Page 7 of 42 FirstFirst 12345678910111213141517 ... LastLast
Results 151 to 175 of 1046
  1. #151
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Chiang Mai
    Posts
    48,094
    The Taliban demand release of 7,000 prisoners in return for three-month ceasefire

    Kabul (AFP) An Afghan government negotiator on Thursday said the Taliban had offered a three-month ceasefire in exchange for the release of 7,000 insurgent prisoners, as the militant group continues a sweeping offensive across the country.


    “It is a big demand,” Nader Nadery said, adding that the insurgents have also demanded the removal of the Taliban’s leaders from a United Nations blacklist.


    The announcement came as Pakistan guards used tear gas Thursday to disperse hundreds of people who tried to breach a border crossing into Afghanistan, officials said.


    The frontier was closed a day earlier by Pakistan after the Taliban seized the Afghan side in Spin Boldak district, continuing sweeping gains made by the militants since foreign forces stepped up their withdrawal from Afghanistan.


    “An unruly mob of about 400 people tried to cross the gate forcefully. They threw stones, which forced us to use tear gas,” said a security official at the southwest Chaman border on the Pakistan side, who asked not to be named.


    He said around 1,500 people had gathered at the border, waiting to cross since Wednesday.


    “We had to baton charge because people were getting unruly,” said a second border official, who also did not want to be named.


    Jumadad Khan, a senior government official in Chaman, said the situation was now “under control”.


    An Afghan Taliban source told AFP that hundreds of people had also gathered on the Afghan side, hoping to get into Pakistan.


    “We are talking to Pakistani authorities. A formal meeting to open the border is scheduled for today, and hopefully, it will open in a day or two,” he said.


    The crossing provides direct access to Pakistan’s Balochistan province — where the Taliban’s top leadership has been based for decades — along with an unknown number of reserve fighters who regularly enter Afghanistan to help bolster their ranks.


    A major highway leading from the border connects to Pakistan’s commercial capital Karachi and its sprawling port on the Arabian Sea, which is considered a linchpin for Afghanistan’s billion-dollar heroin trade that has provided a crucial source of revenue for the Taliban’s war chest over the years.


    Spin Boldak was the latest in a string of border crossings and dry ports seized by the insurgents in recent weeks as they look to choke off revenues much-needed by Kabul while also filling their own coffers.


    Afghanistan’s interior ministry has denied the Taliban have taken the area even as social media was flooded with pictures of insurgent fighters relaxing in the frontier town.


    Hours after the crossing fell, an AFP reporter on the Pakistani side saw around 150 Taliban fighters riding on motorcycles, waving insurgent flags and demanding to be allowed to cross into Afghanistan.


    The Taliban demand release of 7,000 prisoners in return for three-month ceasefire - The Frontier Post

  2. #152
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Home
    Posts
    33,534
    So snub…how d’ya think that whole escapade worked out?

  3. #153
    Thailand Expat helge's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    11,651
    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    In a sign that the administration is still in discussion with central Asian countries to potentially host eligible Afghans
    Bit off topic

    In the future only UN quota refugees can come to Denmark

    Others who knock on our door will be flown to Rwanda, Etiopia or such to have their paperwork done.

    Then a decision will be taken, where they are going.


    Most here have grown tired of foreingers coming here as refugees, when they are clearly not.

    When asked to leave, they say: Nope


    Let's see what happens

  4. #154
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    96,555
    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    Actually they are probably more likely to stick to an agreement than the Americans.
    I think 20 years of sticking to an agreement without any permanent result is probably around 19 years too long.

  5. #155
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    96,555
    Quote Originally Posted by Norton View Post
    A summary for Harry. Any foreign nation that puts military in Afghanistan is going to get an ass kicking. Don't go there!
    Harry has been saying that since he first pointed out that the whole expedition was to simply to line the pockets of a select few.

  6. #156
    Thailand Expat helge's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    11,651
    Originally Posted by Norton (U.S. leaves its last Afghan base, effectively ending operations)
    A summary for Harry. Any foreign nation that puts military in Afghanistan is going to get an ass kicking. Don't go there!
    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    Harry has been saying that since he first pointed out that the whole expedition was to simply to line the pockets of a select few.
    My post from another thread :
    It's not a defeat.

    We lasted twice as long as the soviets.

    Hopefully we can still bomb their weddings by remote control


    My god; aren't we just sheep ?
    Harry's answer :

    Do you yearn for the good old days when talitubbies could throw acid in girls faces for going to school?
    NATO forces to leave together from Afghanistan, U.S. says


  7. #157
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    96,555
    Won't be long before they resume hostilities against 9 year old schoolgirls, brave souls that they are.

  8. #158
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Home
    Posts
    33,534
    True and tragic.

    But *dare i even mention it* perhaps education rather than warfare is the way forward.

    But pretty much everyone on this forum hates teachers.

    If they could hurl acid they would.

  9. #159
    Thailand Expat helge's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    11,651

    You'll feel better tomorrow....or the day after

  10. #160
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Chiang Mai
    Posts
    48,094
    China weighs risk and reward in a Taliban-led Afghanistan


    BEIJING: The withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and seemingly unstoppable march of the Taliban opens a strategic door to China that is laden with both risk and opportunity.


    China abhors a power vacuum, especially on its borders, and maintaining stability after decades of war in its western neighbour will be Beijing's paramount consideration.


    But if stability requires a Taliban-dominated government, an equal concern would be the support such an administration might provide to Muslim separatists in China's Xinjiang region.


    Communist Party leaders in Beijing and the fundamentalist Taliban have little ideological common ground, but analysts say shared pragmatism could see mutual self-interest trump sensitive differences.

    "For China, the risk does not come from who holds the power in Afghanistan, but from the risk of persistent instability," Fan Hongda, a Middle East specialist at the Shanghai International Studies University, told AFP.


    Afghanistan shares only a small 76-kilometre (47-mile) border with China, at high altitude and without a road crossing point.


    But the frontier is a big concern because it runs alongside Xinjiang, and Beijing fears its neighbour being used as a staging ground for Uyghur separatists from the sensitive region.


    "China can deal with the Taliban... but they still find the Taliban's religious agenda and motivations inherently discomforting," said Andrew Small, author of The China-Pakistan Axis.


    "They have never been sure how willing or able the Taliban really are to enforce agreements on issues such as harbouring Uyghur militants."


    For Beijing, a stable and cooperative administration in Kabul would pave the way to an expansion of its Belt and Road Initiative into Afghanistan and through the Central Asian republics.


    The Taliban would meanwhile consider China a crucial source of investment and economic support, either directly or via Pakistan -- the insurgents' chief regional patron and a close Beijing ally.


    Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told AFP that the insurgents want to "have good relations with all countries of the world."


    "If any country wants to explore our mines, they are welcome to," he said. "We will provide a good opportunity for investment."


    Beijing has already opened dialogue, having hosted a Taliban delegation in 2019, and this week Foreign Minister Wang Yi hosted talks on regional security in central Asia.


    Back-door links with the Taliban through Pakistan have stretched back longer and "allowed China to avoid any major terrorist attack on its projects in Afghanistan", according to Thierry Kellner, a political science professor at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles.


    These projects include the giant Aynak copper mine near Kabul, for which a Chinese company secured a potentially lucrative concession in 2007 but where work has long been stalled due to conflict.


    Since the Aghan government has failed to provide security in places where Beijing wanted to make big investments, "it now thinks it doesn't hurt if they invest in the Taliban and give them a chance," said political scientist Atta Noori in Kabul.


    Beijing has made political capital out of the American troop withdrawal and warned that Afghanistan could again become "the region's powder keg and a haven for terrorism."


    Wang has also stressed the need to "bring the Taliban back into the normal political game" in conversations with his Afghan and Pakistani counterparts.
    Should the Taliban seize Afghanistan, Beijing sees financial investment as a way to shore up support.


    "China never wants to have boots on the ground but loves to get involved economically, making use of the vast mineral resources in Afghanistan," added Noori.


    This could extend to an accord on Xinjiang, where rights groups say a million Uyghurs and other mostly-Muslim minorities have been placed in re-education camps, alongside allegations of forced labour and sterilisation.


    China has responded defiantly to a chorus of international condemnation over the camps, which it says are training centres necessary for stamping out Islamic extremism.


    As Beijing has steadily poured cash into its close ally Pakistan, Prime Minister Imran Khan has stayed conspicuously silent on Xinjiang, which also borders his country.


    By signing deals with the Taliban, Beijing hopes they will also remain publicly neutral on the Uyghur issue.


    In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, the Taliban's Shaheen said that "if there are some problems with the Muslims (in China), of course we will talk with the Chinese government."


    More pressing problems will keep any influx of Chinese capital on hold for now, said Ayesha Siddiqa, an expert on the Pakistani military and its economic investments.


    "Is Afghanistan ready for investment? The answer is no," she told AFP.


    "China has been timid so far with throwing money into Afghanistan and it will continue to do so until there is a clearer picture on where Afghanistan is going."

    China weighs risk and reward in a Taliban-led Afghanistan - Times of India

  11. #161
    Thailand Expat
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    38,456
    Chinese hegemony may bring a new and welcome stability to the region, as opposed to the idealistic but simplistic and ultimately disastrous American attempts to mould the Pashtun in their own image. Hopefully. I think we just have to accept- not everyone wants to be like us.

  12. #162
    Days Work Done! Norton's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Last Online
    Yesterday @ 07:05 PM
    Location
    Roiet
    Posts
    34,895
    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    Chinese hegemony may bring a new and welcome stability to the region
    No it won't. Throwing money to any nation in the region has a near zero chance of bringing stability to the region. The "region" will remain unstable as long as the Islamic states continue their fanatical quest to impose one particular version of Islam over another.

    Add India and their conflict with Pakistan and China for that matter to the mix and China may well establish some trade in the region but the region will remain unstable.

    No matter how careful China is in directing it's financial help no doubt a particular faction within the region will claim China is supporting the "enemy". This will as we all know result in a nutter jihadist attack on China. Hell I am sure China is already on the Jihad things to do list because of it's real or percieved treatment of the Uyghurs.

    Save your money China and use it to a better potenial ROI investment.
    "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect,"

  13. #163
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Last Online
    Yesterday @ 08:43 PM
    Location
    Where troubles melt like lemon drops
    Posts
    25,222
    Quote Originally Posted by Norton View Post
    This will as we all know result in a nutter jihadist attack on China. Hell I am sure China is already on the Jihad things to do list because of it's real or percieved treatment of the Uyghurs.
    Let us no limit the possible attackers to a single entity.

    Plenty of other groups, religious or otherwise, will try.

    U.S. leaves its last Afghan base, effectively ending operations-709a15b7cf58062c3dc559a0b1b01922_w500_h300_cp-jpg

  14. #164
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    96,555
    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    Let us no limit the possible attackers to a single entity.

    Plenty of other groups, religious or otherwise, will try.

    U.S. leaves its last Afghan base, effectively ending operations-709a15b7cf58062c3dc559a0b1b01922_w500_h300_cp-jpg
    Let us try and waffle away from discussion of the chinkies and their hypocrisy about their dealings with muslims by posting a picture of a climate activist.

    WTF hoohoo that's tenuous even by your very low standards.

    I don't think she will be supplying arms to her climate change comrades for their jihad in Chinastan somehow.

  15. #165
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Chiang Mai
    Posts
    48,094
    Reuters journalist Danish Siddiqui killed in Afghanistan


    Pulitzer Prize-winning Indian journalist killed while covering clash between Afghan forces and Taliban near a border crossing with Pakistan.

    Reuters journalist Danish Siddiqui killed in Afghanistan | Freedom of the Press News | Al Jazeera

  16. #166
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Chiang Mai
    Posts
    48,094
    Iran on edge as The Taliban advance in Afghanistan


    Tehran (AFP) The Taliban’s advances in Afghanistan have put neighbouring Iran on edge, but the Islamic republic appears to be adopting a pragmatic approach and seeking a rapprochement with the resurgent militia.


    With US and allied forces rushing for the exit and the Afghan government wobbling after a string of victories by the hardline Sunni group, Shiite Iran fears an influx of refugees fleeing sectarian violence alongside the danger of an ideological rival taking power next door.


    Reformist newspaper Etemad warned Sunday of “unpleasant consequences if extremist and violent movements like the Taliban come to power, from a flood of refugees to the empowerment of dangerous sects, who share the Taliban’s thinking, on our eastern borders.”


    Less than seven weeks before the last US soldier is set to leave Afghanistan after two decades, the Taliban say they control around 85 percent of the country.


    That has unnerved officials in Iran, which shares a more than 900-kilometre (550-mile) border with Afghanistan.


    While Iran has long called for the forces of its arch-enemy the United States to leave Afghanistan, it also fears the consequences should the Taliban, who ruled from 1996 until the 2001 US-led invasion, return to power or should the country fall once again into chaos.


    Iran is “trying to balance between the Islamic republic’s ideological preference of militant anti-Americanism and the other major necessity of preserving security on the country’s eastern flank,” Clement Therme, a researcher at the European University Institute in Italy, told AFP.


    One key fear is a new influx of refugees from a country where the UN refugee agency has already warned of “imminent humanitarian crisis”.


    The agency says Iran already hosts nearly 3.5 million Afghans, who make up nearly four percent of its population.


    Any further influx would add to the challenges facing a country already mired in economic crisis since Washington re-imposed sanctions in 2018.


    Iran has also been hit by the Middle East’s deadliest coronavirus outbreak and is struggling to contain a fifth wave of infections.


    Iranian officials confirmed last week that the border with Afghanistan was “peaceful and secure” after the Taliban said they had seized a key crossing.


    But ultraconservative Iranian newspaper Kayhan warned of potential spillovers from sectarian violence next door.


    “The Taliban insists that it has nothing against Shiites and that it respects the borders of Iran, but the Taliban’s approach built on force, means Shiites and the borders of our country face an uncertain future,” it said.


    The Taliban’s comeback has also sparked fears that jihadists linked to the Islamic State group could also gain a more solid foothold in Afghanistan.


    Iran’s Shiite clerical leaders had tense relations with the Taliban between 1996 when they took power and 2001 when they were toppled in an American-led invasion over their links to Al-Qaeda and the 9/11 attacks.


    Tehran never recognised the Taliban’s rule, accusing the hardline Sunni group of persecuting Afghanistan’s sizeable Shiite minority.


    Tehran even went as far as cooperating with its nemesis Washington against the Taliban.


    But then-deputy foreign minister and now top diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif, who had pushed for that partnership, this month hosted an “inter-Afghan meeting” which included a Taliban delegation.


    Iranian officials have repeatedly stressed that while the Taliban are not a solution to Afghanistan’s problems, they are “a reality” and must be “part of a future solution” agreed by Afghans themselves.


    In a recent interview with Etemad, academic Saeed Laylaz called for “balanced relations” with the group, saying it could be “a very powerful tool for Iran’s diplomatic goals in the region and the world.”


    Support for that position is far from unanimous, and recent days have seen intense debate in the Iranian press and among the clergy.


    On Thursday, senior cleric Grand Ayatollah Safi Golpayegani issued a statement warning the government that “it would be a grave, irreparable error to trust” the Taliban.


    But Therme said Iranian officials are taking a pragmatic approach based on the premise that the Taliban “appears less dangerous than IS”, which Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Syria have been fighting for years.


    The Taliban are “an Islamist-nationalist movement, rather than a transnational jihadist group,” Therme said.


    Iran on edge as The Taliban advance in Afghanistan - The Frontier Post

  17. #167
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Chiang Mai
    Posts
    48,094
    Afghanistan says envoy’s daughter kidnapped, tortured in Pakistan

    Reports said the Afghan envoy’s daughter was kidnapped from Blue Area, a commercial district in the heart of Islamabad.

    Afghanistan on Saturday demanded full security for its diplomats in Pakistan following the abduction and torture of the daughter of the Afghan ambassador by unidentified persons in Islamabad.


    The development came against the backdrop of strained ties between the two countries and Afghanistan’s accusation that the Pakistan government isn’t doing enough to nudge the Taliban to join peace talks to find a political settlement.


    The Afghan foreign ministry said in a statement that Silsila Alikhil, the daughter of Afghan envoy Najibullah Alikhel, was held for several hours by the unidentified persons who kidnapped her on Friday.


    “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan states with deep regret that on July 16, 2021, the daughter of the Afghan ambassador to Islamabad Ms Silsila Alikhil, was abducted for several hours and severely tortured by unknown individuals on her way home,” the statement said.


    “After being released from the kidnappers’ captivity, Ms Alikhil is under medical care at the hospital,” it said.

    Reports said the Afghan envoy’s daughter was kidnapped from Blue Area, a commercial district in the heart of Islamabad, at around 1.45 pm Pakistan time. She was freed by her abductors at about 7 pm with her hands and feet tied. Her wrists and ankles were swollen and there were other marks of injuries, the reports said.


    The Afghan foreign ministry said it “strongly condemns this heinous act and expresses its deep concern over the safety and security of diplomats, their families, and staff members of the Afghan political and consular missions in Pakistan”.


    Afghanistan called on the Pakistan government to “take immediate necessary actions to ensure full security of the Afghan Embassy and Consulates as well as the immunity of the country’s diplomats and their families in accordance with international treaties and conventions”.


    Afghanistan says envoy’s daughter kidnapped, tortured in Pakistan | World News - Hindustan Times

  18. #168
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Last Online
    Yesterday @ 08:43 PM
    Location
    Where troubles melt like lemon drops
    Posts
    25,222
    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    by unidentified persons in Islamabad.
    Is it common practice that foreign diplomats' family members, whilst shopping for .... at a "commercial district", are guarded by

    1. The host countries security agents?

    or

    2. Embassy security agents?

    I suspect it's number 2.

    Whether they are "watched over" is another scenario.

    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    take immediate necessary actions to ensure full security of the Afghan Embassy and Consulates
    The person kidnapped wasn't in either an embassy building or consulate building, at the time!

    This is from the UK:

    Diplomatic Immunity and Diplomatic Premises


    "If a person with diplomatic immunity is the victim or witness to a crime, the officer in the case should request a waiver of immunity."

    Diplomatic Immunity and Diplomatic Premises | The Crown Prosecution Service

    I presume diplomats and their family members have ID which, if shown to the local police, are treated with kid gloves.


    Another:




    Marine Corps Embassy Security Group

    "Security Guards are primarily responsible for protecting mission personnel and preventing the compromise of national security information and equipment at designated diplomatic and consular facilities".

    What is MSG Duty?

    They both point to embassy/consulate responsibility.No guidance when shopping for .... at a "commercial district".
    A tray full of GOLD is not worth a moment in time.

  19. #169
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    96,555
    Translation: Hoohoo doesn't know who did it.

  20. #170
    Thailand Expat helge's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    11,651
    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    Translation: Hoohoo doesn't know who did it.
    Tell us, Harry

    Your money is on "the chinkies".

    Right ?


  21. #171
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Chiang Mai
    Posts
    48,094
    Better it’s “no named here please.”

  22. #172
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    96,555
    Quote Originally Posted by helge View Post
    Tell us, Harry

    Your money is on "the chinkies".

    Right ?

    You appear to know even less... which is remarkable.

  23. #173
    Thailand Expat helge's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    11,651

  24. #174
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Chiang Mai
    Posts
    48,094
    Russia Offered U.S. Use of Central Asia Bases for Afghan Intel - Paper


    MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin in June offered U.S. counterpart Joe Biden the use of Russian military bases in Central Asia for information gathering from Afghanistan, the Kommersant newspaper reported on Saturday, as American troops leave the country.


    Taliban fighters have made major advances as U.S. forces pull out after 20 years of war, a security headache for Moscow which fears refugees may be pushed into its Central Asian backyard and its southern defensive flank destabilised.

    In a rare offer during a period of frosty relations between Washington and Moscow, Putin proposed at June 16 talks with Biden in Geneva that they coordinate on Afghanistan and put Russia's bases in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to "practical use", Kommersant reported, citing sources.


    The newspaper said this could involve the exchange of information obtained using drones but that there had been no concrete response from the U.S. side. The Kremlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.


    Earlier this month, Reuters reported that the Biden administration was in talks with Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan about temporarily taking in thousands of Afghans who worked with U.S. forces and now face threats from the Taliban, citing three sources familiar with the matter.

    Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday said the U.S. and NATO alliance withdrawal from Afghanistan made the political and military situation more uncertain, which in turn exacerbated the terrorist threat in the region.


    Speaking at a conference with senior Central Asian officials in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, Lavrov said Russia wanted to help kickstart peace talks between the warring sides in Afghanistan.

    Russia Offered U.S. Use of Central Asia Bases for Afghan Intel - Paper | World News | US News

  25. #175
    In Uranus
    bsnub's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    30,429
    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    Taliban fighters have made major advances as U.S. forces pull out after 20 years of war, a security headache for Moscow which fears refugees may be pushed into its Central Asian backyard and its southern defensive flank destabilised.
    That is a good thing for the US from a security standpoint. The reality is that America was buttressing the south end of the USSR and that is shit. Let them deal with it.

Page 7 of 42 FirstFirst 12345678910111213141517 ... LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •