The United States and China clashed Friday over Beijing’s $1 trillion “belt and road” global infrastructure program after the Security Council unanimously approved a bare bones resolution extending the mandate of the U.N. political mission in Afghanistan for six months.
President Donald Trump and his national security team had an hour-long, classified meeting on Afghanistan on Friday.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan said Friday that peace in Afghanistan is “around the corner,” referring to the efforts by the United States for a political settlement to the conflict in the country.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, Taliban’s deputy leader and head of the group’s Qatar office, is optimistic about the progresses made in the marathon talks between the US and Taliban negotiators in Doha which ended after 16 days on Tuesday, according to an audio interview of the Taliban’s deputy leader made public on Thursday.
National Security Advisor (NSA) Hamdullah Mohib says Afghanistan is a changed country that no longer poses a security threat to the world.
As peace talks continue between U.S. and Taliban representatives, women’s groups have warned that a Taliban return to power, or a hasty deal that grants the insurgents undue influence, could mean a return to the days when women were whipped by religious vigilantes for exposing their hair or ankles, forbidden to work and forced to study in secret.
The appointment of new police chief for northern Balkh province has apparently sparked new tensions between government and Ata Mohammad Noor, the former governor of Balkh and chief executive of Jamiat-e-Islami party.
Is peace in Afghanistan at hand? For the Americans, it may well be. But for the Afghans, the war is likely to continue regardless of what deal is signed or what preliminary arrangements are made.
Current and former high-level Afghan officials on Wednesday slammed the Trump administration’s push to reach a peace deal with the Taliban.
The first shipment from landlocked Afghanistan through the Iranian Chabahar port has arrived in India, marking a new beginning of trade ties between the two countries, bypassing Pakistan.