NUG – The Government of Ashraf Ghani

Most of the people in the world tend to appreciate and like the places they inhabit; however, Afghans seem different in this regard as it can be observed that many of them have migrated and are migrating to other countries in large numbers; even though, they face different sorts of hardships in other countries – they are humiliated, and many of them have unknown destinations waiting for them. Nevertheless, they are ready to face such hardships and that’s why many educated, uneducated and skilled, unskilled Afghans migrate to Australia, North America, Iran and Europe. Why is it so that Afghans migrate to other countries in such large numbers? The answer is that the country has been suffering from insecurity and instability for some decades now, and the situation does not seem to be improving. Even the current government – National Unity Government (NUG) – has not been able to tackle the situation; in fact, the situation has turned more fragile since its formation.

War is prevalent in different parts of country, and innocent people are killed on daily basis. The oppressed Afghans are tired of war and every person wishes to have peace. Women are widowed and children orphaned every day. NUG led by President Ashraf Ghani does not have any strategy to generate employment for the people. Increasing unemployed youth is a serious problem in the country recently, and it is increasing with each passing day. Furthermore, most of the people are dissatisfied with the rule of government, which seems to be the government of Ashraf Ghani alone, as he has been dominating the affairs of the government to a large extent. He seems more interested in strengthening his own rule, without consideration that too much centralization of power may prove detrimental for the diversified Afghan nation and the needs of its people. As a matter of fact, people demonstrate in some way or the other for justice, and President does not care and does not handle their problems.

In addition, in Afghanistan unemployment, administrative corruptions have peaked, and also discrimination is another big problem. If we look at the government offices, there is no consideration for merit, and there are many appointments based on ethnic considerations. Moreover, the administrative setup has also been crippled because of undue interference of President. He has been appointing and dismissing different ministers as per his own will.

In the economic sphere, the situation does not seem very heartening as well. Since, global aids brought some economic benefits over the last fifteen years, they could not be converted into true opportunities. Within last few years, many international organizations and funding brought job opportunities to the people; however, after most of the international troops withdrew from Afghanistan and closure of many foreign organizations and their activities, thousands of Afghans lost their jobs and incomes. While, NUG saw these economic opportunities fill the pockets of some among the ruling elite.

Moreover, Afghan government did not use international aids for development of economic infra-structure. If international aids were spent on such initiatives, today our youths would not unemployed and they wouldn’t migrate to other countries in such large numbers. Instead of providing opportunities to youth in the country so that they are not compelled to migrate, Ghani government is insistent that the Afghan refugees in other countries must be returned to Afghanistan, though there is no guaranteed security of their lives and livelihood.

Thus, the ghost of insecurity has kept on haunting Afghanistan. Today if we had security, we would have made a lot of progress and a lot of problems could be solved because Afghan people are very hardworking. In fact, Afghanistan is losing the potential of its youth and labor force to a large extent. What our youth and the people in general see in Afghanistan is a dark and insecure future, which may lead them to nowhere; therefore, they take the harsh decision of leaving their country.

Though people believed in Ashraf Ghani in last presidential election and voted for him because they thought that he would solve the problems of the country as he had a list of qualifications with himself. Nevertheless, in practical governance, he could not excel and the people remained entangled in hardships and difficulties. While, bringing peace and security, economic progress and removing discrimination, corruption, and creating job for people all remained just a dream for the people of Afghanistan.

Nevertheless, the people still have the option of making their lives, their future and their county better by making choices above their personal considerations. They have to see the larger political and social gains of the country as a whole, while they vote. Most importantly, they need to realize that the leaders and government that seem to centralize power for themselves will never be ready to think above their self-centred objectives.

SaharNews

Special Feature: Poverty and Food Insecurity in Afghanistan

There are different facts and figures about poverty in Afghanistan. The Central Statistics Department and an International NGO reported a survey two years ago. As per the survey, that studied the life expectancy rates in Afghanistan, the number of people under poverty line had increased up to sixteen million people.

Facts and Figures About Poverty in Afghanistan

Afghanistan is among the poorest countries in the world. In Afghanistan, poverty is widespread in rural and urban areas. However, the estimate is that poverty in Afghanistan has main concentration in rural areas. Estimates also show that four out of five poor people live in rural areas. The regions in Afghanistan where almost half of the inhabitants are poor are the east, northeast, and west-central regions. According to the Afghan government’s estimates, 42 per cent of the Afghanistan’s total population lives below the poverty line. Also, 20 percent of people live just above the poverty line. And they are highly vulnerable to fall into poverty.

The crisis triggered by the security and political transition have negatively affected Afghan households. The decline in aid and growth damaged jobs. And, the escalation of conflict further intensified the vulnerability of Afghan people.

The poverty challenge has emerged in all its strength during the transition period. Absolute poverty is increasing, with about 39 percent of Afghans now poor. There are not enough jobs to meet the needs of a fast-growing labor force and provide livelihoods to illiterate and unskilled Afghans.

Moreover, the diffusion and intensification of conflict help perpetuate poverty down to future generations as children miss school and more families flee their homes.

Deep and Widening Inequalities

The economic and security crisis has accentuated deep and widening inequalities between those who have the means to cope with shocks and those who must give up vital assets to stay alive.

Urban Afghans are safer and have better access to services and economic opportunities than those living in rural areas. Inequalities also persist between Afghan men and women, who increasingly find it difficult to access education and health services. Left unattended, poverty and inequality can further undermine social cohesion and jeopardize progress attained in the past 15 years.

GDP growth slowed down from 1.3 percent in 2014 to 0.8 percent in 2015, and marginally improved to 1.2 percent in 2016. However, while the economy is expected to eventually rebound, growth will likely remain below the 8 percent required to fully employ Afghanistan’s growing labor force. Meanwhile, conflict and fragility will likely continue constraining Afghanistan’s development and progress toward reducing poverty.

Poverty is a State of Insufficiency

Poverty is a state or condition in which a person or community lacks the financial resources and essentials to enjoy a minimum standard of life and well-being that’s considered acceptable in society. Condition where people’s basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter are not being met.

Poverty is a social problem with the fact that most of the people have limited economic resources and their standard of living is low. The people have been deprived of modern facilities in education, health, communication and good food. It is a social problem because they have failed to increase their income resource.

Reasons behind Poverty in Afghanistan

According to the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), “More than 6.7 million Afghans have been affected by disasters and extreme weather events such as drought, earthquakes, disease epidemics, sandstorms, and harsh winters” since 1998. The poverty status update for Afghanistan reports:

“In 2007-08, 36 percent of the population in Afghanistan was poor, that is more than one in every three Afghan persons was living on levels of expenditure insufficient to satisfy basic food and non-food needs. Four years later, in 2011-12, the poverty rate in Afghanistan remained substantially unchanged despite massive increase in international spending on military and civilian assistance, and overall strong economic growth and labor market performance. . .”

Poverty is a dilemma that has affected the lives of many Afghans in recent years. Beside war and conflicts, ethnic bigotry, narcotics, illiteracy rate and violation of law are considered main reasons of poverty in Afghanistan.

Un-Utilized Natural Resources

One of the main reasons of Poverty in Afghanistan is that the natural resources of this country are not yet utilized. Afghanistan is considered one of richest countries in terms of mines and natural resources but most of these Mines are not explored and utilized.

Natural gas, coal mines, iron, oil, copper, uranium, salt, corm, gold, sulfur, chromite, Ammonium, chrome, nickel, silver lazuli, ruby, uranium graphite.

Hajigak Mine has the largest iron oxide deposit in Afghanistan, and is located near the Hajigak Pass, which lies between Bamiyan and Wardak provinces. It has the biggest untapped iron ore deposits of Asia. But still Afghanistan has not yet utilized it.

Lack of Planning by Government

Another main reason of poverty in Afghanistan is mismanagement by government and lack of proper strategy to end poverty. The past administrations had not taken initial steps to end poverty in Afghanistan.

The current Ghani administration also has the same problem of not making clear strategies and planes to boost the economy of rural areas that almost seventy percent of the total population lives in.

Unemployment and Conflicts

Unemployment is the main reason of poverty in the country especially in remote areas. The presence of four million jobless young people is a solid prove to this harsh reality.

On the other hand, the three decades war and conflict in Afghanistan destroyed the Infrastructure and misplaced more than hundred thousand people and effected the daily lives of Afghans in the country.

Natural disasters

Natural disasters such as droughts, floods, vegetable disease, rush of locusts on farms for a country like Afghanistan that has no preventive strategies for such kind of disasters can increase poverty and demolish food sources. People will face poverty certainly.

Vulnerability of Water Resources

The Afghan government identified seven sectors that are particularly vulnerable: “Water resources is the most vulnerable sector followed by forestry and rangeland, agriculture, health, biodiversity, energy and waste.”

Cycles of Droughts

In the same document, it cites an EU report according to which, in general, “regular cycles of around 15 years are observed, during which one would expect 2-3 years of drought conditions. In recent years, however, there has been a marked tendency for this drought cycle to occur more frequently than the model predicts, and since 1960, the country has experienced drought in 1963-64, 1966-67, 1970-72 and 1998-2006.”

“The period from 1998 to 2005/6,” the Afghan report further states, “marked the longest and most severe drought in Afghanistan’s known climatic history” but the country “currently [is] in the grips of the most severe drought in living memory” again.

Desertification and Droughts

According to a 2007 environment assessment by the Asian Development Bank, effects of desertification and drought were particularly observable in the country’s arid north, west and south. This includes the Harirud valley in the western Herat province, the most fertile one in Central Asia, as Daud Saba, Afghanistan’s mining minister and a former governor of that province, told AAN. Similarly, Orlove has already found that climate change will be a cause for internal mass migration in the Central Asian Ferghana valley and may aggravate social tensions within the densely populated area.

In 2011, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) reported that an estimated three million people have been affected by severe drought in that year throughout 14 provinces of Afghanistan. In 2015, the warmest year ever recorded worldwide, the droughts in Afghanistan remained on the same level as in the previous years, according to UNEP.

Illiteracy Rate

Another reason of poverty is Illiteracy rate. The presence of almost 65% uneducated people in the remote areas is also can play a considerable role to increase the poverty line. Currently, four million children don’t have access to school and more than one million are child labor and involved in difficult jobs.

Mismanagement of Population

Lack of family planning and mismanagement of population within the families is another reason of poverty in Afghanistan.

Increment of new born children in Afghan families that have no access to education, health, food and other basic needs creates problem for them.

This statistic given above was published two years before; therefore, it is likely that the figures have increased much more.

Climate Change and Food Insecurity

Climate change is already having a severe impact on Afghans’ daily lives – but this challenge is often over-shadowed by what seem to be more-urgent problems: war and the economic crisis

“Afghanistan is ranked among the most vulnerable countries in the world to the adverse impacts of climate change. . . As a result of climate change, it is anticipated that the incidence of extreme weather events, including heat waves, floods, and droughts will likely increase. . . Between 1990 and 2000, Afghanistan lost an average of 29,400 hectares of forest per year, at an average annual deforestation rate of 2.25 per cent, which further increased to 2.92% per annum between 2000 to 2005. . . With these climatic changes the foundation of the country’s economy, stability, and food security is under threat.”

Conclusion

The facts and figures above give a very tragic state of affairs. There are many fronts that have to be dealt with if the government and responsibilities authorities are really interested in tackling the issues of poverty and food insecurity. As a matter of fact, government requires to develop a comprehensive strategy so as to defeat this curse since it has more victims than the prevailing insecurity. Most of the resources and efforts have been utilized to counter insecurity in the country without any considerable change in the security situation. Therefore, the relevant authorities must divert more attention to issue of governance, particularly, alarming poverty and food insecurity.

Moreover, it has to be understood that Afghanistan would require the support of neighboring and regional countries so as to develop its economic infrastructure. Doing so would greatly help it develop a resilient strategy against poverty and food insecurity.

SaharNews

The Strategy of Letting Taliban Control Remote Areas

Background

Since 2001, the war against Taliban and like-minded groups are lingering. During the last decade, they are not defeated, but getting powerful than ever before. Back in November 2001 when United States (U.S.) and its allies invaded Afghanistan to end Taliban rule, the Taliban leaders were forced to retreat. However, after some time, Taliban regained control of more districts and provinces. It was mostly due to unclear strategy of Afghan government and its international allies.

As Taliban have regained control, they have increased their efforts to undermine government control. They even took the control of Kunduz city for a while. On the other hand, they threatened Helmand, Farah and Uruzgan provinces’ centers seriously.

Now Taliban show their military power and fight against Afghan National Army (ANA) and Afghan National Police (ANP) forces. Meanwhile, the international community and Afghan government have come to realize that the military option is not effective. And through this strategy, they will not succeed completely.

Current Situation

Currently, Afghan government considers peace process and talks with Taliban seriously. And it considers this process is crucial more than anything else. But the problem is that years of peace talks have cost millions of dollars with no outcome. While, High Peace Council (HPC) is one of the most costly and ineffective organizations without any tangible results.

Meanwhile, the U.S. intends to begin direct talks with the Taliban. And, they seem to favor the notion that Afghan troops should retreat to cities. Even though such  a move may allow Taliban control in rural area of the country. The Ministry of Defense (MoD) spokesman, Gen. Radmanish, says that the ministry wants to implement the policy of retreating from rural, sparsely populated and less strategic areas. It is also calling off the ANSF and suggesting them to retreat to cities. MoD believes that this tactic is to protect military forces from possible attacks. It may also increase their capability and prevent civilian causalities.

Change in Trump Strategy

According to New York Times report that was published on 28 July 2018, the Trump administration is urging American-backed Afghan troops to retreat from sparsely-populated areas of the country, which may allow Taliban to gain control of vast stretches of the country. It is also meant to protect military forces from attacks at isolated and vulnerable outposts, and focus on protecting cities such as Kabul, the capital, and other population centers. In last week, most of the causalities from Afghan forces and citizens were due to Taliban attack on check-post in sparsely populated areas.

The Times also highlighted that the new strategy depends on the Afghan government’s willingness to pull back its own forces; nevertheless, some Afghan commanders have resisted the American effort to do so, fearing local populations would feel betrayed.

“Should Afghan troops pull back now, defending remote pockets of the country would mostly be left to the local police, that have poorer training than the military and are far more vulnerable to Taliban violence,” the report said, noting that in some areas, police officers have cut deals with the Taliban to protect themselves from attacks.

Concerns Regarding the Strategy

According to reports, Afghan Police in some areas, plotted to sell the check post along with ammunition and weapons to the Taliban, which raises serious concerns about the future of such move by Afghan and U.S. forces.

Most of 14,000 United States troops currently in Afghanistan have pulled back to cities. Some who are training and advising Afghan troops as part of Trump’s war strategy perform duties in bases in remote areas and smaller towns.

However, Trump administration favors to end the war in Afghanistan. It strongly advised the Defense Secretary James M. Mattis to send 4,000 more troops to Afghanistan. And, it also ordered senior U.S. officials, including Pompeo and Alice Wells, the State Department’s top diplomat for Afghanistan to seek direct talks with Taliban.

Conclusion

As ANSF are not equipped and have no trustworthy backup in remote areas, Taliban can easily target them. Moreover, for the last three years, there are no sufficient forces to replace them. This has even hindered these Afghan soldiers to visit their families on vocations.

In the last two years, the military casualties are very high. On the other hand, the level of recruiting new troops has been low. This has led to a reduction in forces in the Afghan security and defense sector.

However, withdrawing troops from remote areas is a positive step. It can prevent more casualties of security forces. On the contrary, the government needs to set up aggressive operations in insecure areas.

Finally, pulling back troops from sparsely populated areas is a move that would ensure that Taliban will remain in control of vast stretches of the country. However, it may show them a green light to stop fighting against Afghan government and join peace talks.

SaharNews

Why Grand National Coalition?

With the formation of National Unity Government (NUG), Afghan citizens were hoping for a positive change in their lives to occur. Peace, employment and betterment in their lives and improvement in the country’s economy, reforms and fight against terror were what they were hopeful for. But even after four years of NUG, it is noted that not only their dreams are broken but also a worse condition of peace and economic and social life can be observed.

NUG under President Ghani’s leadership with its one-sided policies, illegal interference in ministries and dismissals of ministers, injustice, non-democratic actions, dogmatism, corruption and forceful implementations of state orders over the people of Afghanistan have brought the country into an anarchic situation. Finally, the NUG’s governance have led the dominant figures to form national coalition for social justice and proper political representation. The president’s circle of friends after gaining power, brought differences and contradictions among the people instead of uniting them and working on their welfare. With each passing day, the presidential supremacy leads the situation into worse path and every Afghan citizen’s life is endangered in return. Barbarism has touched the peak and situation is getting bloodier each day. The international terrorist organizations and Taliban are getting more powerful as a result of vacuum created by government weaknesses. Government, instead of countering the terrorists, is fearing from the anti-terrorist figures and monitor them to assure that they do not rise in their stature and undermine the control of the government. For this reason, northern peaceful areas are turned into war ground; wherein, many of the anti-terrorist operations have been halted for unknown reasons. Every hope for peace was abolished in this way.

Taliban and ISIS in Afghanistan (Daesh) took more power in Faryab, Sar-e-pul, Jawzjan, Kunduz and Baghlan provinces and fear and terror got stronger in public life. Such fear and terror was not even seen under Taliban rule. The fall of Kanduz province in the hand of Taliban which still suffers from the absence of peace was the product of such one-sided policies of the presidential palace and statemen in that circle. No one can deny that if once again the government could not fill the security vacuum, it may pave the way for another occupation of the province by terrorist forces. Such a shame it is for us to see our country in a situation where the authorities dominate the public life for power. Even the lives of those army men who bleed for their country have no value for the supreme powers. The army men who sacrifice their lives, get abducted by terrorist forces, leave their families with no shelter or leave orphans and widows are not counted important anymore by VIPs and ruling elite.

Ashraf Ghani instead of countering terrorism, offered Taliban more chances to grow and be a shelter for international terrorism. Taliban availed the chances and under Ghani’s politics called for the international terrorists to enter Afghanistan easily. Thus, government betrayed Afghans in the best possible way, especially it betrayed the blood of the freedom fighters who fought to bring peace and prosperity to the motherland.

Due to these policies, many Afghan youth left their country. The leaders who now form Grand National Coalition waited for a long time for something positive in the government policies. But it was all in vain. When their patience was over and Ghani’s administration betrayed them, they made the decision to form the coalition.

The coalition was formally announced last week and it included many well-known figures: first vice president of Afghanistan, General Abdul Rashid Dostum; Jamiat Islami Chief Executive, Atta Mohammad Noor; second deputy chief executive, Mohammad Mohaqiq; previous NDS boss, Rahmatullah Nabil; previous VP of Afghanistan, Younus Qanuni; Zahir Qadir, an MP; Salahuddin Rabbani, acting foreign minister and Zia Massoud former advisor to President Ashraf Ghani, among others.

Obviously, one of the aims of this coalition is to bring stability across the country especially in the north of Afghanistan. Other reason for formation of the coalition is to defend the people’s right, social justice and equal opportunity to take part in political landscape of Afghanistan.

Afghan people are tired of NUG’s betraying policies and frauds. They fully support this coalition without considering ethnicity, and other differences. When Gen. Dostum was in Turkey and Qaiseri was imprisoned by President Ghani, there were widespread protests in different parts of the country, and when he returned to Kabul, thousands of people greeted him welcome.

One of the most part of the coalition is National Coalition for the Salvation of Afghanistan (NCSA) that was formed by Hizb Jammait-e-Islami, Hizb-e-Wahdat Islami and Junbish-e-Milli parties. NCSA was formed by Gen. Dostum, Mohaqiq and Noor, while Dostum was still in Turkey. It basically laid the foundation for the formation of Grand National Coalition.

The wrong polices of government was the only reason that this coalition came into being and now the future politics of our people depends on them. Will the betraying policies of Presidential Palace continue or will they realize the true demands of the nation? If they continue, it will not end in the interest of anyone. Up to now, we have not seen that President Ghani and his team have not been able to deal with opposition properly.

To fight against terrorism and Taliban, it is the right time, so NUG should not miss this opportunity. If president Ghani does not include all the stakeholders and important people in reconciliation process and counter-terrorism polices, its administration will fail to gain any positive result.

Afghans are optimistic that the step that is taken by Grand National Coalition will be helpful in bringing peace and stability, happiness and improvement in the status quo of Afghan people. We should hope for national unity, better security in the country among brave people of Afghanistan by the will of Allah Almighty.

SaharNews

No Response by Afghan Govt. to take Part in Peace Talk: Russia

MOSCOW, Russia – The Afghan government has not yet responded to Russia’s invitation to take part in peace talks on Afghanistan that will include the Taliban, the TASS news agency quoted Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying on Thursday.

Russia has invited 12 countries, including the United States, to international peace talks in Moscow on Sept. 4 as it has been taking on a more prominent role in Afghanistan.

The United States has declined Russia’s invitation, while the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) said the Afghan government will not participate in the upcoming peace meeting on Afghanistan in Moscow next month by saying that Afghan government firmly believes in intra-Afghan dialogues.

The Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry’s statement said that the conference is set to facilitate the national reconciliation process in Afghanistan and securing peace in that country “as soon as possible”.

“The aim of the upcoming meeting is to help narrow the gaps in the approaches taken by the Afghan government and the Taliban to launching a direct intra-Afghan dialogue,” the statement said.

In the statement, it was mentioned that unlike its previous round, the meeting will be co-chaired by both Russia and Afghanistan.

However, Sebghat Ahmadi, Spokesman of Foreign Affairs Ministry said that the Afghan government will not take part in the Moscow meeting, insisting that the peace process should be Afghan-owned and Afghan-led.

“We have made the issue clear that peace process should be Afghan-owned. Any event which is taking place on Afghanistan in the region and world or the event which is expected to discuss Afghanistan should be in the axis of Afghanistan,” he said.

However, a former Taliban political figure Sayed Akbar Agha said Taliban will attend the meeting and will start discussions on the prospects of peace in Afghanistan with countries in the region.

“Taliban has agreed on the Moscow talks and they will attend it. These talks are related to Asia. Foreign forces have come to Asian countries and there are concerns among these countries about it. All these countries want foreign forces to withdraw from Afghanistan,” he said.

SaharNews

Despite Violence, Trump’s Strategy is Succeeding: Gen. Nicholson

KABUL – The outgoing commander of US and international troops in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, insisted on Thursday that despite a recent wave of violence, Trump’s strategy of an open-ended deployment of U.S. military advisers, trainers and special operations forces and increased air support for Afghan forces is succeeding.

“I believe the strategy is working. … The reconciliation progress is significant and ultimately wars end with a political settlement,” said US Army General John Nicholson, commander of the NATO-led Resolute Support mission.

Trump, however, has expressed frustration at the lack of progress toward a US withdrawal after 17 years of conflict. In a policy shift during a June ceasefire, Washington said it would “support, facilitate and participate” in any Kabul government-led peace talks with the Taliban.

The surge in Taliban attacks, including an assault recently on the Ghazni province that took US-backed Afghan forces four days to put down, has raised questions about their interest in negotiations.

Nicholson acknowledged the Afghan government had not significantly increased its control over territory. While he said the Taliban have not responded to an offer this week of a ceasefire from President Ashraf Ghani, two insurgent commanders told Reuters that the insurgents rejected the call.

In a possible wrinkle, the Taliban said it would send senior members to Russia for peace talks on Afghanistan, hours after the Afghan government declined the offer to attend. Washington has also said it would not go.

SaharNews

Khalilzad to be Appointed as US Special Envoy to Afghanistan

WASHINGTON – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to name Zalmay Khalilzad as a special envoy to Afghanistan, according to a senior US official and another source familiar with the matter.

The 67-year-old Khalilzad, who is Afghan-born, served as a foreign policy adviser to multiple administrations and held several diplomatic posts under President George W. Bush’s administration.

Khalilzad is a diplomatic veteran, having served as a US ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and the United Nations. He is close to all of the players, knows the region well and is known by the Afghans.

Pompeo’s expected choice of Khalilzad comes as the United States looks to make headway in its longstanding campaign against the Taliban.

Alice Wells, a senior State Department official, met for discussions with Taliban officials last month in Doha.

On the other hand, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani offered a month-long ceasefire with the Taliban last week, a move that was supported by Pompeo.

The decision to tap Khalilzad, a Republican and foreign policy veteran, follows a reported meeting last month between a U.S. diplomat and Taliban officials to explore possible negotiations.

The two US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they were unsure when the announcement would be made. The White House and the State Department declined to comment, and Khalilzad did not return messages left with his office.

Khalilzad, 67, is well suited to the difficult task of persuading the insurgents to talk, according to a former senior US official, who asked not to be further identified.

In addition to his experience advising or working for four US administrations and his knowledge of Afghanistan’s main languages, culture and politics, he is from the ethnic Pashtun majority and is close to Ghani, the former official said.

Pompeo’s decision to tap Khalilzad shows the administration is “serious about getting a peace process going,” said the former official.

In a possible wrinkle, the Taliban said on Wednesday it would send senior members to Russia for peace talks on Afghanistan, hours after the Afghan government declined the offer to attend. Washington has also said it would not go.

Khalilzad served as U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005, and he helped draft the country’s constitution. He went on to be ambassador to Iraq and then U.S. envoy to the United Nations.

SaharNews

Morrison set to be Australia’s 30th Prime Minister

CANBERRA, Australia – After the newly elected leader of the Liberal Party Scott Morrison was picked to become Australia’s 30th prime minister on Friday.

Morrison, who is a member of the ruling Liberal party’s conservative faction, narrowly defeated former home affairs minister Peter Dutton by 45-40 in a closed-door trust vote, CNN quoted the party’s whip Nola Marino as saying.

Marino further confirmed that Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg has been elected as the deputy leader of the Liberal Party.

Deposed Malcolm Turnbull noted that he would be leaving politics “not before too long.” Once he resigns, his Sydney mandate would be up for grabs, which could see the ruling coalition lose its one-seat majority in parliament.

The Australian prime minister-designate, who will be succeeding Malcolm Turnbull, is a long-time advocate of a strict border protection regime for the country.

The political crisis in Australia began after Turnbull drew flak from conservative lawmakers within his party over the changes he made to the National Energy Guarantee policy earlier this month.

Turnbull, who did not appear in the second leadership vote, said that he received a petition showing that he has lost the majority support of his Liberal Party. He also took to his social media handle to confirm the same.

“I have just been provided with a request for a meeting of the Parliamentary Liberal Party. It has 43 signatures. As soon as they are verified by the Whips, which should not take long, the meeting will be called,” Turnbull tweeted.

The outgoing Australian prime minister, who considered himself a political moderate, had been a long-time advocate for progressive social policies and action on climate change.

On Tuesday, Turnbull narrowly won the first leadership vote by 48-35 against Dutton.

In 2015, Turnbull was sworn-in as the Australian prime minister, after seeing off his predecessor Tony Abbott in a similar trust vote. He won the federal election in 2016.

Turnbull barely survived his first and only election as leader, in 2016. His parliamentary majority tumbled from 35 to just one and problems with party unity began almost immediately.

“It damaged his image as a super election winner and it meant he only had a majority of one – so he was very vulnerable to anyone threatening to defect,” said political analyst Rod Tiffen, an emeritus professor at the University of Sydney.

“The guiding factor in all his decision-making was to forestall a coup attempt from the right … now the one thing he’s been trying to avoid has come to pass,” he said.

No Australian prime minister has succeeded in completing a full three-year term ever since John Howard resigned from the post in 2007. Australia is due to hold the next federal election in 2019.

SaharNews

Noor Warns to Boycott the Upcoming Elections and form Interim Gov’t

Mazar-e-Sharif – Atta Mohammad Noor, the former governor of Balkh province and CEO of Jamiat-e-Islami party on Tuesday warned that “if transparency of the upcoming elections was not guaranteed, we would boycott the elections and would announce an interim government.”

Addressing Mazar-e-Sharif residents, during his Eid message, Noor said: “For the last time I am announcing to all friends, who are leaders of the government, to take my words seriously.”

Noor said if their demands are not met and election transparency is not guaranteed the political parties will call for the resignation of government leaders and install an interim government.

“If they don’t bring changes for transparency in the electoral system and didn’t hold a fair election, we will boycott the election process in advance and will take our next step,” Noor said.

Although he welcomed efforts being made to bring peace to the country, he said that the June ceasefire enabled Taliban members to infiltrate cities.

Noor claimed that since the end of the Eid ceasefire, on June 29 “over 7,000 Afghan security forces were martyred”.

He said Taliban entered cities during Eid and “they brought weapons with them.”

Meanwhile, Noor said the announcement of a ceasefire is not a solution to the ongoing violence.

President Ashraf Ghani earlier offered the Taliban a three-month ceasefire but the Taliban rejected his offer by firing rockets on Kabul city on Tuesday.

SaharNews

Three Wounded in Rocket Attacks on Kabul

KABUL – Kabul city rocked after three rocket attacks on Tuesday which left three people wounded, officials said.

The assault, which took place near the presidential palace and a mosque, came as President Ashraf Ghani was making a speech marking the first day of the Eid-ul-Azha holiday, days after offering the Taliban a conditional three-month ceasefire.

Kabul police Spokesman Hashmat Staknikzai said that at least three people were wounded in the attacks, with police deployed to the area to find the launching site.

“Rockets were fired on Kabul city from an unknown direction and … hit residential areas near the mountains in PD5 (police district)”

According to reports, multiple rockets hit near the diplomatic area in Kabul early Tuesday, as officials said fighting had broken out between security forces and militants in the city’s old quarter.

Ministry of Interior spokesman Najib Danish said that the attackers appeared to be in a building behind the Eidgah Mosque in a central district of Kabul.

“Military helicopters were firing above the Eidgah Mosque in Reka Khana district, where smoke was rising as police and the clashes were underway, amid a heavy security presence near the Kabul Stadium”, he added.

The move followed an extraordinarily violent week in Afghanistan that saw that Taliban storm the provincial capital of Ghazni — just a two-hour drive from Kabul — and press the fight against security forces across the country, with estimates suggesting hundreds of people may have been killed.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attack, which came just days after President Ashraf Ghani offered the Taliban a three-month ceasefire.

The truce offer was welcomed by the United States and NATO after nearly 17 years of war, but the Taliban have yet to respond.

SaharNews

ANSF Free 149 People Taken Hostage by Taliban

KUNDUZ – ANSF managed to free 149 people, including women and children, who were taken hostage by the Taliban just hours earlier in the province of Kunduz.

Nasrat Rahimi, deputy spokesman for the Interior Ministry, says the insurgents still hold 21 others hostages following their ambush of a convoy of buses traveling in the Khan Abad district on Monday.

This comes as President Ghani, on Sunday announced a three-month conditional ceasefire with Taliban starting on Monday.

“As we approach Eid-ul-Adha, we announce a ceasefire that would take effect from Monday, the day of Arafa, till the day of the birth of the prophet (PBUH), Milad-un-Nabi, provided that the Taliban reciprocate,” Ghani told a gathering celebrating the Independence Day.

Abdul Rahman Aqtash, police chief in neighboring Takhar province, says the passengers were from Badakhshan and Takhar provinces and were traveling to the capital, Kabul.

Mohammad Yusouf Ayubi, the head of the provincial council in Kunduz province, said the insurgents stopped the buses near Khan Abad district.

Ayubi believes the Taliban were looking for government employees or members of the security forces.

“So far, there is no news on the fate of the passengers, but tribal elders and local officials are trying to negotiate with the Taliban,” Ayubi added.

Taliban have not commented regarding this incident so far.

SaharNews

Shots Fired at US Embassy in Ankara

ANKARA – Shots were fired from vehicle hit window of security cabin at US Embassy in Turkey, but no casualties have been reported.

Several gunshots were fired from a vehicle at the US embassy in Ankara, Turkey, on Monday, CNN Turk reported.

According to the report, the gunshots hit a security cabin window, but no one was hurt.

The attack comes among diplomatic tensions between the US and Turkey, including over the detainment in Turkey of American pastor Andrew Brunson on charges of involvement in the failed 2016 military coup against the Turkish government.

The value of the Turkish lira has plummeted, recently reaching a record low compared to the dollar, as the US has imposed higher tariffs on Turkish aluminum and steel imports.

On Friday, US President Donald Trump vowed to take new steps to free Brunson, asserting that “we haven’t seen the last of it”.

Monitoring Desk - SaharNews