Iran’s export to Afghanistan to top $5bn in year to March 2022: TPO

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Press TV
January 10, 2021

Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) says the value of exports to Afghanistan is expected to reach $5 billion in the calendar year to March 2022.

TPO chief Hamid Zadboum said on Sunday that exports through the eastern Iranian border had increased in the nine months to late December.

Iran sent 5.2 million metric tons of shipments to Afghanistan in the 9-month period earning $1.7 billion, said Zadboum.

The TPO and the Iranian customs office (IRICA) expect the annual value of exports to Afghanistan to reach nearly $3 billion in the year to March 2021.

Iran opened a key railway into Afghanistan in early December as it seeks to have a broader access to markets both in Afghanistan and other landlocked countries in the Central Asia region.

The trade route would further flourish once the Afghan government finishes a remaining section of the railway to connect it to the city of Herat.

Iran is also laying tracks for a key railway that links the coasts of the Sea of Oman to the southwestern regions of Afghanistan. Experts believe the railway will provide a major economic lifeline for Afghanistan as the country will be able to trade with India and other countries through the Indian Ocean.

Iran has been increasingly relying on non-oil exports as a source of earning hard currency as the country’s trade of crude has been hampered both by the American sanctions and the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

TPO’s Zadboum said the value of Iran’s non-oil exports in the nine months to December 21 had exceeded $25.1 billion for 58.2 million tons of cargoes.

Roadside Bomb, Airstrike Kill 15 People in Afghanistan

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Ayaz Gul
VOA News
January 10, 2021

ISLAMABAD – A roadside bomb explosion in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, early Sunday and a countermilitancy airstrike elsewhere in the war-ravaged country killed at least 15 people, including a government spokesman.

Officials said a “magnetic mine” targeted a vehicle that was transporting Zia Wadan, spokesman for the National Public Protection Force, in the country’s Interior Affairs Ministry. Two of Wadan’s colleagues were also killed while another person was injured, the statement added.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani “vehemently condemned the terrorist” act and ordered authorities to arrest those behind it, his office said.

No one claimed responsibility for the bombing, but Ghani blamed Taliban insurgents for plotting it.

“The spike in violence by the Taliban is against spirit of commitment for peace and indicates that the group still pursues their hawkish attitude to take innocent lives and damage public facilities,” the Afghan president said.

Kabul has been plagued by a wave of mostly unclaimed targeted killings of government officials, prominent journalists and civil society representatives.

Afghan authorities and the U.S. military have accused the Taliban of plotting the assassination spree, charges the insurgent group rejects.

Deadly airstrike

Separately, Afghan security forces overnight carried out a counter-Taliban airstrike in the southwestern Nimruz province, killing 12 civilians and injuring several others.

The provincial council head, Baz Mohammad, told VOA the strike in Khashrod district struck a civilian home, and women as well as children were among the victims.

Nimruz’s Governor Zamarily Ahadi in a statement confirmed that the Afghan air force targeted a Taliban base in the district, killing at least 12 insurgents. The governor said that a special team has been tasked to investigate the death of civilians in the incident.

The Taliban said in a statement neither its fighters were present in the area nor the owner of the destroyed property, who was also among the dead, had any links to the insurgent group.

Sunday’s violence comes as the Taliban and representatives of the Afghan government are engaged in peace talks in Qatar’s capital, Doha.

The U.S.-brokered so-called intra-Afghan dialogue, which began in September, stemmed from a landmark deal Washington signed with the Taliban in February 2020 to try to close the 19-year-old war in Afghanistan and bring home all U.S. troops.

Ghani appoints critics to avoid interim govt: politicians

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Ashraf Ghani

Ariana: Some Afghan politicians said on Sunday that President Ashraf Ghani has cultivated new friendships with some of his critics in order to avoid an interim government and to stay in power. This comes after Ghani appointed Mohammad Mohaqiq, head of the Wahdat-i-Islami Party, as his senior political and military adviser and introduced Rahila Dostum as a member of the Wolesi Jirga (Upper House of Parliament). Click here to read more (external link).

Govt to distribute more than 5 million ID cards by April

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Ariana: The National Statistics and Information Authority (NSIA) said that it will distribute more than five million electronic identity cards (ID card) before the end of the current solar year in April. According to NSIA the holders of paper identity cards will not need to verify their identity cards once they have been issued. With the paper ID’s verification is needed to work for government or to obtain a passport. Click here to read more (external link).

Afghan President Wants ‘Positive Peace’ With Taliban, Transition To ‘Elected Successor’

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Ashraf Ghani

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
January 9, 2021

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has said that his goal is to transition power to an “elected successor,” and that he seeks a “positive peace” with the Taliban.

Speaking alongside first lady Rula Ghani in an interview with CNN on January 8, the Afghan president addressed the start of the second round of peace talks between the government and the Taliban.

He acknowledged that the process aimed at ending nearly two decades of war has been slow, and laid out some of the factors required for the negotiations that resume in Qatar on January 9 to be successful.

“Can we agree on the goal that the international community is agreed with us; namely, a sovereign, democratic, united Afghanistan at peace with itself and the region?” he said. “If that goal becomes accepted, then we can move forward. But if the objective of the Taliban is to dominate and give us the peace of the grave, then that will have very negative consequences.”

Ghani earlier this week ruled out suggestions that the establishment of an interim government could aid the formation of a government in keeping with a future peace deal.

“My basic goal is to be able to hand power, through the will of the people, to my elected successor,” Ghani said in the January 8 interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. “This is crucial to enable us to both honor the sacrifice of our civilians, our activists, and others.”

“One thing needs to be clear: Afghan society is not willing to go back and we’re not a type of society that the Taliban-type approach of the past can be imposed on us,” he added. “We want a positive peace where all of us together overcome our past, embrace each other and together rebuild an Afghanistan that can be what I call a roundabout.”

After a 20-day break, the Afghan negotiating team returned to the Qatari capital, Doha, this week for a second round of peace talks that began in September.

The first session began on January 9, according to a spokesman for the Afghan National Reconciliation Council.

A statement issued by the Taliban’s political office in Doha said the groups appointed by the negotiating teams “for the unification and arrangement of the agenda” had met “in a good environment.”

The Taliban statement said those at the talks agreed to continue the meetings in the future and to continue to talk about the agenda of the peace process.

With reporting by Tolo News, CNN, and AFP

Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036

Afghan politicians accuse government of making them more vulnerable to attacks

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1TV: A number of senior Afghan political figures in a letter have accused the government of making them more vulnerable to attacks by deciding to reduce their guards. The letter was signed by Salahuddin Rabbani, Abdul Rashid Dostum, Karim Khalili, Mohammad Yonus Qanooni, Mohammad Mohaqiq, Syed Hamid Gelani, Ahmad Zia Massoud and Zabihullah Mujadidi. Click here to read more (external link).

Afghan passport ranked the world’s least powerful

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Ariana: Japan has the world’s most powerful passport as its citizens can travel to 191 countries around the world visa-free or visa on arrival. The Henley Passport Index, which measures the world’s most travel-friendly passports from time to time based on data received from the International Air Transport Authority (IATA), has released its report for 2021. Meanwhile, Afghan citizens have visa-free or visa on arrival access to 26 countries only, ranking 110th place or the world’s least powerful passport. Click here to read more (external link).