanctions Bill - TIME