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CENTCOM chief says Washington still mulling embassy safety plans
Commander of the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said this weekend that he has provided plans to secure the US embassy in Afghanistan with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin who is still deciding.
In an interview with Military Times, McKenzie said: “We’re in a back-and-forth process, refining them, so unfortunately right now, because of that, there’s not much more I can share with you about the development of those plans.
He went on to state that the US knows “with a high degree of certainty, that al-Qaeda and ISIS, and the version of ISIS that’s in Afghanistan — ISIS Khorasan is what we call it — they both have aspirations to attack the United States”.
“Long-standing, very public track record of wanting to attack our homeland, and the homelands of our partners as well in Europe and in other places. So, this is well established and well-documented from their own mouths.
“We believe that what has prevented these attacks from being developed, both from Afghanistan and from Syria as well over the last few years, is the pressure that’s been put on these groups.
“And so in Syria, for example, we and our SDF partners work very hard to keep that pressure on them so they don’t have — particularly ISIS — the ability to generate those attack plans because they’re busy scrambling around for their own survival,” he said.
“Sort of the same thing occurs in Afghanistan. So, what would concern me the most in the long term would be a future situation in Afghanistan where there wasn’t adequate pressure kept on these groups, because we know left unmolested that they are certainly going to rebuild, restrengthen themselves, and we have no reason to doubt they don’t mean what they say when they say, repeatedly and earnestly over the past few years, that they want to attack us in our homeland,” he said.
He highlited that the US was withdrawing from Afghanistan and that the only thing that will remain, “if we can protect it”, will be the US embassy and its diplomats.
Despite withdrawing, he again noted that Washington plans to the Afghan military from just over the horizon.
“We’re still going to support them with funding. We’re going to try very hard to support the Afghan air force over the horizon; some things will come out of the country to be worked on.
“We will do some televised remote advising with them as we go forward. All those things, we will continue to do that. I don’t want to minimize this, because I think they’re going to be tested, but we will continue to support them, just not in the way we are supporting them now.”
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Ten people killed in Baghlan attack
Ten people were killed by unknown individuals in Afghanistan’s northern Baghlan province on Thursday night, police said on Friday.
The incident happened as the victims were doing Zikr at a mosque in Shahr-e-Kuhna of Nahrin district, police said in a statement.
The statement said that they used to regularly go to mosques and monasteries at night after returning from work.
Abdul Ghayoor Khadim, a provincial police official, said that several people were arrested in connection with the incident, adding that an investigation was launched.
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Chinese, Turkmen officials meet to discuss Afghanistan
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Serdar Muhammetdurdiyev on Thursday met with Chinese special envoy for Afghanistan, Yue Xiaoyong, the Foreign Ministry of Turkmenistan announced.
During the meeting, the sides discussed priority vectors of strategic interstate cooperation built on a long-term, mutually beneficial basis, as well as exchanged views on the implementation of previously reached agreements.
It was noted that personal contacts between the leaders of the two countries play a key role in intensifying the interstate dialogue, which give a strong impulse to further development and expansion of Turkmen-Chinese ties.
It was emphasized that Turkmenistan considers multilateral international platforms for maintaining stability in Afghanistan as an important factor in promoting sustainable improvement of socio-economic state of the neighboring country. The sides exchanged views on the preparations to the 5th meeting of Foreign Ministers of Afghanistan's Neighboring States to be held in Turkmenistan.
The interlocutors reaffirmed that Turkmenistan and China will continue to provide all-round support for the economic restoration of Afghanistan.
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U.S. House approves bill on evacuation of Afghan allies
The U.S. House Of Representatives has passed a legislation on evacuation of Afghans who assisted Americans during the 20-year war in Afghanistan.
“The passage of the CARE Authorization Act of 2024 further underscores the commitment made by the U.S. government to safeguard those who served shoulder-to-shoulder with our personnel during the twenty-year mission in Afghanistan,” Congresswoman Dina Titus said in a statement.
“The State Department has made it clear: There is no deadline for the crucial job of protecting Afghan allies. By authorizing the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts at the State Department, we can more effectively relocate and resettle those who have qualified to immigrate to the U.S. as a result of their service to this country.”
In 2022 the State Department established a specialized office called the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts (CARE) to streamline and coordinate the ongoing relocation and resettlement process for eligible Afghans from Afghanistan and Pakistan to the United States.
The CARE Authorization Act of 2024 will formally authorize the CARE office at the State Department for three years and grant important authorities to advance its mission. These include an extension of authorities to enter into personal services contracts as well as measures to streamline the transfer of funds to and from other agencies involved in the Afghan relocation mission.
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