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Former Canadian envoy says Ottawa should reopen mission in Afghanistan
Two of Canada’s former ambassadors to Afghanistan are debating whether it’s time to establish a diplomatic presence in Kabul, and how best to keep tabs on the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA).
“There are ways for us to be on the ground and to see for ourselves, and to act for ourselves and act directly to help Afghans – without lending direct support to the Taliban (IEA),” former envoy Arif Lalani said in an interview this week.
“We should be able to decide for ourselves and inform others about what is really going on in Afghanistan. And the degree to which we can’t do that ourselves, I don’t think it does a service to anyone.”
Chris Alexander, a former Conservative foreign-affairs minister who also served as Canada’s ambassador in Kabul, meanwhile says that recognizing the IEA would compromise fundamental Canadian values, the Canadian Press reported.
“The cost would be too high, in terms of legitimizing an absolutely depraved regime,” he said Wednesday.
Lalani told the Senate’s foreign-affairs committee last month that the IEA “seems to have taken hostage an entire society, and our (Canada’s) response has been to neither use force nor to use diplomacy.”
“We are at a standstill, and Afghans are suffering. We actually need to take a decision.”
Lalani said Canada should be “looking at creative ways to find assistance to help Afghans” while understanding how countries like China, Russia and Iran are engaging with the IEA.
Lalani said Ottawa could better help individual Afghans sustain themselves economically, otherwise “what little economic development is taking place will slide backwards” as governments grapple to respond to multiple humanitarian crises worldwide.
“We have a government in Afghanistan that no one likes, that is doing incredible damage to its own population. But we need to now think about the Afghan people, as opposed to our own sense of outrage,” he said.
He also said if Canadians were to establish a presence in Afghanistan, it could in the form of “specific development programming” that has measured outcomes.
“The alternative is us sort of standing still from the sidelines and pretending that we’re going to do more,” he said.
“If we take that position, let’s please stop the selfies and hashtags and suggest we’re going to do more and we stand with Afghans, because we’re not.”
As many as 80 traffic accidents occurred across Afghanistan on the last day of Ramadan and the three days of Eid-ul-Fitr, resulting in 30 deaths and 155 injuries, the General Directorate of Traffic of the Ministry of Interior Affairs has announced.
It said in a statement that the number of traffic accidents during Eid this year has decreased compared to last year, as there were 98 accidents during Eid last year, leaving 50 dead and 185 injured.
The statement said that the fatalities in traffic accidents during Eid this year include 19 men, 2 women and 9 children.
The injured include 117 men, 8 women and 30 children.
More international support is desperately needed for mine action in Afghanistan, which is one of one of the countries on earth that is most impacted by the explosive remnants of war, the United Nations mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, said on Friday.
Marking the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action, UNAMA said on X that over decades of conflict, tens of thousands of ordinary Afghans have lost their lives or limbs because of landmines and unexploded ordnance, adding that most of the victims today are children.
“Mine clearance work is painstaking, dangerous, and costly. Education to prevent accidents, and rehabilitation for those left with disabilities is also essential,” UNAMA said.
UNAMA called for more international support to Afghanistan, saying it “saves lives, and serves as an investment in a safer, more stable, and prosperous future for Afghanistan.”
In 2024, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) recorded that there were 434 children among those injured or killed in 251 incidents linked to diverse forms of explosive ordnance. This accounts for over 76 percent of the total number of recorded casualties.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur has proposed that Afghan refugees be granted permanent residence in Pakistan.
This comes as the Pakistani government is deporting Afghan refugees citing security concerns.
There are currently 2.1 million registered Afghan migrants in Pakistan, more than half of them in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Pakistani officials have repeatedly claimed that attacks in the country are planned on Afghan soil and that Afghan citizens have been involved in a number of attacks. The Islamic Emirate, however, has denied the claim, saying Afghanistan is not responsible for Pakistan’s “security failure”.
While the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has called for permanent residence for Afghan refugees, its governor, Faisal Karim Kundi, has criticized the statement as “absurd.”
Kundi said the current security crisis in Pakistan is deeply linked to Afghanistan and 70 percent of recent attacks in Pakistan have been planned on Afghan soil.
He also claimed that weapons left over from foreign forces in Afghanistan are now being used against Pakistan, a claim the Islamic Emirate has previously denied.
Thirty, killed, 155 injured in traffic accidents in Afghanistan during Eid
More international support desperately needed for Afghanistan mine action: UNAMA
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Afghanistan’s futsal team to face Greenland in Brazil tournament
Pakistan asks illegal foreigners, Afghan Citizen Card holders to leave by March 31
Uzbekistan set to open permanent trade center in northern Afghanistan
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