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James Dobbins, former US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, dies at 81
James Dobbins, America’s former special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, has died at the age of 81.
The death, of complications from Parkinson’s disease, was announced by the Rand Corp., a think tank where Dobbins had previously led a center on international security and defense policy.
Dobbins served as US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan between May 2013 and July 2014. He also served as envoy to Kosovo, Bosnia, Haiti, and Somalia.
In 2001, he led negotiations leading to the Bonn Agreement, and served as acting Ambassador of the United States to Afghanistan during the transitional period.
In Mr. Dobbins’s view, U.S. policymakers made strategic blunders by focusing too many resources on counterinsurgency fights against the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Instead, he said a better path was building local alliances and regional security networks to give Afghans a greater sense of safety and a stake in keeping the system in place.
He reflected interventionist instincts that the United States should be involved in “nation building” as “the inescapable responsibility of the world’s only superpower.”
After takeover of Afghanistan by the Islamic Emirate, Dobbins insisted this was the moment for renewed engagement in Afghanistan. Isolation, he said, may seem more appealing to US officials because it requires “no decisions, no resources and no political exposure.”
“But it never works,” Dobbins said. “In the history of foreign affairs, as far I know, it has never produced the desired results.”
US Vice President JD Vance said on Friday that Joe Biden administration left about $80 billion worth of military equipment in Afghanistan, which was a “catastrophic error.”
Vance made the remarks during a visit to a military base in Greenland.
He also said the Biden administration’s “catastrophic error” led to the deaths of 13 US soldiers in an attack during the evacuation at Kabul airport in August 2021.
Earlier, US President Donald Trump also criticized the abandonment of military equipment in Afghanistan and called for its return.
The Islamic Emirate, however, has said that the weapons left by the US in Afghanistan belong to the Afghans and will not be returned.
The Supreme Court announced on Saturday that based on the ruling of the supreme leader of the Islamic Emirate, 2,463 prisoners have been pardoned and released on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr.
The court said in a statement that the prison terms of another 3,152 prisoners have been reduced.
Eid in Afghanistan will be celebrated on Sunday or Monday, depending on the moon sighting.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs on Saturday announced that feasibility studies of dams in four provinces of the country will begin this solar year.
The Economic Commission, led by Deputy PM Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in its recent meeting decided to include the survey and feasibility projects of Grumby Dam in Maidan Wardak, Qara Tiri Dam in Balkh, Shana Nari Dam in Kandahar, and Wuch Nari Dam in Paktia in the budget for the fiscal year 1404.
In the meeting, the issues of construction of the Kandahar bypass highway, construction of Arghistan Dam, 90 km of electricity line from Kabul to Jalalabad, and completion of Sheikh Misri substation in Jalalabad were also discussed, and it was decided that the Ministry of Finance will allocate the revenues obtained from the Ganda Kotal lead and zinc mine in Yakawlang district of Bamyan province to these projects.
The Economic Commission meeting also approved a plan for the private sector’s investment in a 40 megawatts solar power generation project in the Hesar Shahi Industrial Park in Nangarhar province. According the plan, the private sector will invest $50.69 million in the project.
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