Politics

NATO’s last man in Kabul helped facilitate the airlift and had a front-row seat to the Taliban takeover of the capital. By Stefano Pontecorvo, a veteran Italian diplomat and NATO’s last Senior Civilian Representative for Afghanistan. At 6:21 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 27, 2021, NATO’s Afghan adventure formally ended. At that moment, the Italian C-130 on which I was flying as the last representative of the Atlantic Alliance to leave the country crossed the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. For the …

  On Tuesday evening May 17, 2022, a meeting took place in Ankara, Turkey at the home of Abdul Rashid Dostum – the infamous Afghan Uzbek warlord. Attending the meeting were representatives of the Hazara, Uzbek, Turkman, and Tajik ethnic groups. This meeting was to solidify support for the war against the Taliban and to bring international attention to their cause. Most of these leaders represent ethnic minorities in Afghanistan who have suffered under the Pashtun dominated Taliban (Eqbal, 2022). …

The people of Afghanistan are finding that out to their cost By: Ben Farmer Afghanistan’s long-suffering population will begin 2022 entering a new, but sadly familiar, phase of the country’s long turmoil. The withdrawal of American and nato troops triggered the stunning collapse of the internationally backed government, a return of the Taliban and the re-establishment of their Islamic emirate. The Taliban maintained ahead of their victory that they had learned the lessons of their failed, repressive regime in the …

Indeed, Khalilzad’s submissive diplomacy helped the Taliban’s men win the war during that same time-period. Remember: Ghani and his representatives were excluded from Khalilzad’s negotiations with the Taliban. Regardless, Ghani’s government acquiesced to the pressure Khalilzad placed on it by freeing 5,000 Taliban prisoners from Afghan jails. Despite supposed assurances from the Taliban that these fighters would stay out of the war, some of the newly freed jihadists immediately returned to the battlefield and helped their brethren overthrow the Afghan government. The Taliban and al-Qaeda can thank Khalilzad for this boost in manpower.

  Pakistan (AP) — In Pakistan’s rugged tribal regions along the border with Afghanistan, a quiet and persistent warning is circulating: The Taliban are returning. Pakistan’s own Taliban movement, which had in years past waged a violent campaign against the Islamabad government, has been emboldened by the return to power of the Taliban in Afghanistan. They seem to be preparing to retake control of the tribal regions that they lost nearly seven years ago in a major operation by Pakistan’s …

The heinous massacre of Fatemieh Mosque in Kandahar is a continuation of the massacre of Seyedabad Mosque in Kunduz and it completes the massacre of Mazar, Yakaolang and Dehmzang. It is clear that these killings, under any name, by any group and under any brand, are launched at a long-lasting, purposeful, and systematic movement aimed at denying, rejecting and destroying an ethnic-religious group. This fact has long and deep roots that we should not ignore the context of its evolution …

Afghanistan is likely going through another period of instability and civil war, yet the challenge of political legitimacy and building sustainable peace remains overlooked. Military victory has not and will not guarantee the solution for this critical challenge. Given the requirements of modern governance in the contemporary world, stable and capacitated governments have achieved success only in a peaceful process of social cooperation, public persuasion, and accountability of elected institutions and rulers, the establishment of efficient institutions and the effective …

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President Biden pledged on Friday to use “every resource necessary” to evacuate “any American who wants to come home” from Afghanistan. But, he warned, “I cannot promise what the final outcome will be, or whether it will be without risk of loss.” In a speech from the East Room of the White House, Biden defended his administration’s halting efforts to evacuate Americans and Afghan allies following the Taliban’s swift takeover of the country in the past week. “We’ve made significant …

Scenes of chaos have emerged this week from Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, where thousands of people have been attempting to flee Afghanistan following the recent Taliban takeover and the collapse of the government. U.S. officials say they are racing to evacuate as many people from the country as possible before the end of the month, when American troops are scheduled to withdraw after two decades of occupation. President Biden said Friday that 13,000 people, including Americans and Afghans …