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KABUL Leaders of Afghanistans three major ethnic minority political parties, all of whom hold senior positions in the government, announced from Turkey Saturday that they have formed a coalition to save Afghanistan from chaos, issued a list of demands for reforms by President Ashraf Ghani, and vowed to hold mass protests unless they are met.

The stunning development followed weeks of gathering political turmoil and public unrest after a devastating terrorist bombing in the capital on May31. It brought together a group of powerful ex-militia leaders, once rivals in a civil war, in an extraordinary alliance that could present Ghani and his shaky government with its most serious challenge since taking office in 2014.

The groups statement was issued from Ankara, where Abdurrashid Dostom, an ethnic Uzbek strongman who is still technically first vice president in the Ghani government, moved recently on grounds of ill health despite being under investigation in Kabul for sexual assault against an elderly political rival. Dostoms aides circulated the statement on social media.

The other leaders Mohammed Atta Noor, an ethnic Tajik and provincial governor; Mohammed Mohaqeq, an ethnic Hazara leader and deputy to the governments chief executive; and Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani, a member of Noors Jamaat-e-Islami party have been visiting Dostom in the past week for a family wedding in the lavish home where he has often lived in periods of exile.

[The West is indifferent to Afghanistan and Iraqs world of terror]

The group, calling itself the Coalition for the Salvation of Afghanistan, said their aim was to prevent the collapse of the government, avoid chaos and restore public trust. They demanded that Ghani devolve power to cabinet ministries and provinces, stop overreaching his authority for personal motives, schedule long-promised elections, and obey the constitution and the law. It also called for Dostoms full authority to be restored and a government attack against him to be investigated.

Ghanis office responded coolly and calmly to the provocative salvo. Presidential spokesman Shahhussain Murtazawi told news outlets that the government welcomes any move that contributes to national interests, but he noted that the individuals leading the coalition are involved in the government and thus also accountable for its shortcomings. If the group has any alternative plans for overcoming the current situation, he said, they should share them.

There was no comment from the office of Abdullah Abdullah, the chief executive officer who has been estranged from Ghanifor many months. Abdullah, from the Jamaat-e-Islami party, has disappointed party figures such as Noor for making too many concessions to Ghani in an effort to keep the struggling government afloat.

A variety of political figures and observers reacted skeptically to the news, suggesting that the ethnic minority leaders, all of whom have had differences with Ghani while in office, may be less interested in government reforms than in using a period of public anger and unhappiness to press for political advantage. They also noted that Ghani, an ethnic Pashtun, has been criticized for concentrating power in the hands of his ethnic and tribal allies and marginalizing other ethnic groups.

A spokesman for Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the Pashtun former fugitive warlord who returned to Kabul recently in a peace deal with Ghani, said the new coalition seemed suspicious and might be more interested in personal demands than public ones. Why have they been silent for so long? asked the spokesman, Kareem Amin. You cant be inside the system and criticize it too.

Hekmatyar, in a separate statement Saturday, called on all Afghans to unite and support the Ghani government at a time of crisis. The country is suffering from high unemployment and a protracted insurgent conflict. The May31 bombing was a major blow to the nations confidence in its rulers.

It was unclear whether the ethnic opposition leaders, who have called for city-wide demonstrations starting Monday, would be able to draw much support from the protesters that filled the streets of Kabul for most of June after the huge bombing and several subsequent violent incidents.

[In Kabul, anger against Afghan government touches off deadly street clashes]

The groupserected tent colonies on major streets where speakers demanded change night after night. The tents were dismantled by security forces on June20, but protest groups vowed to return to the streets in force after Ramadan and Eid, the Muslim fasting month and holiday that ended this week.

But although many of the protesters demands were similar to those listed by the ethnic leaders, the composition and tone of their impromptu movement, called Uprising for Change, was completely different. A mix of students, academics, liberal activists and womens groups, as well as families of bomb victims, they called mainly for justice, security and more responsive governance.

The most strident voice in the new coalition has been that of Noor, a wealthy northern governor who until recently was negotiating with Ghani to obtain a greater share of power. During the fraud-plagued 2014 elections, which both Abdullah and Ghani claimed to have won, Noor threatened to create violent unrest if Ghani was declared the winner.

Last week, delivering a message to a large crowd at the end of Ramadan in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, Noor warned that if Ghani did not meet the groups demands, we will come by the thousands and thousands to Kabul. Sources in the security community said the group planned to gather its forces in several suburban locations and march to the presidential palace.

Walid Sharif contributed to this report.

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Political storm brews in Afghanistan as officials from ethnic minorities break with president, call for reforms and ... - Washington Post

Six teenage girls from Afghanistan have been denied visas to travel to the US for an international robotics competition, but they will be permitted to send their ball-sorting contraption to competewithout them.

The aspiring inventors wept when they heard they couldn't escort their machine to Washington DC for the First Global Challenge, an annual contest for high school students from across the world.

Team Afghanistan work on their project (FIRST Global Media)

They had twice trekked around 500 miles from Herat, a western city in Afghanistan, to the American embassy in Kabul to apply for the one-week travel visas.

But their efforts proved to be in vain as US officials rejected their applications following a series of interviews.

Afghanistan's first female tech boss Roya Mahboob, who founded software firm Citadel, organised the all-girl team and said they were "crying all day" after they were turned down.

She told Forbes: It's a very important message for our people. Robotics is very, very new in Afghanistan.

The girls are still working on a ball-sorting robot which they will send to compete against 163 other machines at the Firstchallenge in July, and they will appear at the event via video link from Herat.

Graduate students from Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania helped the students to programme their robot, but the team had to wait for months while customs officials inspected the raw materials of their contraption amid fears that Isis could use robots to wage terror across the region.

Team Afghanistan's robot now has permission to travel.

One of the team members, Fatemah, 14, told Forbes: "We want to show the world we can do it, we just need a chance."

First Global President Joe Sestak said the girls were extraordinarily brave young women and told Forbes he was disappointed they weren't allowed to travel to the US.

Only the teams from Afghanistan and Gambia have been denied travel visas, while students from Iran, Iraq, and Sudan are able to attend.

US State Department records state that just 32 business travel visas were granted for Afghans in April, far fewer than the 138 issued to Iraqis or the 1,492 applications accepted in Pakistan during the same month.

Jonathan Blanks, a media commentator and researcher at the Cato Institute, tweeted: "I feel safer now that we've denied a once in a lifetime opportunity to a group of girls whose country we've been bombing since their birth."

Verizon's former vice president of communications Anthony Citrano called the decision "infuriating".

The State Department has not commented on the visa denials because they are confidential records.

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Afghanistan's all-girl robotics team banned from entering US - but their robot will be allowed in - The Independent

Six teenage girls from Afghanistan planned to come to the US to compete in the First Global Challenge robotics competition this month, but those plans were canceled after they were denied visas to enter the country. Forbes reports that the girls traveled 500 miles to Kabul for their visa interviews, and that their robots supplies were held in customs for months.

This kit, which the competition organizers issued to every participating team, included different components, like brackets, extrusions, fastening hardware, hardware adaptors, bearings, wheels of different sizes, gears, pulleys, motors, servos, and sprockets. The State Department feared ISIS might try to use these parts on the battlefield, which is why they delayed sending them to the girls.

Still, the team built a ball-sorting robot on a shortened timeline; their kit only arrived three weeks ago. More than 100 other teams have entered the competition, including participants from Iraq, Iran, and Sudan. The girls robot will still compete, but the team will only be able to watch over a video call from their homes in Herat, Afghanistan.

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US denies visas to Afghanistan's all-girl robotics team - The Verge - The Verge

BRUSSELS Nearly three years after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ended combat operations in Afghanistan, the 29-nation alliance willsend troops once more into the country withhopes that the renewed surge will help the Afghan military beat back a resurgent Taliban.

Speaking ahead of a defense ministerial meeting here Thursday, NATO Secretary GeneralJens Stoltenberg saidthousands of troops have been requested, but he did not say how many would deploy.

With the Taliban in control of broad swaths of the country and the Afghan military locked in a primarily defensive war, it is unclear how a new infusion of NATO or U.S. forces could radically turn the tide of the conflict.

Fifteen nations have already pledged additional contributions to Resolute Support Mission. And I look forward to further announcements from other nations, Stoltenberg said, using the name of the NATO mission to Afghanistan.

[Trump gives Pentagon authority to set troop levels in Afghanistan]

Stoltenberg stressed that NATOs renewed presence did not mean the beginning of another combat mission; instead, he said, the alliancewill focus on building the Afghan special operation forces, air force and othermilitary training institutions.

We dont think this operation in Afghanistan is going to be easy and we dont think its going to be peaceful this year or next year or in the near future, he said during a newsconference Thursday afternoon. As long as the Taliban believe they can win the war they will not negotiate. We need to break the stalemate and to enable the Afghans to made advances.

Stoltenbergs remarks come as the United States weighs its own commitment in what has become its longest-running war. In recent weeks, President Trump delegated authorities to the Pentagon to set troop levels in the Afghanistan, and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has pledged to present a strategy to Congress by mid-July. Earlier this month, the retired four-star Marine general told lawmakers that the United States was not winning, and battlefield commanders, including the head of U.S. forcesin Afghanistan, Gen. John Nicholson, have requested a few thousand more troops.

Mattis said Thursday during a news conference that he had received 70 percent of the commitments from NATO countries for his upcoming strategy and was confident that he would be able to secure the rest in the coming weeks. Mattis gave no timeline for Americas renewed commitment to Afghanistan and suggestedthat NATO had drawn down too early in 2014.

Its not like you can declare a war over, Mattis said. What is the price of not fighting this war? And in thatcase were not willing to pay that price.

[Mattis: We are not winning in Afghanistan]

With a Taliban insurgency that has proven resilient despite heavy battlefield losses, lawmakers in Washington and some NATO allies remain waryof any new military solution in Afghanistan.

In an interview, Canadian Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan said his country has received the request for more troops but has not yetdecided to pledge any additional forces.

Canadian soldierswithdrew from Afghanistan completely in 2014, after participating in several bloody campaigns around Kandahar in 2006 and a limited training mission after 2011. Between 2001 and 2014, more than 150 Canadian troops died in Afghanistan.

With no physical presence in the country, Canada has instead continuedto provide financial support to the Afghan security forces.

Afghanistan is obviously very important to us, and were going to monitor the situation, Sajjan said. The military is not going to give you that complete victory. It takes an entire whole of government approach for it; the real solution will come from the political side.

[Whats your end game? Trump delegating Afghan war decisions to the Pentagon faces scrutiny]

BritishDefense Secretary Michael Fallon told a group of reporters during the ministerial meeting Thursday that Britain was in Afghanistan for the long haul and would sendjust under 100 additional troops to help prop up Afghan forcesaround Kabul, bringing the total number of British soldiers in the country to around 600. In the last year, the Afghan capital has been rocked by a spate of terrorist attacks that have killed hundreds.

Mattis said he would take what he learned from his NATO counterparts atthe defense ministerial back to Washington and deliverhis formal strategy to Trump in the coming weeks.

Currently there are roughly 13,500 NATO and U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The Americans number around 8,500 and are split between counterterrorism operations and supporting the NATO-led training mission. At the wars height in 2010 and 2011 there were more than 100,000 U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

More than 2,000 U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan since 2001, and Afghan security forces continue to take an almost unsustainableamount of casualties despite U.S. air support. Civilians, however, have borne the brunt of the violence, with 2016 marking the deadliest year for the Afghan population since the United Nations mission to the country began monitoringthe statistics in 2009.

Michael Birnbaum contributed to this report. This story was originally published at 9:17 a.m. and updated to include remarks from Defense Secretary Mattis and other officials in Brussels.

Read more:

Band-Aid on a bullet wound: What Americas new war looks like in Afghanistans most violent province

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'What is the price of not fighting this war?': Mattis makes his pitch to get more NATO troops in Afghanistan - Washington Post

Amid reports that the Trump administration is likely to adopt a tougher stance on Pakistan for its alleged role in the growing instability in Afghanistan, New Delhi and Kabul have started air cargo operations between the two countries. The move may be seen as an attempt to outflank Pakistan, which is Afghanistans largest trading partner and together with Iran is the principal conduit for its overseas trade.

On the occasion of the inaugural cargo flight, which carried Afghan exports worth $5 million to India, President Ashraf Ghani vowed to change Afghanistan to an exporter country. Here is an objective no one would disagree with. There is a close and reciprocal link between economic revival and political instability in Afghanistan. Years of infighting ravaged the Afghan economy. On the other hand, a feeble economy has thwarted efforts for peace and reconciliation and encouraged corruption as mighty warlords competed for meagre resources. It also reduced Afghanistan to a vassal state, serving the foreign policy objectives which are often mutually incompatible of the key regional and international players.

At present, the $18 billion Afghan economy one of the smallest and the poorest in the world runs almost entirely on assistance from international donors. The country also faces a persistently huge balance of payment problem, as exports (worth $521 million) lag far behind imports (worth $3.3 billion). The Afghans need to narrow the trade deficit and start looking inwards to keep the wheels of the economy moving. As a result, an overwhelming dependence on foreign capital inflows will continue to rob the country of whatever sovereignty it is left with. But this is a case of easier said than done. An economy in tatters that rests on only a handful of agro-based industries and works in the shadow of terrorism, is extremely difficult to shape up.

It is customary for the Afghan leadership to blame Pakistan for all their economic and political problems. Being a landlocked country, Afghanistan has remained dependent on Pakistan for its foreign trade. The access was first provided to it through the Afghan Transit Trade Agreement of 1965 and currently it is granted through the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA). However, instead of cementing bilateral relations, transit trade has remained a source of friction between both countries.

There are at least three problems with Afghan transit trade. First, it is a conduit for smuggling. This is primarily because import tariffs in Afghanistan are much lower as there is no domestic industry worth mentioning to protect. The tariff gap between Pakistan and Afghanistan countries provides one of the strongest incentives for smuggling. Several products that are sent to Afghanistan eventually find their way back into Pakistan. This affects the local industry. Pakistan has responded by putting a few items on the negative list of transit trade and subjecting the merchandise and the carriers to greater checks than the Afghans would like.

Second, as in the case of India, political issues have cast a pall over Pakistans trade relations with Afghanistan as well. Both countries have incessantly accused each other of patronising anti-state elements. Whenever terrorists strike in Afghanistan, the people at the helm in Kabul invariably point fingers at Pakistan. By the same token, several incidents of terrorism taking place in Pakistan such as the December 2014 Army Public School tragedy in Peshawar have been attributed to militants residing in Afghanistan.

In recent months, the tense bilateral relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have led to the closure of the Pak-Afghan borders at Torkham and Chaman on quite a few occasions including for two weeks between February and March. Even when the borders are open, heightened security measures tend to slow down the movement of traffic. The closure of the borders is seen by the Afghans as an attempt by Pakistan to squeeze them economically.

The third problem stems from the inability to allow Indian exports access to Afghanistan via the land route. The APTTA allows Afghan exports to India through the Wagah border. But it doesnt extend the same facility to the Indian exports destined to Afghanistan. Pakistan has itself restricted trade with India and even fewer Indian exports are allowed through Wagah.

New Delhi has tricked Kabul into believing that by not allowing Indian exports overland access to Afghanistan, Pakistan is hurting the Afghan economy. At present, the total Indo-Afghan trade amounts to $551 million which include exports worth $130 million from Afghanistan and $421 million from India. This is much lower than Pak-Afghan trade worth $1.57 billion (exports worth $1.34 billion from Pakistan and exports amounting to $227 million from Afghanistan).

Any attempt to open up trade with India will, by no means, tilt the balance of trade in Afghanistans favours as the Indians have much more to sell to the Afghans than the other way round. Rather it will drive up Indian exports to Afghanistan and may even exacerbate Afghanistans overall balance of payment situation. This will, in turn, shore up the countrys dependence on foreign assistance including that from New Delhi. As a result, the greater the volume of Indo-Afghan trade, the higher is likely to be the Afghanistans indebtedness to India.

By Indian standards, Afghanistan is a small market. If a purely economic logic is anything to go by, it should not hold much of an attraction for the Indians. But the economy has never been the mainspring of New Delhis overtures towards Kabul. What it has set upon itself and has already achieved a lot through is the strong commercial and political presence in the war-torn but strategically important country. Given the zero-sum game that New Delhi and Islamabad are engaged in, any gains made by India anywhere are seen by both countries as a loss for Pakistan and vice versa. As a result, the growing warmth in New Delhi-Kabul relations are perceived to be an affront to Pakistan.

Speaking in economic terms, Pakistan possibly losing out from stronger Indo-Afghan ties is not a question of mere perceptions. Afghanistan is among the largest export markets for us. It is also one of the few countries with which we run more than a billion-dollar trade surplus. In case Indian exports get overland transit to Afghanistan, they could displace a large chunk of exports from Pakistan and thereby result in the loss of an important market. In addition, Afghan trade is a source of substantial commercial activity in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where economic opportunities are otherwise meagre.

In part, India has sought to get over the problem by helping build the Chabahar Port in south-east Iran and connecting infrastructure in Afghanistan and using it to export merchandise to Afghanistan and beyond that to Central Asia. Though it has been carried out on a much lower scale reflecting the relative economic strengths of the two countries the Indian investment in Chabahar has also been compared with that of China in Gwadar.

Iran is another country in the region which is on excellent terms with the people at the helm in Kabul for being on the same page on security-related matters. Its also one of the largest trading partners of Afghanistan. The coldness that in recent years has characterised Islamabad-Tehran relations for one reason or another has also served to bring Iran closer to India and Afghanistan. But can the Kabul-Tehran-New Delhi nexus help Afghanistan get out of the catch-22? The Afghans must try to answer this question.

The writer is a freelance countributor.

Email: [emailprotected]

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Beyond Afghanistan's catch-22 - The News International