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Pakistan urges look into ‘meltdown’ of Afghan forces as Taliban advances

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(Last Updated On: August 10, 2021)

Pakistan on Monday said the international community needed to look into the “meltdown” of Afghan security forces in the face of Taliban offensives across Afghanistan, instead of blaming Pakistan for the fast-deteriorating situation, Reuters reported.

Taliban fighters have swiftly gained territory across Afghanistan since May, including six provincial capitals in the last three days, as international forces near a complete withdrawal from the country after 20 years of fighting.

“The capacity-building, the training, the equipment … where is it?” Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi asked at a news conference, referring to resources spent by other countries, particularly the United States, on bolstering Afghan national forces.

“Issues of governance and the meltdown of Afghan national defence forces need to be looked into,” he said.

Pakistan cannot be held responsible for the failure of others, he said.

Kabul and several western governments say Pakistan’s support for the Taliban allowed it to weather 20 years of war after being pushed from power in 2001 by a U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan. The group today controls more territory that at any point since 2001, Reuters reported.

Pakistan denies supporting the Taliban. Qureshi said Islamabad was not taking sides in Afghanistan.

“The lack of will to fight, the capitulation that we are seeing in Afghanistan … can we be held responsible for that? No we cannot,” Qureshi said, adding that Pakistan supported a political solution to bring peace to Afghanistan, Reuters reported.

He said Pakistan had been instrumental in bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table with the United States and facilitated the resultant agreement between the two in Doha last year.

Pakistan, Qureshi said, had also helped convene peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government in September last year, which have since stalled.

Qureshi said Islamabad was concerned at the violence and the lack of progress in the talks, saying that Pakistan had most to lose from an unstable Afghanistan as a direct neighbour.

Questioning the pullout of U.S. forces, Qureshi said Pakistan thought the withdrawal would be tied to the progress in the peace talks.

Other regional countries, including Afghanistan, have also blamed what they termed a hasty and unconditional withdrawal of foreign troops for the success of the Taliban, Reuters reported.

Qureshi said there would be a meeting in Doha on Wednesday of the “Troika”, a platform to discuss Afghanistan led by the United States, China, Russia.

The meeting is three weeks before the Aug. 31 date that Washington set for the official withdrawal of its military forces in Afghanistan.

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At least 1,500 families affected by recent floods: IRW

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(Last Updated On: April 23, 2024)

The Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW) organization has reported that the rains and floods of the last week have claimed the lives of many Afghan and incurred huge financial losses.

According to the organization, a total of 1,500 families have suffered as a result of the recent floods and hundreds of livestock have also been lost.

IRW added that following the recent rains, 900 houses were partially or completely destroyed and 93,000 hectares of agricultural land was damaged.

This comes amid an ongoing economic crisis in Afghanistan which has left millions of people reliant on aid.

The disaster management ministry meanwhile confirmed earlier that 99 people died and 64 others were injured as a result of the heavy rains.

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Russia says US facing humiliation in Ukraine like in Vietnam and Afghanistan

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(Last Updated On: April 22, 2024)

Russia said on Sunday U.S. lawmakers’ support for $60.84 billion more in aid for Ukraine showed that Washington was wading much deeper into a hybrid war against Moscow that would end in humiliation on a par with the Vietnam or Afghanistan conflicts.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said it was clear that the United States wanted Ukraine “to fight to the last Ukrainian” including with attacks on Russian sovereign territory and civilians, Reuters reported.

“Washington’s deeper and deeper immersion in the hybrid war against Russia will turn into a loud and humiliating fiasco for United States such as Vietnam and Afghanistan,” Zakharova said.

Russia, she said, will give “an unconditional and resolute response” to the U.S. move to get more involved in the Ukraine war.

The United States lost more than 58,000 military personnel in the 1955-75 Vietnam War, which ended with Communist North Vietnam’s victory and takeover of the South, while hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed.

In the 2001-2021 war in Afghanistan, the U.S. reported 2,459 dead and over 20,000 wounded in the conflict which ended with the withdrawal of U.S.-led coalition forces and return to power of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA).

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Iran says water is an important factor in expansion of ties with Afghanistan

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(Last Updated On: April 22, 2024)

Iran’s special representative for Afghanistan, Hasan Kazemi Qomi, said on Sunday that water is an important factor in the expansion of bilateral relations, expressing hope that the flow of water to his country will continue.

Qomi said this in a meeting with Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Amir Khan Muttaqi in Kabul, the ministry said in a statement.

The envoy expressed gratitude for removing obstacles to the flow of water from the Helmand River to Sistan and Baluchestan province of Iran.

Meanwhile, Muttaqi noted that there were good rains in the country this year, as a result of which, after several years of severe drought, Helmand River’s water flowed to Nimroz province of Afghanistan and into Sistan and Baluchestan province of Iran.

He assessed the relations between Afghanistan and Iran as “friendly and positive” and hoped relations will expand further in various fields.

During the meeting, Iran’s envoy also thanked the Islamic Emirate for its stance on Israel’s attacks on Gaza and for having condemned the attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus.

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