Donald Trump
USA Today: President Donald Trump said Monday that the United States could wipe Afghanistan “off the face of the Earth” in a matter of days but noted that he has chosen instead to draw down U.S. forces after nearly two decades of fighting there. Trump described the duration of the war in Afghanistan as “ridiculous” during his remarks in the Oval Office. Click here to read more (external link).
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Khan (left) and Trump (right)
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
July 22, 2019
U.S. President Donald Trump has held out the possibility of restoring aid to Pakistan as Islamabad is “helping us a lot now” to find a way out of the war in neighboring Afghanistan.
Speaking after a meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on July 22, Trump said Pakistan could make a “make a big difference” in ending the nearly 18-year war with the Taliban.
“I don’t think Pakistan respected the United States” in the past, said Trump, speaking at a White House meeting with Khan. But “they are helping us a lot now.”
The United States has long accused Pakistan of providing “havens” for militant groups fighting in India and Afghanistan, and Trump has cut financial and military aid to Islamabad.
Trump also offered to mediate the decades-long dispute between India and Pakistan over the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir, a move that would indicate a shift in long-standing U.S. policy that the issue must be solved bilaterally.
“If I can help, I would love to be a mediator,” Trump said. “If I can do anything to help, let me know.”
Khan said he “looked forward” to talks with Trump over the next few days and said he wanted to ensure there was a common “understanding between the two countries.”
Frayed Relations
It is the first time Khan, a former cricket star who won election last year, has made an official visit to the U.S. capital.
The Pakistani leader will be accompanied by his top military leader and intelligence officer, a clear indication that the war in Afghanistan and terrorism will dominate the bilateral talks.
Khan’s visit comes amid frayed relations with the United States, which is seeking to bring stability to Afghanistan and end the war there. The assistance of Pakistan, which neighbors Afghanistan, is key to achieving a resolution, U.S. officials have said.
“The purpose of [Khan’s] visit is to press for concrete cooperation from Pakistan to advance the Afghanistan peace process and to encourage Pakistan to deepen and sustain its recent effort to crack down on militants and terrorists with its territory,” a senior Trump official told reporters.
In a move some analysts view as a concession to Washington ahead of the trip, Pakistan arrested Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the founder of the extremist group that carried out the deadly 2008 attacks in Mumbai, India. It is about the seventh time that Pakistani forces have arrested Saeed.
“We would look to see that Pakistan is taking sustained action and actually prosecuting these people. Quite frankly, the previous arrests of Saeed haven’t made a difference,” the senior official said.
In addition to locking up individuals it considers terrorists, the Trump administration will also be asking Khan to free political prisoners, including Shakil Afridi, the Pakistani physician who helped the United States identify Osama bin Laden.
Trump, who is running for re-election in 2020, has promised to pull out American troops from Afghanistan.
The Trump administration will also press Pakistan on press freedoms and permitting non-government organizations (NGOs) to freely operate. Islamabad has deregistered 18 NGOs.
“We think that the impacts of deregistering them will have a deleterious impact on their democratic institutions and civil society,” the senior administration official said.
Commercials talks, including energy, will also be on Trump’s agenda with Khan. The United States is interested in a trade mission to Islamabad to discuss supplies of liquefied natural gas and gas-infrastructure development, the senior official said.
The U.S. is the world’s largest producer of natural gas and will account for about half the growth in global gas exports over the next six years, according to the International Energy Agency.
With reporting by Reuters and AFP
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
July 22, 2019
Afghan officials say a joint air strike by U.S. and Afghan forces has killed at least seven civilians.
The incident occurred during a military operation in the Baraki Barak district of the eastern province of Logar on July 21.
Hasib Stanekzai, a member of the provincial council, said the air strike targeted Taliban militants but struck two residential houses.
Stanekzai said the dead included women and children and that six others were wounded.
Didar Lawang, a spokesman for the provincial governor, confirmed that the air strike had resulted in civilian casualties, but did not provide further details.
Lawang said authorities had launched an investigation into the deadly incident.
U.S. forces in Afghanistan declined to comment.
The war in Afghanistan has intensified in recent weeks as both Afghan forces and Taliban militants attempt to increase their leverage in ongoing peace talks.
U.S. and Taliban negotiators have held eight rounds of peace talks since last year.
While no agreement has been reached, both sides have reported progress in the talks.
Based on reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters
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TRT World: Aimal Hashoor, the spokesperson at the Central Bank of Afghanistan, confirmed to TRT World that they were aware that smuggling of the currency did take place on Iran’s borders, adding however, that they have little control over what goes on at the frontiers. Click here to read more (external link).
Husain Haqqani
Tolo News: Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, says the Taliban does not believe in elections and that the group is seeking to take over Afghanistan by force once the foreign forces leave the country as part of a peace deal. Haqqani said the real peace in Afghanistan will come “when Pakistan’s ISI stops interfering in Afghanistan and when Afghan leaders stop approaching various other powers whether it is India, or Iran or Russia or America”. Click here to read more (external link).
Imran Khan
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
July 22, 2019
ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that in his meeting with President Donald Trump on Monday he will stress the need for political resolution to the protracted war in Afghanistan.
Khan, who is in the U.S. on a three-day official visit in a bid to repair strained bilateral ties, made the remarks to a big gathering of Pakistani diaspora in Washington late on Sunday. He had long campaigned against the use of U.S. military force to resolve the conflict even before he came to power after last year’s elections in Pakistan.
“I feel proud that now the whole world is saying Afghanistan has no military solution,” Khan told the cheering crowd, which organizers said was the biggest gathering of Pakistani Americans to date.
Earlier, a senior U.S. administration official said Trump will press Khan for assistance in advancing the Afghan peace process and encourage Pakistan to crackdown on militants within its territory.
Pakistan has arranged Washington’s direct peace negotiations with Taliban insurgents who are fighting local and U.S.-led international troops in neighboring Afghanistan.
The months-long U.S.-Taliban dialogue has brought the two adversaries in the 18-year-old Afghan war close to concluding a peace agreement to pave the ground for ending what has become the longest U.S. foreign military intervention.
The U.S. official said Washington appreciates “the initial steps” Islamabad has taken to facilitate the peace process but it is “reaching a critical juncture” and more needs to be done to move the process forward.
“The president will be most interested in encouraging Pakistan to… use its leverage with the Taliban to help bring about a ceasefire and genuine inter-Afghan negotiation that includes the Afghan government….We’re hoping that the discussions are productive.”
Taliban peace talks
The Taliban refuses to engage in peace talks with Afghan interlocutors until it concludes an agreement with Washington that would outline a timetable for withdrawal of all American troops. In exchange, the agreement will bind the insurgents to prevent foreign militants from using Taliban-controlled areas for international terrorism.
The Taliban insists that once the agreement is signed with the U.S. in the presence of international guarantors it will initiate inter-Afghan talks to discuss a ceasefire and issues related to political governance in the country.
Last year, President Trump suspended military training programs and canceled hundreds of millions of dollars in security assistance to Pakistan. He accused the South Asian nation of offering “nothing but lies and deceit” while giving safe haven to terrorists staging deadly attacks on the Afghan side of the border.
Islamabad rejected the charges and in turn accused Washington of trying to make Pakistan a scapegoat for U.S. military failures in Afghanistan, plunging bilateral ties to historic lows. Officials in Islamabad say the progress in Afghan peace has led to the warming up of ties with Washington, prompting Trump to invite Khan for Monday’s meeting.
In the lead up to Khan’s visit, authorities in Pakistan arrested a radical cleric, Hafiz Saeed, who is wanted by the U.S. for terrorism in India and carries a $10 million reward. Pakistani officials have also taken control of hundreds of Islamic schools, health facilities and offices run by banned organizations blamed for cross-border terrorism.
Saeed’s arrest, however, has come under scrutiny because he has previously been detained only to be freed by courts for a lack of evidence linking him to terrorism.
“We’re monitoring the situation and — but we wouldn’t want to praise Pakistan for this step too early, because, you know, we’ve seen this movie before. We’ve seen this happen in the past. And we’re looking for sustained and concrete steps, not just window dressing,” the U.S. official told reporters.
Pakistan delegation
Khan, who arrived in Washington on Saturday, is also accompanied by the Pakistani military chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa.
The Pakistan army has long been accused of covertly maintaining ties with the Afghan Taliban and terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founded by Saeed. India accuses LeT of planning and executing the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed more than 166 people, including foreigners.
Another irritant in Pakistan’s troubled ties with the U.S. is the detention of Shakil Afridi, the jailed Pakistani doctor believed to have assisted the CIA hunt down Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 2001 attacks on America.
“Dr. Afridi is a hero in our country. He helped us capture the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks…this is something that is of the utmost importance to us…it is likely to come up,” the U.S. official said when asked whether the administration would raise the issue in meeting with Khan’s delegation.
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Al Jazeera: Users describe why they are increasingly addicted to so-called tablet k pills, a drug that officials know little about. A group of well-to-do young men in their 20s get out and start discussing a new drug that has, in their words, gained popularity among young Afghans. “Hashish is nothing. Opium is nothing. All anyone wants to do now is drop tablet k,” said Gharzai, a fit 23-year-old university student who like his friends, seems to have a hard time concentrating. He admits he has taken the drug. Click here to read more (external link).
Taliban (file photo)
LA Times: It was on the day that Abdullah gave orders to blow up a health facility under construction that he started questioning himself. A Taliban commander for 15 years, he had killed many in his native Afghanistan, but today, the 38-year-old lives in hiding with his wife and five children, working part time as a real-estate agent. Click here to read more (external link).
NY Post: Sarah Goolden, a stunning blonde who’s modeled everything from lacy underwear to designer duds, accuses Hamed Wardak [son of Abdul Rahim Wardak] of attacking her twice during a trip the two took to Miami on July 4th weekend 2018. Click here to read more (external link).