Eisa Khan Ayoob Ayoobi via The Globe Post: The National “Unity” Government (NUG) was formed through a power-sharing deal to harmonize and protect the society. But in reality, it has emerged as a tribal monocracy and just a facade, plagued by disunity and ethnonationalism. As the head of NUG, Ashraf Ghani, since his illegitimate rise to power,
Ariana: In an exclusive interview with Ariana News which will be broadcasted on Tuesday night, Noor claims that he can topple the government in three days if the international community led by the United States does not intervene. Noor stressed that he left Balkh governance after reaching an agreement with the government and mediation of “friendly”
Press TV September 29, 2018 A Taliban spokesman has rejected reports that the group’s representatives have met an Afghan government delegation this week in Saudi Arabia, after sources said a meeting was held to discuss security issues ahead of Afghanistan’s parliamentary elections. Zabihullah Mujahid, a self-proclaimed spokesman for the Taliban group, released a short statement
Eisa Khan Ayoobi via Al Jazeera: The NUG is struggling with containing the Taliban and addressing internal divisions – [Ghani’s] intra-Pashtun clan politics seems to have made reaching out to the Taliban more difficult. The Taliban leadership are Durrani Pashtun from Kandahar who take pride in being the descendants of “conventional” Afghan rulers like Ahmad Shah Durrani.
Tolo News: … Ghani canceled his trip because US President Donald Trump refused to meet him on the sidelines of the general assembly. A number of international affairs analysts meanwhile said Trump is reluctant to meet Ghani because he feels Ghani has not contributed enough to implement the US’s strategy. Click here to read more (external link). Related Pajhwok: Ghani cancels NY trip after Trump
The Star: For six years, John Sopko has served as Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction with a broad mandate to assess how U.S. cash for Afghan reconstruction is spent. His investigations have found that billions of dollars in American aid has been lost to corruption, waste and futile efforts in Afghanistan suggests Canada has likely
The Hindu: As the Afghanistan President left at the end of his one-day visit to Delhi, Ambassador Dr. Shaida Mohammad Abdali announced his resignation in a tweet. The timing of his resignation has strengthened speculation that he has differences with the Ghani government and will run for office on return. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: A number of Afghanistan’s major political parties and movements on Tuesday accused government of planning a “massive fraud and vote rigging” in the upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for October 20. The parties also claimed that government wants to have its favorite in the parliament. The political parties threatened to close offices of the Independent
Tolo News: The Hizb-e-Islami leader said government is sinking in corruption and states government is a “corporation”…. Hekmatyar slammed government for not sticking to its peace agreement with Hizb-e-Islami. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: President Ashraf Ghani promised to root out corruption in public office; however, Afghanistan is still among most corrupt countries in the world. At the time Afghanistan was ranked 172nd in the world in terms of corruption. In 2015 it rose to 166thposition, in 2016 it dropped to 169 and last year it was at a dismal