Terror expansion, insecurity maintenance main threats to Afghan peace: Shamkhani

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Shamkhani

Shamkhani

Press TV
December 17, 2019

Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani voices alarm at the spread of terrorism and insecurity in Afghanistan as the main threats facing the war-torn country’s peace and stability.

Shamkhani made the remarks in a Tuesday meeting with Chinese Minister of State Security Chen Wenqing on the sidelines of the second session of the Regional Security Dialogue with a focus on Afghanistan, which will open in Tehran on Wednesday.

“The spread of terrorism and attempts by some regional and extra-regional countries to preserve and manage insecurity in this country (Afghanistan) are top challenges threatening peace and stability in Afghanistan,” the top Iranian security official said.

US, Israel promoting Islamophobia, sowing discord: Shamkhani

Shamkhani also said on Tuesday that the United States and the Israeli regime are pursuing a strategy to promote Islamophobia, sow discord, wage wars and create crises in Muslim countries in the region.

In a meeting with Secretary of the Security Council of Tajikistan Mahmadali Vatanzoda, the SNSC secretary called for proper propagation of Islam as the best and most effective way to counter extremist and Takfiri ideologies.

Shamkhani also pointed to cultural, religious and linguistic commonalities between Iran and Tajikistan and said, “There is no limit to the expansion of bilateral ties and cooperation.”

He stressed the importance of strengthening bilateral cooperation to prevent the Daesh terror group’s possible rival and growth.

The senior Tajik security official, for his part, pointed to his country’s long common border with Afghanistan and said insecurity in that country would affect Tajikistan’s security.

An extremist terrorist group should not be allowed to cause insecurity and instability in Afghanistan and pose security challenges to the region in the name of Islam, Vatanzoda added.

National security advisers and secretaries from Iran, Russia, China, India, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan will take part at the day-long Tehran meeting.

According to the SNSC secretariat, the session will focus on the issue of Afghanistan and a comprehensive fight against various forms of terrorism in the country.

On the sidelines of the event, there will also be bilateral meetings between the national security advisers and secretaries attending the meeting.

The first session of Regional Security Dialogue was held in September last year with the participation of Iran, Russia, China, India and Afghanistan with the purpose of increasing coordination among regional countries against Takfiri terrorism.

Blasts Kill 10 Afghan Civilians, Injure 18

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explosionAyaz Gul
VOA News
December 17, 2019

ISLAMABAD – Two separate bomb explosions in Afghanistan Tuesday killed at least 10 civilians, including children, and injured 18 others.

The violence comes as a new United Nations report says that even by Afghanistan’s grim standards, 2019 has been particularly deadly for children and described the country as “the world’s most lethal war zone.”

Afghan officials said a roadside bomb early Tuesday morning ripped through a civilian vehicle in the southeastern border province of Khost, killing at least ten civilians.

Provincial governor Halim Fidai said that three women and two children were among those killed in the attack in Alisher district.

The governor noted in his Twitter post the victims were on their way to attend a family funeral. He added an investigation was underway into the incident to arrest the perpetrators.

Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi accused the Taliban of planting the bomb. There was no immediate reaction from the insurgent group to the allegations.

Separately, a roadside bomb hit a traffic police vehicle in Mazar-e-Shari, the capital of the northern Balkh province. A spokesman for the provincial police told VOA the blast wounded six traffic police personnel and 12 civilians. There were no claims of responsibility for that attack.

Last Friday, at least ten civilians were killed and six others injured after their minivan struck a landmine allegedly planted by the Taliban to target Afghan security forces in the volatile eastern Ghazni proviince.

Civilians continue to bear the brunt of the 18-year-old conflict in Afghanistan.

The U.N. Children’s Fund, UNICEF, in its report released Monday noted that an average of nine children have been killed or maimed everyday in Afghanistan so far this year.

“The dire predicament of the country as currently the world’s worst killing field, is an acknowledgement of the nearly 6,500 child fatalities and almost 15,000 others injured between 2009 and 2018,” the report noted.

The study lamented that the rate of child casualties has increased by some 11 percent since 2018, blaming a surge in suicide bomb attacks and ground engagement between pro-Afghan government forces and armed opposition groups.

On Tuesday, the U.N. humanitarian agency said that the Afghan conflict has forced more than 414,000 civilians to leave their homes in 2019.

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U.S. Defense Chief Says He’s Fine With Afghan Troop Reduction ‘With Or Without’ Peace Deal

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Esper

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
December 17, 2019

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper on December 15 said he wants a drawdown of soldiers in Afghanistan “with or without” a peace deal, while voicing confidence that the head of the NATO mission in the country could carry out current tasks with fewer numbers.

The administration of President Donald Trump may announce a troop reduction of around 4,000 soldiers before the end of the year year, according to U.S. media.

There are an estimated 12,000 to 13,000 U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan at any given time, depending on troop rotations.

Esper told reporters that Austin Miller, the commander of NATO’s Resolute Support Mission and U.S. forces, “is confident that he can go down to a lower number” of soldiers, according to AFP.

Miller “believes he can conduct all the important counterterrorism missions and train, advise, and assist” the Afghan Army, Esper said.

The defense secretary added that he would like to see a political agreement sealed between the Afghan government and the Taliban to end the 18-year war.

U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad last week resumed talks with Taliban negotiators in the Qatari capital, Doha, where the insurgents maintain a political office.

“But I think we can [reduce the number of troops] with or without that political agreement,” Esper said.

Meanwhile, on the same day, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (Republican-South Carolina) reiterated Trump’s wish to reduce the number of troops to 8,600 during a visit to Kabul.

‘”If President Trump decides in the next few weeks to reduce our forces below the 12,000 we have, I could support that,” he said.

“The Afghan security forces are getting more capable,” said Graham. “As they achieve capability, the number of U.S. forces necessary can go down.”

Based on reporting by AP and AFP

Copyright (c) 2019. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

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US Congress Also Bears Responsibility for Prolonging Afghanistan’s Unwinnable War

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Michael Hughes:  The Washington Post’s Afghanistan Papers was met with deafening silence because most astute observers already knew the U.S. military had painted a false picture of the war, not to mention the fact the document dump was released to an indifferent American public. That said, the documents still shine a bright light on the incompetence and corruption that drove the policymaking process in the White House, the Pentagon and Congress.

The documents, published on December 9, amount to clear indictments of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama and scores of senior officials in both administrations who all deceived the public on what was really going on inside Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

However, U.S. Congress is equally as responsible for enabling these destructive policies including by approving around $1 trillion for the war, a high percentage of which was lost to waste and corruption, according to the documents.

Click here to read more.

US Military Tells VOA No Afghan Drawdown Orders Received Yet

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us_army-soldiersAyaz Gul
VOA News
December 16, 2019

ISLAMABAD – The U.S. military told VOA Monday it has not received orders to reduce troop levels in Afghanistan and remains fully committed to Afghan partners to achieve security objectives.

However, officials in Afghanistan have confirmed to VOA that the United States plans to withdraw thousands of troops from the country, insisting the move stemmed from a mutual understanding between the two allied nations.

On Saturday, U.S. media reported that President Donald Trump’s administration intends to announce as early as later this week plans to reduce the number of American forces in Afghanistan by around 4,000.

“The matter regarding the withdrawal of 4,000 troops has nothing to do with the peace talks with the Taliban.  It had already been agreed upon in principle between the governments of Afghanistan and the United States,” the deputy Afghan presidential spokesman Dawa Khan Meenapal told VOA on Sunday. He, however, emphasized it would be a “gradual withdrawal” and shared no further details.

Sources in Kabul told VOA the drawdown process is expected to start in three months “depending on the ground realities”, though no official confirmation from the Afghan government was available immediately about the timeline.

A U.S. military spokesman clarified in written comments to VOA that there is no timeline as they haven’t received orders yet to begin a drawdown.

“We remain fully committed to the Resolute Support mission and our Afghan partners, and focused on our key objective: ensuring Afghanistan is never again used as a safe haven for terrorists who threaten the United States, our allies or our interests,” added the spokesman.

Currently around 13,000 U.S. troops are deployed to Afghanistan and are conducting counterterrorism missions in addition to advising and training Afghan security forces battling the Taliban under the NATO’s Resolute Support mission.

Trump had told an American broadcaster (Fox News Radio) in a recent interview he might reduce the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan to around 8,600.

The withdrawal of foreign forces has been at the center of a peace deal the U.S. has been trying to negotiate with the Taliban for over a year to end America’s longest war.

Trump had suspended the dialogue process in September citing the killing of an American soldier in a series of Taliban attacks in Kabul.

The two adversaries returned to the negotiating table in Qatar a week ago but Washington paused the talks again on Thursday in retaliation to a Taliban raid on the largest U.S.-run military base in Afghanistan –  Bagram, north of Kabul. The attack killed two Afghan civilians and injured scores of others.

U.S. and Taliban negotiators after months of meetings had concluded a draft agreement that outlined Taliban’s counterterrorism guarantees in exchange for a phased withdrawal of American and allied forces.

The proposed document would also require the insurgent group to reduce violence and enter into intra-Afghan negotiations to seek a permanent end to decades of hostilities in Afghanistan.

Critics have cautioned against an abrupt withdrawal of foreign forces, fearing it will embolden the insurgents.

“The conditions for withdrawal should be achieved so that Afghan security and defense forces are able to fill the vacuum, otherwise it can have a negative impact on the (battlefield) situation,” said Nadir Khan Katawazai, a member of the Afghan parliament.

But former Afghan military general, Atiqullah Amarkhel, insisted as long as Afghan forces continued to receive financial assistance to sustain their operational costs, the reduction in foreign troops will not have any impact because neither U.S. nor NATO troops are taking part in battlefield activities.

Reports of the U.S. withdrawal come just days after the Washington Post released hundreds of documents showing U.S. officials and military commanders had been lying about the progress of the war. The revelation has encouraged the Taliban to intensify its propaganda against the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan and justify the violence.

Votes Of 27 Provinces Should Be Recounted, Says Abdullah’s Team

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Ariana:  Abdullah’s electoral campaign warned that if the votes of 27 provinces are not recounted, they will not accept the preliminary results of the election. They insist that Independent electoral complaints commission should cooperate with them in this process. Meanwhile, the IECC stressed that this ‘demand’ will create problems. Younus Nawandish, a member of Abdullah’s team, said that the votes of 27 provinces were counted in their absence and in presence of Ghani’s team. He called on the IECC to cooperate in this term if no they will not accept any results announced. Click here to read more (external link).

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Afghans Win Three Gold Medals in Muay Thai Championship

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afgmuaythaiTolo News: Afghan Muay Thai fighters got three gold medals at a competition hosted by the Uzbekistan Muay Thai Federation which was held in Tashkent from December 11 to 14. A team of five Muay Thai fighters from “Team B” of the national squad attended the event. The athletes also got a silver and a bronze medal in the competition. Click here to read more (external link).

Operation Ends in Mazar, Qaisari is ‘Missing’

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Qaisari

Tolo News: A clash in Mazar-e-Sharif, Balkh province, started late Saturday night and ended on Sunday night, nearly 20 hours after security forces surrounded the residence of Nizamuddin Qaisari, the former police chief of Faryab’s Qaisar district. The house was in Police District 5 (PD5) of Mazar-e-Sharif. Gen. Mohammad Ajmal Fayez, the provincial police chief, claimed that “150 illegally-armed” men affiliated with Qaisari had recently “destabilized the security situation in the city” and therefore an arrest warrant was issued. Click here to read more (external link).