The Sunni track: How the US plans to re-insert itself into Afghanistan

By MK Bhadrakumar

Scrambling to find its footing in the aftermath of its disastrous Kabul exit, the United States has launched three diplomatic tracks with various allies to finagle its way back into crafting Afghanistan's future.

The US is focusing on the 'Sunni track' to open its route back into Afghanistan.

In the downstream of the Taliban entering Kabul City on 15 August, the US has opened three urgent diplomatic tracks. The first track has focused on repairing the fault lines and hairline cracks that have appeared in the transatlantic alliance involving European partners, some of whom openly questioned the wisdom of President Biden’s April decision to withdraw the American troops summarily, which only, in their opinion, brought the roof crashing down.

There has been some success here with NATO, predictably enough, rallying behind the US. NATO works on consensus principle but that consensus is invariably dictated from Washington via a pliant secretary-general of the alliance. Clearly, in the present case too, the alliance largely heeded Washington’s road map and dissenting voices have become muted. How far the European states genuinely feel confident about the US leadership in Afghanistan is of course anybody’s guess.

The NATO statement of 20 August regarding Afghanistan is politically important for the Biden Administration in the context of the rising domestic criticism in America, spearheaded by assorted elements including the Republicans, the inveterate war lobby – the ‘military-industrial complex’, ‘Deep State’, Christian evangelists, and others – and powerful sections of the media, such as the New York Times or Fox News.

The second diplomatic track that Washington will keep open is about shoring up the sagging confidence and loss of morale of the two quasi-allies in the region surrounding Afghanistan – India and Uzbekistan. This is a relatively minor track insofar as the capacity of these two countries to the south and north of Afghanistan to influence the events in Afghanistan may be severely limited.

But the Biden Administration is reassuring itself that it can continue to count on them as quiescent partners who may have a sense of disquiet about the events in Afghanistan but will not embarrass the US at this point in time when Washington’s Afghan policy is in a state of meltdown, leave alone jump the ship.

The above two diplomatic tracks are essentially window dressing in character. They are not significant in their impact on the emergent ground realities in Afghanistan – at least, for now.

However, there is a third track, which is surging ahead, focused on the ‘operational’ part of the Biden Administration’s current approach to the Afghan situation. This track involves the countries of the Persian Gulf region – Afghanistan’s ‘near abroad’ – which are in one way or another already partnering with the US in weathering the storm that broke out in Kabul a week ago.

The US envisages a key role by the Persian Gulf allies in tackling the current Afghan situation from a practical point of view. These allies fall into two categories.

The UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait are helping Washington to pick up the debris (‘collateral damage’) that resulted from the abrupt fall of the US-backed Ashraf Ghani government. The US State Department euphemistically calls this ‘humanitarian efforts’ – facilitating the safe transit of US citizens, embassy personnel, and foreign nationals evacuated from Kabul to third countries.

The importance of this gracious Sunni Arab offer to help cannot be underestimated, as the Biden Administration attaches the highest priority to the safety and security of US citizens overseas, including American diplomats and service members in Afghanistan, given the optics of the dynamic situation in Kabul Airport playing out in news cycles in the US.

Qatar performs a dual role by facilitating the safe transit of US citizens, Embassy Kabul personnel, and  the so-called ‘at-risk Afghans’ through Doha while also notionally still hosting the intra-Afghan talks, which are moribund but not quite dead yet and may be resuscitated if future exigencies warrant it.

Similarly, the UAE, as desired by Washington, has promptly given political asylum to the ousted president Ghani and his family – something that the US itself cannot do lest it alienate the Taliban. (This harks back to the role the client states Panama and Egypt once played when the Shah of Iran went into exile following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.)

The UAE may have calculated already that it has nothing to lose by way of alienating the Taliban with which it has had indifferent ties through the past several years. Interestingly, the UAE and Saudi Arabia scrambled to close down their embassy in Kabul no sooner than the Taliban entered the city. Besides, the UAE has been the watering hole for the corrupt Afghan elites and warlords to launder money and acquire properties.

As regards Turkey and Saudi Arabia, they fall in an altogether separate category in the US calculus. Turkey, of course, is a major NATO ally and is performing a stellar role as the Praetorian Guard of the Kabul Airport perimeters, a role that President Recep Erdogan keenly sought to perform as part of his maneuvering to improve relations with President Biden, as well as to position itself to assume a larger-than-life role in the shape of things to come in Afghanistan.

Turkey has inherited from Uzbekistan the mentorship of the ethnic Uzbek interests in the Amu Darya region as part of its grand ambitions to claim the mantle of leadership of the Turkic world stretching from Xinjiang to the Caspian. No doubt, Turkey will seek an operational role in helping the US to navigate the way forward from the politico-military tangle in Afghanistan. The notorious Afghan Uzbeki warlord Rashid Dostum has been on the payroll of Turkish intelligence for over two decades dating back to the second half of the 1990s when Tashkent summarily dumped him.

Surely, Turkey plans to leverage this Afghan Uzbeki connection if an inclusive government takes shape in Kabul that is representative of various ethnic groups. On the other hand, Turkey would also make sure that it has one foot inside any anti-Taliban resistance as well in the coming period, since Dostum still has a militia under his command who is assured of a senior position in any non-Pashtun military line-up confronting the Taliban.

On 18 August, in a highly significant symbolic and strategic move, within seventy-two hours of the Taliban exiling Ghani – who, incidentally, had enjoyed exceptionally warm ties with the Saudi leadership – the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken put through a call to his Saudi counterpart Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.

According to the taciturn US readout, the two officials “discussed Afghanistan and ways the international community can support the Afghan people. They also discussed other shared regional priorities.” The Saudi readout, unsurprisingly, gave a hyped-up version.

It said, “During the call, the two ministers reviewed the strategic relations between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States of America and ways to strengthen them in all common areas. The contact also discussed the most important developments, foremost of which are the developments in Afghanistan, and developments in the region.”

This is manna from the heavens for the Saudi regime – that the Biden Administration is rebooting Washington-Riyadh ties and giving it a cutting edge, burying all that hatchet over the gruesome killing of Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

The big question is what the Saudis can do to strengthen the American options in Afghanistan to cope with the unexpected ascendence of political Islam there. And an even bigger question would be what the Saudis expect from the US in return. The short answer is that the estranged allies would have a convergence of interests.

When it comes to Saudi Arabia, it is all smoke and mirrors, as it always has been in regard to its role in Afghanistan. In the past several years, Saudi-Taliban relations have virtually broken down. The halcyon days of then-Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki darting in and out of Afghanistan to mentor al-Qaeda and the Taliban have become a distant memory that neither the Taliban nor the Saudis cherish anymore.

The Taliban has rid itself of the Saudi yoke and has renounced the Wahhabi faith that was sought to be imposed on their regime in the 1990s. In recent years, Taliban delegations altogether stopped visiting Saudi Arabia. Ironically, this had put paid to the Saudi attempt to steal from Qatar the glory of hosting the intra-Afghan talks, which the US and Ghani had secretly promoted.

Meanwhile, the cooling off in Pakistan’s relations with Saudi Arabia consequent upon its refusal to send a military contingent for the war in Yemen also meant that Islamabad no longer seeks a Faustian deal with Saudi Arabia on the Afghan question. Equally, in the broader regional alignments, Pakistan also has eagerly sought to improve relations with Iran, which is no longer a rival regional power in the Afghan theater.

MK Bhadrakumar

Ambassador MK Bhadrakumar was a career diplomat for three decades in the Indian Foreign Service with multi-year assignments in the former Soviet Union, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan and Turkey. MK writes extensively on the geopolitics of Eurasia, China, West Asia and US strategies. He writes a popular blog called Indian Punchline and is a syndicated columnist worldwide

 

Israeli charm offensive seeks to kill the Iran nuclear deal

By Daniel Larison

Israeli's Prime Minister went to Washington to recast his government's relationship with the Democrats. Behind those smiles however, Bennett's aim is to ensure the failure of the Iran nuclear deal and to keep Joe Biden in check on Iran, Iraq and Syria.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with President Joe Biden in Washington last week in an attempt to repair the damage caused to the bilateral relationship by Benjamin Netanyahu’s public campaign against the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) over the last six years.

Bennett remains opposed to US re-entry into the nuclear deal, but claims he wants to rebuild the relationship with Washington, and particularly with the Democratic Party. To that end, he put on a public show of goodwill that Biden reciprocated in full. Bennett hopes to kill the nuclear deal with kindness towards Biden, and there are some worrying signs that he may succeed.

Biden and Bennett’s tentative rapprochement comes after Netanyahu’s high-profile interventions in support of Republican candidates in the last three presidential elections and a steadily increasing partisan split in the US over issues related to Israel and Palestine. At the start of Biden’s presidency, he was slow to engage with the Netanyahu government, and then did so rather grudgingly. While Biden has long been conventionally “pro-Israel” and supported the Israeli government during its bombing of Gaza in May, the disagreement over the JCPOA had soured the relationship for the first half of the year.

Bennett came to Washington offering to adopt a new tone in his government’s dealings with the US. “I am bringing with me, from Jerusalem, a new spirit of cooperation,” he said, shortly before departing on his trip. During his meeting with Biden, he reportedly pledged to keep his criticisms of US efforts to rejoin the nonproliferation agreement private, in contrast to Netanyahu’s frequent denunciations. While the meeting with Biden was delayed by a day because of the suicide-bombing attack at Kabul airport, Bennett had good reason to be satisfied with the relative success of his visit. The prime minister declared at the end of the trip that his visit had “achieved and surpassed all the goals we set for ourselves for the meeting.”

On the US side, Dan Shapiro, former ambassador to Israel under Obama, has joined Biden’s Iran team as a senior adviser in the last week. Shapiro’s main responsibility in this role will be to serve as a liaison with Israel. Adding Shapiro to the team appears to be a gesture aimed at reassuring the Israeli government that its views will be taken into account. Both Biden and Bennett seem interested in papering over the cracks in the relationship, and Shapiro’s new role is more evidence of that.

Israeli officials in Bennett’s delegation were also reportedly optimistic that Biden would agree to the prime minister’s request that US forces remain in Iraq and Syria. To date, the Biden administration has expressed no interest in removing the roughly 900 troops in eastern Syria, and in Iraq, Biden has opted to re-label the remaining troops as advisers without withdrawing them. While the troops are ostensibly there to oppose the resurgence of the Islamic State, these missions have assumed a distinctly anti-Iranian cast since at least 2018. It is for that reason that the Israeli government wishes them to continue. As US airstrikes on Iraqi militias in Syria and Iraq remind us, US military presence in both countries is still a potential flashpoint between the US and Iran. Israel has an incentive to stoke those tensions as part of Bennett’s “death by a thousand cuts” strategy against Iran.

According to senior Israeli officials, the Israeli government remains committed to conducting covert sabotage operations against Iran’s nuclear program. The most significant sabotage attack took place in April and targeted Iran’s nuclear facility in Natanz. Underscoring the lack of trust between the old Netanyahu government and the Biden administration, the Mossad reportedly carried out the attack after giving the Biden administration only two hours’ advance warning. The attack at Natanz immediately provoked the Iranian government into increasing its enrichment of uranium to 60 percent, which is the highest level of enrichment in the history of Iran’s nuclear program to date.

As a tool for preventing the expansion of Iran’s nuclear program, Israeli sabotage operations have been a dangerous failure, but they have been somewhat effective in undermining the negotiations aimed at salvaging the nuclear deal. Each Israeli attack has prompted an Iranian response that takes it further away from the limits imposed by the JCPOA, and that in turn becomes fodder for critics of the agreement to argue against US re-entry. This might seem strange if nonproliferation were the real goal, but as an undeclared nuclear weapons state itself, Israel has never had much to fear from Iran’s nuclear program. Keeping Iran boxed in and isolated with sanctions seems to be the priority instead. Talking about Iran’s non-existent “race to a nuclear weapon” makes it easier to sell that policy of isolation.

Biden has not yet abandoned the effort to rejoin the JCPOA, but the negotiations in Vienna are still in limbo in the wake of Iran’s presidential election in June. The US president indicated that he was in favor of pursuing a diplomatic solution, but “if diplomacy fails, we’re ready to turn to other options.” This is slightly different from the usual euphemism for threatening military action (“all options are on the table”), but Bennett was quoted as saying that he was “happy” with Biden’s statement.

It is troubling that Biden felt the need to float the possibility of entertaining “other options” when diplomatic options have not been exhausted. What other realistic options are available besides continued negotiations?

The Biden administration knows that Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign is a failure, and they have said as much publicly. They must also know that military action against Iran would be a calamity for the US and the region; that it would expose US troops to reprisals, and give Iran new incentive to pursue nuclear weapons. If Biden was not prepared to keep a few thousand US troops in harm’s way in Afghanistan, he should not be willing to consider an attack on Iran that would endanger the lives of many tens of thousands more.

Crisis-stricken governments allied with Israel do not have power to rebuild Iraq

Qodsna Editorial Board

Tehran (Qodsna) - Baghdad Conference for Cooperation and Partnership ended with the priority of supporting Iraq. The meeting, which was originally supposed to be a meeting of Iraq's neighbors, took on an economic title due to some events.

 

The summit was attended by Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, and France at the level of heads of state, and Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE at other levels such as foreign minister, prime minister, and regional emir.

 

The absence of Syria in the conference was obvious, as the country has common interests and threats with Iraq. But as Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein implicitly pointed out, Iraq has removed Syria from the guest list under inevitable pressure! The issue was criticized by Dr. Hossein Amir Abdullahian both at the time of his arrival in Iraq and during the main conference.

 

"Holding such an event in Baghdad is only aimed at improving the situation and image of Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi before the election, and to pave ways to provide the ground for continued American political influence in Iraq," Abdul Khaliq Farooq, a former director of the Nile Center for Economic and Strategic Studies, told Quds News Agency "Syria was not invited to such a meeting because the United States did not want it. If the current situation in Iraq was not so complicated and accompanied by crises in various fields Iran would not be invited just like Syria."

 

The economic expert added: "The second point is that you should not expect economic progress from such an event in which Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (President of Egypt) is present and is known among the states as a friend and collaborator of the Zionists. Keep in mind that Egypt itself is currently facing deep social and economic crises and has become the political and economic tool of Israel. In addition, we should look at the other countries that have any connection with the Israeli regime and attended the meeting. Saudi Arabia is now stuck in the swamp of Yemen, and no one is to blame for this situation except Israel. So it is naive to say that you see Iraq progressing and developing economically and politically with the presence of such an ally.

 

 Experts believe that the unbalanced composition of the guests at the summit suggests that Iraqi Prime Minister al-Kadhimi's goal at the summit was not primarily an economic one. Some even believe that the security goal for Iraq was not very clear for this meeting. Rather, it should be said that the first and final goal of this meeting should be sought in Al-Kadhimi's efforts to influence the October elections in Iraq.

 

Jordan and Egypt are two countries that have basically no economic position in the region, but their economies are highly dependent on receiving foreign aid from Western countries and some rich Arab regimes such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar. Therefore, no one expects these two countries to be able to invest in economic projects in Iraq.

 

The Arab regimes of the Persian Gulf, especially the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, are investing in Iraq to reduce Iraq's political, economic, and security relations with Iran.

 

The French government, as seen in the words of Emmanuel Macron, is more defined in terms of filling a possible US vacuum in the area of continuing the occupation of Iraq under the pretext of confronting ISIS.

 

However, some experts believe that Iraq has the potential to play a mediating role in reducing divergence and creating regional convergence. But the current Iraqi government does not seem to have the will to pursue this strategic goal. For this reason, experts believe that Al-Kadhimi's action in holding this uncoordinated meeting with the intention of personal exploitation could damage this strategic position of Iraq.

Malaysia gets a Palestinian street in Gaza as independence day gift

Malaysia has received a special independence day gift from Palestine – a street bearing the country’s name.

In celebration of Malaysia’s 64th Independence Day yesterday, the Gaza Municipality decided to name a road “Malaysia Street” and erected a signboard at the Ansar roundabout to the west of Gaza city containing the country’s brief history. The surprising gesture was also Palestine’s way of honoring Malaysia’s show of solidarity all these years. 
 

“I hope that this will further strengthen relations between the two countries,” Muslim Imran, chairman of the Palestinian Cultural Organisation Malaysia, or PCOM, told Bernama. 
 

“Hopefully, the relationship between the two nations will continue to grow stronger, until someday when Palestine will be free and Malaysians will come to Gaza and Jerusalem to celebrate National Day with us, Insyallah,” he added. 

 

Malaysia has been supporting Palestine throughout the latter conflict with Israel over the past half-century, mainly by contributing humanitarian aid and defending Palestine. 

 

On the Palestinian signboard, it said that Malaysia was “one of the Southeast Asian countries that gained its independence from the British occupation on August 31, 1957, and its capital is Kuala Lumpur.”

 

It also added Malaysia’s calls for an end to the Israeli occupation in Palestine.

Former US ambassador appointed to Biden's Iran team, exposing Israeli influence

Former US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro in Washington, DC on 8 July 2011 [Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images]

A former US ambassador to Israel has joined President Joe Biden's team working on Iran, exposing Israel's very deep influence in Washington. Dan Shapiro served as ambassador under the administration of former President Barack Obama.

According to a State Department spokesperson, Shapiro has now been appointed as a part-time senior advisor and special government employee as part of a new team working in the Biden administration. "[He] is the first of what we plan to be a small group of part-time advisers, who will add to the diversity of perspective and knowledge" on the team of Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley. The spokesperson added that US policy on Iran "will benefit greatly from the participation of a diplomat of his calibre and experience."

Shapiro's appointment is significant not only due to his expertise and experience, but also his connections with Israel. When he stepped down as ambassador, Shapiro settled in the apartheid state and worked at the Institute for National Security Studies as a senior fellow, as well as a principal at consultancy firm WestExec Advisors. He has also maintained close ties with Israeli politicians across the political spectrum.

How all that is relevant to his role in Washington's team on Iran, however, links back to Israel's demand that the US should consult it in the ongoing negotiations over the Iran nuclear deal.

Donald Trump withdrew the US from the 2015 deal, and Biden has made it a key objective to restart talks and possibly re-join the other signatories. Israel has repeatedly urged Biden not to do so, however, and demanded that it be involved in any decision-making in this regard.

In May, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the US was consulting with Israel on the nuclear talks. Earlier this month the head of the Central Intelligence Agency made a visit to Israel to discuss the situation in Iran.

Last week – only days before Shapiro's appointment – Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with Biden in the White House. Despite no clear plan being outlined for that meeting, Iran was amongst the most prominent agenda items; it was reported earlier that Bennett would present the US government with a new strategy for dealing with the government in Tehran.

The importance of Shapiro to Biden's Iran team and its coordination with Israel has been acknowledged by many. Former senior advisor to the US government Dennis Ross was quoted by Haaretz describing it as "a very smart move" which "shows that the administration is very serious about coordinating with the Israelis."

U.S. Afghan Exit: “May history never forget this cowardice”

The United States has completed its hasty military withdrawal from Afghanistan after the last of its planes took off from Kabul airport, marking a historic day in the country’s history.

All U.S. service members have now departed, bringing an end to a 20-year military occupation that claimed the lives of more than 2,400 American  troops and hundreds of thousands of Afghans. The financial loss for the U.S. taxpayers has been at least $2 trillion, although experts say this is a conservative figure and does not include others aspects, such as future costs for injured veterans. 

During a news conference at the Pentagon headquarters, the head of U.S. Central Command, General Kenneth McKenzie, announced the "completion of our withdrawal" He said the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Ross Wilson, was onboard the final flight from Kabul.

McKenzie said, "the last C-17 lifted off on 30 August at 3.29pm (EDT) and the last manned aircraft is clearing the airspace above Afghanistan now". 

He noted that since August 14th, the U.S. and its allies had evacuated 123,000 people, following the Taliban's swift takeover.

“The withdrawal signifies both the end of the military component of the evacuation, but also the end of the nearly 20-year mission that began in Afghanistan shortly after September 11, 2001,” he said. 

“The cost was 2,461 U.S. service members and civilians killed and more than 20,000 who were injured. Sadly, that includes 13 U.S. service members who were killed last week”.

In another sign of the desperate evacuation process, McKenzie admitted U.S. forces destroyed, at the last moment, 73 American aircraft at Kabul airport as well as scores of armored vehicles and a high-tech rocket defense system. 

Taliban spokesman Qari Yusuf confirmed "the last U.S. soldier has left Kabul airport and our country gained complete independence"

It’s the first time in almost 20 years that no foreign soldiers have any presence on Afghanistan’s soil. 

Following the departure announcement of U.S.-led foreign forces; celebratory gunfire erupted across the capital. Fireworks also lit up the sky above Kabul as the Taliban celebrated. 

Media reports describe “the closing hours of the evacuation were marked by extraordinary drama, American troops faced the daunting task of getting final evacuees onto planes while also getting themselves and some of their equipment out”

Following the withdrawal, U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement "now, our 20-year military presence in Afghanistan has ended", that the world would hold the Taliban to their commitment to allow safe passage for those to want to leave Afghanistan. 

Biden added that “it was the unanimous recommendation of the Joint Chiefs and of all of our commanders on the ground to end our airlift mission as planned. Their view was that ending our military mission was the best way to protect the lives of our troops”.

During a briefing, U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, announced Washington has suspended its diplomatic presence in Kabul and transferred its operations to Doha, Qatar. He says "given the uncertain security environment and political situation in Afghanistan, it was the prudent step to take" 

Highlighting the path ahead for Washington; Blinken claims that the U.S. will “maintain robust counterterrorism capabilities in the region”.

He noted the U.S. will engage with the Taliban but not rely on them, saying “going forward any engagement with the Taliban will be driven by one thing only: our national interests”. He added “every step we take will be based not on what a Taliban government says but by its actions”

However, the remarks have not gone down well on Capitol Hill; many in Congress are furious at the White House. Among the damning assessments by U.S. Senators was one by Senator Ben Sasse, who said: 

“This national disgrace is the direct result of President Biden’s cowardice and incompetence. The President made the decision to trust the Taliban. The President made the decision to set an arbitrary August 31st deadline. The President made the decision to abandon Bagram Air Base. The President made the decision not to expand the perimeter around Karzai International Airport. The President made the decision to undermine our NATO allies”.

Senator Sasse goes on to say “The President made the decision to break our word to our Afghan partners. The President made the decision to tell one lie after another as the crisis unfolded. The President made the morally indefensible decision to leave Americans behind. Dishonor was the President’s choice. May history never forget this cowardice”. 

Other congress members have said the embarrassing withdrawal for Washington is a culmination of the measures taken by four consecutive U.S. administrations that presided over the two-decade occupation. 

Elsewhere, it has been revealed that the Pentagon was prepared for a mass casualty event hours before Thursday’s bomb attack at Afghanistan’s Kabul airport.

According to detailed notes of classified calls provided to U.S. news site, Politico, the Pentagon was aware of an imminent attack at Kabul Airport hours before the explosion killed nearly 200 people including 13 American troops.

The news site says top Pentagon officials held a meeting, discussed the options and decided to keep the so-called Abbey Gate section of the International airport open longer so that evacuations could continue. 

A second defense official says the intelligence about the security threat at Kabul airport detailed on the calls was relayed up and down the chain of command.

The Pentagon has strongly condemned the release of the information.

Spokesperson, John Kirby, told the news website “this story is based on the unlawful disclosure of classified information and internal deliberations of a sensitive nature”. 

Kirby added “as soon as we became aware of the material divulged to the reporter, we engaged Politico at the highest levels to prevent the publication of information”

The Pentagon also says “we condemn the unlawful disclosure of classified information and oppose the publication of a story based on it while a dangerous operation is ongoing”.

The White House refused to comment further, but the information could be explosive for the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden. 

Meanwhile, U.S. led Western powers have been forced to accept the reality of the Taliban’s control as they backed a watered down UN resolution that says it “expects” the Taliban to honor a commitment to allow Afghans to leave the country and “requests” that Kabul airport be securely reopened, but falls short of demanding a UN-sponsored safe zone in the Afghan capital.

The UNSC resolution indicates no specific reprisal if Afghanistan is sealed off following the 31 August deadline for the final U.S. withdrawal that ends its battle to crush the Taliban.

The draft from the 15-strong council, co-written by the U.S., UK and France, simply notes a “statement of 27 August, 2021, in which the Taliban committed that Afghans will be able to travel abroad” and “expects that the Taliban will adhere to these and all other commitments”.

The text also “calls on the relevant parties to work with international partners to take steps to strengthen security and to prevent further casualties, and requests that every effort be made to allow for the rapid and secure reopening of Kabul airport and its surrounding area”.

The text in effect leaves the security of the airport to the Taliban. However it remains unclear if and when the Taliban can operate the international airport. 

The attempt to keep the Security Council united means no specific consequence is spelt out if the Taliban does not heed the calls in the resolution. 

The final result will be viewed as a setback for France, which at the weekend led calls for a UN safe zone. Britain widely saw the proposal as ineffective without the presence of the UN or other troops.

At the session, China heavily condemned the nations that occupied Afghanistan saying they should learn a lesson from the 20 years disaster. Beijing’s envoy to the UNSC also says Afghans should be left alone to decide their future 

With a new chapter emerging and uncertainty in the air, Taliban spokesman, Suhail Shaheen, gave an indication of what lies ahead in the immediate future by sharing a statement by the group’s political office in Doha, Qatar in which the Taliban calls on employees of all universities in Afghanistan to resume their work from Tuesday.

The statement says both male and female employees should return to work adding the Ministry of Higher Education calls on rectors, deans, professors and administrative staff to report to their jobs on Tuesday. The statement concludes they should "resume their administrative and academic works including making due preparations for starting classes."

The United States led the invasion of Afghanistan in early 2020, with the aim of toppling the Taliban rule. 20 years later, it has fled with the Taliban returning to governance. During those 20 years, Afghan civilians have suffered significantly with their lives. Massive U.S. tax money has gone to waste, money that could have closed the gap on growing inequality in America or going to much needed services back home. 

The U.S. military industrial complex made a nice profit and can be considered the only winners of this catastrophic military adventure; the longest in America’s history. In terms of the war itself, it has been a humiliating defeat for Washington and its Western allies. 

The abandonment of former President Ashraf Ghani amid the swift Taliban takeover of the country and the capital Kabul, is a message to other nations in West Asia. 

Those who rely on Washington for security will be alarmed as to how a government and its forces collapsed so quickly after two decades of American investment in resources and troops, and how Washington was unable or unwilling to anticipate the collapse.

At the same time, the chairman of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee of Yemen says Saudi Arabia and its U.S. backed ally should take a lesson from Afghanistan and devise a plan to end the nearly seven year war. 

Mohammed Ali al-Houthi says “the Yemeni nation will never accept occupation and guardianship, no matter how long the conflicts and confrontations last”.

He adds “Yemen will be the graveyard of the aggressors”.

TAGS

• Afghanistan
 
• U.S.
 
• Kabul Airport

Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia, and Kazakhstan to hold joint drill in Caspian Sea

TEHRAN - Admiral Sergei Ekimov, Deputy Commander of the Russian Caspian Fleet, said on Tuesday that Iran, Russia, Kazakhstan and the Republic of Azerbaijan will hold a joint naval exercise in the Caspian Sea.

The top Russian military official said warships from the mentioned countries will hold the joint naval exercise in early September after the end of the Sea Cup competition, IRNA reported, quoting RIA Novosti. 

Ekimov added, "During a few days, we will practice joint actions in the Caspian Sea." 

The Russian military official has previously said that the Caspian Sea is a sea of peace and friendship, and that all the Caspian littoral states are committed to this significant issue and "we are trying to pass it on to the next generations."

Admiral Ekimov expressed satisfaction regarding arrangements made by Iran’s Navy's Northern Fleet to host the Sea Cup competitions, saying, "The Sea Cup competitions are held every year better than the previous round, and this year, with the decision of the Russian Ministry of Defense, it was decided to hold this competition with Iran as the host."

The sixth round of the International Sea Cup competitions started with the participation of about 400 military personnel from Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Iran on August 25 in Anzali port.

Joshan and Peykan missile launchers from Iran; Mangistav and Sari Arka ships from Kazakhstan; Makhach Qala and Astrakhan, and 738 SB from the Caspian Sea fleet of Russia; and G-122 and G-124" warships from the Republic of Azerbaijan will take part in the Sea Cup competition, which will be held within the framework of the Armia-2021 International Military Competition. 

The competitions will run until the September 4th.

TAGS

• Iran
 
• Russia
 
• China
 
• Kazakhstan
 
• military power
 
• military drills
 
• Iranian Navy