Mediaboss Marketing

Taliban fighters guard the site of an explosion in Kabul, Afghanistan. Last month, several explosions and gunfire ripped through a Sikh temple in Afghanistan's capital. Ebrahim Noroozi/AP hide caption

Taliban fighters guard the site of an explosion in Kabul, Afghanistan. Last month, several explosions and gunfire ripped through a Sikh temple in Afghanistan's capital.

A year ago, India was not happy about the state of affairs in Afghanistan. The U.S. was negotiating its exit, the Taliban was consolidating power, and decades of India supporting anti-Taliban forces was evaporating.

But just last month, Indian officials went to Kabul to meet with Taliban leaders. India has also partially reopened its embassy in Kabul to coordinate humanitarian aid.

So, why is India reopening dialogue with the Taliban now? Asfandyar Mir, an expert in international relations and counterterrorism at the U.S. Institute of Peace, says that the interests for all parties involved have a long and complicated history.

He joined All Things Considered to explain the dynamic between India, the Taliban, and Pakistan, as well as India's interests in providing aid to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

On what the meeting between Indian and Taliban officials last month focused on

In recent weeks, the Taliban have been making a series of public moves to India, which was really an unlikely prospective partner country, given that the Taliban have been allied with Pakistan, which is an arch rival of India. So in many ways, this is a stunning development.

There are some real tensions between the Taliban and the Pakistani government. For one, the Taliban have taken a position which is contrary to Pakistan's expectation on the international border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Another reason is that the Taliban are protecting one of the most significant anti-Pakistan insurgent groups, by the name of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, also known as the TTP.

So, watching that, the Indian policymakers seem to have concluded that perhaps there is enough distance between their arch-rival Pakistan and the Taliban, that the Taliban after all are not a mere proxy of the Pakistanis, and that there might be some room for them to forge a working relationship with the Taliban.

On why the Taliban would turn to India for help now

For years, they [Taliban] bemoaned India's support for the former Afghan government republic. And then India's embassy was blown up by the Taliban in 2008. So there was a lot of bad blood between the two sides.

So the question is, why are the Taliban so interested now? And economics might be one big reason. The Taliban are really struggling to govern the country. The fact that they are not diplomatically recognized is making it difficult for them to just fund their government: it's short on resources, there's a humanitarian crisis in the country, there are issues of food security.

Policemen attend a ceremony to receive new uniforms from the Taliban authorities in Kandahar in July. Javed Tanveer/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Policemen attend a ceremony to receive new uniforms from the Taliban authorities in Kandahar in July.

The Taliban are hoping that the Indians would increase their supplies of wheat to the country. And over the medium term, the Taliban seem to be interested in India reviving its development projects in Afghanistan.

India built a lot of hospitals, so the Taliban appear to be interested in India reviving some of those activities as well.

On why India might be interested in aiding Afghanistan again

It seems like the Indians and the Taliban have been talking about counterterrorism. So one concern the Indians had, in the lead up to the Taliban's rise to power, was that much like the 1990s, Afghanistan under the Taliban would become a safe haven for terrorists and not just anti-U.S., anti-Western terrorists, but also anti-Indian terrorists.

It appears that now the Indian government has gone to the Taliban, and said, "Look, if you want a relationship with us, we have to talk about these terrorism concerns." So the Taliban for their part have reciprocated with some guarantees similar to what they have provided to the United States government, that they will not allow Afghan territory to be used against India, that the Taliban are telling the Indians they are even ready to take action on any intelligence that the Indians might provide.

On whether there is something for the United States to gain from this new potential alliance

If the Taliban are responding to India, if they are talking about terrorism, if they open up to a human rights conversation with the Indians, that might be good news. In addition, I would say that if the Indians can really figure out a counterterrorism pact with the Taliban, I think that would also be a significant positive step, and could provide a channel for the international community and the U.S. in particular.

It's a complicated situation, and my view is that the U.S. should really be coordinating with India to maximize the counterterrorism benefit and any other benefits that can be had from India's engagement.

This story was adapted for the web by Manuela Lopez Restrepo.

See original here:
India and the Taliban are working towards forming a relationship. Here's why - NPR

WENATCHEE - The fear of living or dying daily is now an afterthought for a Afghan family who are among Wenatchees newest residents. Today, their focus is getting back on their feet and make the best life possible for themselves in America.

An article written by independent journalist Dominick Bonny detailed the harrowing journey of the Noori family in their escape from the imminent danger posed by the Taliban in Afghanistan when the U.S. withdrew its remaining troops from the country as part of a 2020 peace treaty with the militant group.

Bonnys article reads that Reshad Ahmad Noori and his family arrived in Wenatchee in early July after their long and arduous trek from Kabul, Afghanistan in 2021.

Noori was a former employee at the U.S. Army base at the Kabul Airport. Noori was employed by NATO and the U.S. military selling retail items, clothes, managing laundry, customer service and was an engraving designer. However, Nooris gainful employment ended when American troops withdrew from the besieged country in 2021, putting the father of three in a tough spot.

Noori and his wife Fatima have three daughters Mehrin, 6, Maryan, 4, and Behtrin, who is 19 months. Noori was already granted clearance to leave the country because of his employment with the U.S. military, but the situation at the Kabul airport, he felt, was too dangerous to expose his family to. But when the Taliban asked to see him because of his American car that was sitting outside his apartment, he knew he had to leave immediately.

The watchman call me, he said. Here are some people from the new government, Taliban. They want to ask for the owner of the car.

Nooris father instructed him not to go and instead, Nooris older brother went to speak with the Taliban.

My father didnt let me to go, because they say its not safe for you to go and speak with them if they know that you was working somewhere in NATO or for Americans, it can make you trouble, he said. And I didnt and they took the car.

Noori told Bonny that he and his family didnt go back to their apartment building and instead, went to his dads home outside of Kabul where they burned all the documents that connected him with NATO, other than a few papers he needed to have in order to leave the country.

After spending two nights huddled in a crowd at the Kabul Airport while the U.S. defended the wall surrounding the aviation facility, the Noori family caught a break and got onto an airlift.

It was a very bad situation, he said. I dont know, its not a gun, but theres a kind of gun, that its making kind of like a bullet sound. But its giving fire just to scare the people to not approach to the wall. So from that side US Army and other members of NATO who was firing to not make people crowd behind the wall, and from the other side Taliban.

He said the children were terrified, screaming and crying.

As a father I was, hm, I dont know enough English to explain, he said. But it was really, really scary time.

A short time later, the Nooris landed in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, where they were entered into a refugee camp. The family of five were relegated to a very small one-room shelter for months and couldnt leave due to COVID protocols. The camp was referred to as Abu Dhabi jail. After nine months, refugees began staging protests about the length of time they stayed and conditions, which got the attention of US officials prompting things to change from there.

There was 12,000 people and on June first they decide they would take out seven thousand people to the United States, he said. Then they bring us to Virginia.

The Nooris spent most of June in Virginia and eventually became connected with the Wenatchee Valley Afghan Support Circle.

Rashad Noori and his daughters in June in Virginia

Photo: Courtesy of Dominick Bonny

In a phone call, Noori said he told the Wenatchee-based group that he would be happy to move to Washington state, having a childhood friend of his living in Seattle.

I sign the paper and then after four or five days they call me and they told me that 'There is a team of the sponsor circle in Washington state, Wenatchee, Noori said. So they would like to take the responsibility to call you to that city. Are you ready to go? And I said, This is the first time in the United States, so all United States must be the same.

Noori learned quickly that the Wenatchee area was quite different from Virginia.

When I came here I see the mountains, river, green places same like Afghanistan, he said. I love it and I want to stay here. I am very happy, very glad to be here.

Today, the family is staying in a two-room hotel in Wenatchee, and are preparing to move into an apartment in August. The Wenatchee Valley Afghan Support Circle has set up a GoFundMe page for the family to help raise funds for furniture and monetary support.

The Nooris are also honing in on their English-speaking skills; their kids are attending a day camp at the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center and will attend public school in the fall.

See the article here:
Goodbye Afghanistan: Chaos created by Taliban back east forces family to flee to Wenatchee - iFIBER One News

Moscow [Russia], July 28 (ANI): The number of Islamic State terrorist organization members in Afghanistan increased three times to 6,000 since the Taliban came to power last year, Zamir Kabulov, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministrys Second Asian Department, said on Thursday.

As far as we understand, their approximate estimated number has reached 6,000. If you remember, after the Taliban came to power and took tough steps against the IS, their number was about 2,000 more or less. That is, even approximately, a three-fold increase, Kabulov said at a press conference at the Rossiya Segodnya international media group.

This is the most negative side of the development of the Afghan situation, because the IS, as before, are sharpened to destabilize not only Afghanistan, but also its neighbors, he was quoted as saying by Sputnik.

Since the Taliban seized power in August last year, the Islamic group has been fighting with the IS in several provinces.

Armed groups linked to the Afghan branch of the Islamic State have carried out bombings targeting ethnic Hazaras, Afghan Shias, Sufis, and others, killing and injuring hundreds.

Last month, a new report prepared for the UN Security Council said the Taliban regime faces multiple threats from al-Qaida, the Islamic State, and an insurgency in the northern region of Panjshir.

According to the report, neither IS nor al-Qaida is expected to be able to launch international attacks before 2023 at the earliest, regardless of their intent or of whether the Taliban acts to restrain them.

While seeking international recognition to re-engage with the international financial system and to receive aid in order to deal with the growing economic and humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, the experts said.

Since taking power, however, there have been many factors creating internal tensions within the movement, leading to perceptions that the Talibans governance has been chaotic, disjointed and prone to reversing policies and going back on promises, they added. (ANI)

This report is auto-generated from ANI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.

View post:
IS terrorists in Afghanistan increased to 6,000 since Taliban takeover: Russia - ThePrint

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

FIRST ON FOX: A Republican member of Congress is warning the Biden administration not to withhold the after-action reports on the presidents botched and deadly military withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Rep. Ted Budd, R-N.C., sent a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin calling on the Department of Defense (DOD) to release the reports on the Afghanistan withdrawal and not withhold them as the department was reportedly weighing.

"The Biden administrations disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan cost the lives of 13 Marines, countless Afghan civilian allies, and it put American weakness on full display," Budd told Fox News Digital in a Tuesday statement.

BIDEN SAYS MIDDLE EAST IS MORE STABLE AND SECURE, BUT CRITIC POINTS OUT SHAMBOLIC AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL

Rep. Ted Budd, R-N.C., warned Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin against withholding the Afghanistan withdrawal after-action reports. (Getty Images)

"The American people deserve the full truth about what went wrong last year," the North Carolina Republican continued. "Thats why Im urging Secretary Austin to make these after-action reports public as soon as possible."

"There must not be any slow-walking or whitewashing of this administrations handling of the withdrawal," he added. "Now is the time for transparency and accountability, not bureaucratic politics."

It was reported the Biden administration is weighing withholding the Afghanistan after-action reports that would likely be politically damaging to Democrats ahead of a tough midterm.

In the letter exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital, Budd that it "has been 11 months since the Biden Administration mismanaged the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan" and essential questions from the pullout "have been unanswered, and Department of Defense (DOD) leadership has offered little insight to the public into how failures in intelligence and execution occurred."

The Department of Defense is reportedly weighing withholding the reports on the botched, deadly withdrawal that claimed the lives of 13 American service members. (AP/Jose Luis Magana)

Budd called on Austin to "communicate to the American people how those painful experiences can inform and improve future decision-making and strategic planning."

"Press reports indicate DOD is considering whether to publicly release portions of after-action reports focusing on the last 18 months of the war in Afghanistan," Budd wrote. "Furthermore, reports indicate that your department has returned at least one after-action report, citing new data that the report did not consider."

"While I understand that some of this information must remain classified due to its sensitive nature, I struggle to see how you could decide the public has no interest or right to portions of these reports, which could help explain how the evacuation went so wrong," he continued.

The North Carolina Republican said the "Pentagon should strive to avoid even the appearance that its leaders withhold unclassified information because those findings could shine an unfavorable light on its leadership."

He also wrote that DODs ability to "learn every lesson" from the withdrawal, as Austin claimed they would do in a September 2021 press conference, "would be severely undermined by failing to disclose key findings from these after-action reports."

An US Air Force aircraft takes off from the airport in Kabul on August 30, 2021. - Rockets were fired at Kabul's airport on August 30 where US troops were racing to complete their withdrawal from Afghanistan and evacuate allies under the threat of Islamic State group attacks. (AAMIR QURESHI/AFP via Getty Images)

"In a related move, I successfully added an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act that requires DOD to restore all accountings of military assistance provided to the Afghan security forces that were publicly available on DOD websites as of July 1, 2021," Budd wrote.

"That amendment was necessary because several Government Accountability Office reports had been removed in August 2021 without a significant or satisfactory explanation," he continued. "I am formally requesting an update on how your department is complying with this statutory requirement."

"Over the past 20 years, the American people have invested approximately $2 trillion of their tax dollars in the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. More importantly, nearly 3,000 U.S. service men and women made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation in Afghanistan, fighting the war against a Taliban-controlled government and the terrorist who attacked the United States on September 11, 2001. These military families deserve transparency and accountability from your department."

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Budd then called on the department to "publicly release as much information as practical without jeopardizing national security" regarding the disastrous pullout.

The Department of Defense did not immediately respond to Fox News Digitals request for comment.

Houston Keene is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to Houston.Keene@Fox.com and on Twitter: @HoustonKeene

See original here:
Biden admin warned not to withhold after-action reports on botched Afghanistan withdrawal - Fox News

');});jQuery('.entry-content p.watermarked > div.watermarked_image > img').each( function() {if ( jQuery(this).hasClass('alignnone') ) {jQuery(this).parent().addClass( 'alignnone' );}if ( jQuery(this).hasClass('alignleft') ) {jQuery(this).parent().addClass( 'alignleft' );}if ( jQuery(this).hasClass('alignright') ) {jQuery(this).parent().addClass( 'alignright' );}if ( jQuery(this).hasClass('size-medium') ) {jQuery(this).parent().addClass( 'has-size-medium' );}if ( jQuery(this).hasClass('aligncenter') ) {jQuery(this).parent().addClass( 'aligncenter' );jQuery(this).parent().children().wrapAll('');}});}});});

SECRETARY BLINKEN:Good afternoon, everyone.

First, let me say it is always a particular pleasure to visit our neighbors at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Lise, thank you so much for hosting us. Its wonderful to be here.

And Rina, to you, to our special envoy, to the team working with you, to the many others who are involved with todays launch, I am grateful for all youve done to bring all of us together today, but for the work thats being done every day that Ill have a chance to talk about over the next few minutes. But to our colleagues across the entire U.S. Government, civil society, thank you as well for supporting equality, supporting opportunity, for women and girls across Afghanistan.

And a special thanks to the extraordinary panelists that weve had today. Im really looking forward to getting a chance to speak with you directly shortly. But as you all know, theyve served in Afghanistan in different ways, in different roles, but there is one thread that runs throughout their public service. Each has helped strengthen the rights of Afghan women and girls, as well as members of other vulnerable groups, for decades.

Today, they represent many others across Afghanistan and around the world who have dedicated their lives to this deeply vital and deeply honorable mission.

As the panelists made clear, we meet at a difficult time for Afghan women and girls.

Since the Taliban took over a year ago, theyve reversed a great deal of the openness and progress that had been made over the previous decades. Theyve silenced civil society and journalists. In March, they banned independent international media like Voice of America and BBCfrom airing in Afghanistan. They continue to intimidate and censor Afghan media outlets. They stifled the free practice of religion for Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

Perhaps most notably, they failed to respect the human rights of women and girls. Instead, under the Taliban, women and girls have largely been erased from public life. As a report released yesterday by Amnesty International showed, the Taliban have systematically restricted women and girls rights to free movement, decimated the system supporting domestic violence victims, and contributed to surging rates of child, early, and forced marriage.

The Talibans decision to ban girls from attending secondary schools, a decision that happened while some girls were literally walking to school and others were already sitting at their desks, was a reversal of commitments they made to the Afghan people and to the world. For 314 days and counting, the girls of Afghanistan have sat at home while their brothers and cousins have been receiving educations. Its a terrible, terrible waste.

Its especially difficult to accept because we all remember how different it was not so very long ago. Prior to the Talibans takeover, thousands of women across Afghanistan held public office from the village level right up to the national level. Women entered professions previously closed to them. They started businesses. They were doctors, nurses, scientists, artists. And women didnt just study in schools across Afghanistan; they ran them.

These gains werent felt only by women and girls. As weve seen again and again throughout history from country to country, when equality and opportunity increase for one group of people, they tend to increase for other groups as well. As the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan were strengthened, we saw members of various ethnic and religious communities Hazaras, Hindus, Sikhs, Sufis take more prominent roles in Afghan public life. Afghans with disabilities did as well. The LGBTQI+ community found ways to build a community. So the changes in Afghanistan during the past year have been painful for so many.

We continue to urge the Taliban to reverse their decision on girls education, to make good on their commitment to the Afghan people, to allow girls to learn. The evidence is overwhelming. Investing in girls education, womens political inclusion, it leads to stronger economies. It leads to healthier individuals and families. It leads to more stable, more resilient societies. These are the things that people of Afghanistan want for their futures. Thats why so many members of Afghan society men and women, rural and urban dwellers, religious scholars, people across religions and cultural backgrounds have all, all called for the Taliban to let women and girls go to school again.

The United States will continue to amplify these voices and do all that we can to support progress for Afghan women, girls, and other at-risk populations.

Earlier this year, we joined partners across the international community including the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan, the European Union, and others urging the Taliban to let girls go back to school.

Last month, we supported a Human Rights Council urgent debate that allowed us to hear directly from Afghan women leaders. We co-sponsored a resolution that will allow us to hear from them again this coming September. And as we help enable their voices to be heard, others will hear them as well.

Over the past year, weve continued our partnerships with Afghan civil society groups working on issues of equality, inclusion, opportunity for women, religious and ethnic communities, and other at-risk populations.

And critically, with todays launch of the U.S.-Afghan Consultative Mechanism, we are taking these relationships to the next level. Thats why Im so pleased about today.

Its going to make it easier for Afghan civil society groups to communicate and collaborate with American policymakers across a whole range of shared priorities from supporting income-generating activities for Afghan women, to strategizing ways to help Afghan human rights monitors safely document abuses, to devising new methods to promote religious freedom.

What we want to do is to make our partnerships with Afghan civil society more effective, more rigorous, more productive, more purposeful. And thats what this new initiative is all about.

So let me simply share my profound appreciation for our American civil society partners, who do critical work to support women leaders and civil society organizations in Afghanistan, and for our Afghan partners for sharing your perspectives, for sharing your recommendations.

Whats remarkable to me and I think to so many of us is how, even in the face of threats, violence, intimidation, the women and girls of Afghanistan and other vulnerable, targeted people have simply refused to back down. These groups have never stopped believing in a brighter future for their country. They are determined to do all they can to make that future real.

The women who have taken to the streets to protest for their rights are one such group.

In December, when members of the Afghan National Security Forces were targeted despite the Talibans supposed amnesty, women protested. In January, when female public servants were dismissed from their jobs, women protested. In March, when the Taliban instituted an edict directing women to cover their faces in public and to only leave home when, quote, necessary, women protested.

Many of them have said they will never, never stop raising their voices.

The work weve done here today will ensure that we and people around the world continue to hear them, continue to listen to them, as we work together for a more stable, peaceful, prosperous, and free future for Afghanistan and for every Afghan man and woman.

Thank you very much. Thank you all for joining us today. (Applause.)

View original post here:
Secretary Antony J. Blinken At the Launch of the U.S.-Afghan Consultative Mechanism - United States Department of State - Department of State