Afghan Taliban ‘not excluding Pakistan from peace talks’

Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor said Pakistan has fulfilled its task of coaxing the Taliban to the table for dialogue. (Supplied photo)
Updated 27 January 2019
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Afghan Taliban ‘not excluding Pakistan from peace talks’

  • Pakistan ‘has done its job of bringing insurgents to the negotiating table’, says Pakistan general
  • This week the Taliban resumed stalled peace talks with US special peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in Doha, Qatar

RAWALPINDI, Paklistan: The head of the Pakistan army’s media wing has said that the Afghan Taliban are not excluding Pakistan from US-led talks in Doha seeking a negotiated end to the Afghan war. 

Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor, in an interview with Arab News, said that Pakistan was a facilitator and had fulfilled its task of coaxing the Taliban to the table for dialogue. 

This week the Taliban resumed stalled peace talks with US special peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in Doha, where they have long maintained an office. The dialogue, originally meant to run over two days, entered its sixth day on Saturday, raising hopes that the latest efforts to find a mechanism to end the 17-year Afghan war might be the most serious yet. 

Hopes of a settlement also increased due to a recent reshuffle in the Taliban team, with senior leaders including Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar put into key positions.

The US has long pressured Pakistan to use its influence over the Taliban to bring them to the negotiating table. 

“The Taliban are not excluding Pakistan from the peace process,” Ghafoor said during the interview on Friday evening. “We are a facilitator. We have done our job of bringing them to the negotiating table. What is discussed and how the process moves forward will depend on progress during every meeting.”

Asked if the Taliban had refused to meet Khalilzad in Islamabad, Ghafoor said: “There are so many factions and stakeholders involved in the process. Coordination takes time. One faction or party gets out of coordination, (which) can result in changes in schedule or place.”

He said that Pakistan had pushed for the dialogue to restart but had “no preference for time or place.”

Taliban sources have told the media that the Doha talks have focused on a road map for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan and a guarantee that the country will not be used for hostile acts against the US and its allies.

The Taliban have so far refused direct talks with the Kabul government, which it views as an illegitimate, foreign-appointed force. Ghafoor said that there was as yet no certainty about whether the insurgents could be persuaded to engage with the Afghan government but added that progress from the meetings would determine all outcomes. 

He also discussed fears about how Afghan government forces would withstand the Taliban threat without US military support if US President Donald Trump acted on his desire to bring home half of the 14,000 US troops deployed in Afghanistan.

“Afghanistan should not go into turmoil” when US forces leave, the army’s media chief said: “The US should leave Afghanistan as friends of the region, with a commitment to assist Afghanistan in becoming self-sustaining and help in socio-economic development.”

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan: Islamabad also fears that increased turmoil in Afghanistan would mean more sanctuaries there for Pakistani Taliban (TTP) militants who have lost control of all territory in Pakistan since a major counter-terrorism operation was launched after a 2014 attack on an army school.

Pakistan has also fenced off part of its porous 2,500 km border with Afghanistan to prevent incursions by the Pakistan Taliban who have waged a decade-long insurgency in the South Asian nation.

Ghafoor said that the Afghan government did not currently have the capacity to eliminate all sanctuaries given that it was embroiled in fighting an insurgency, but once the Taliban entered the political mainstream, Kabul would be in a better position to tackle groups such as the Pakistan Taliban and the Middle Eastern Daesh. 

“If there is peace in Afghanistan and greater control of the area by Afghan forces, it will be difficult for TTP to continue their sanctuaries there,” the military spokesman said. 

The general dismissed fears that the US would lose interest in Pakistan once it exited Afghanistan, or be free to take harsh actions when it no longer needed Islamabad’s help to end the conflict.

“Pakistan has always remained relevant and will continue to be relevant,” Ghafoor said. “And when the US leaves Afghanistan, it will leave acknowledging Pakistan’s role in ending the conflict. Our relationship shall further strengthen.”

But as Pakistan’s ties with the US have soured in recent years over the war in Afghanistan, Islamabad has turned to neighboring China. The countries are partners in the $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) of infrastructure and energy projects that Beijing touts as the flagship program in its vast Belt and Road Initiative.

Responding to media reports that Pakistan was building military jets, weapons and other hardware with funds received under the CPEC umbrella, Ghafoor said that the corridor was “purely an economic project.”

“We have separate defense cooperation with China but that has nothing to do with CPEC,” he said. “We had F-16 deals with the US. That was our requirement. Later, we have jointly made the JF-17 Thunder with China. Like any sovereign country, Pakistan takes decisions suiting its national interest.”

Speaking about a growing protest movement by Pakistan’s ethnic Pashtuns who want the army to remove land mines and check-posts from the country’s northwest where most Pashtuns live, and who allege extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions and “disappearances” of young Pashtun men — which the army denies — Ghafoor said: “Till such time that the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) is peaceful and they stick to their genuine demands, which are natural in a post-conflict environment, the state is committed to taking care of them.”

Asked about PTM leaders Ali Wazir and Mohsin Dawar who, along with the movement’s founder Manzoor Pashteen, have emerged as the strongest voices against alleged military high-handedness, Ghafoor said that the demands of the Pahstun people were genuine and the state was committed to addressing them.

“But instigating people against institutions is neither within the law nor a public sentiment,” he said. “Once we have fulfilled the genuine demands which are already in the overall plan, then we will see how to deal with anyone who still tries to exploit.”

Ghafoor said that the movement was being exploited by Pakistan’s enemies, in a veiled reference possibly to arch-rival India and neighboring Afghanistan: “When there are fault lines, then enemies will always try to exploit them. So there is an effort to exploit PTM, whether with their connivance or not.”

The general warned that India needed to “stop using proxies against us,” adding that “just as we are concerned that an unstable Afghanistan is not in our interest, India should also know that an unstable Pakistan is not in its interest. They need to change their behavior.”

Responding to a question about an extension in military courts set up by Parliament in 2015, and criticized for their lack of transparency, Ghafoor said that the courts were a “national requirement” because the country’s civilian judicial infrastructure was ill-equipped to deal with terrorism cases.

Ghafoor said that verdicts could be appealed at several levels, including in military appellate and civilian courts, and those on death row had the right to file mercy petitions with the army chief and the president of Pakistan. 

“Military courts proceed as per law; there is a laid-down legal process with full transparency. Courts decide on evidence and not emotions,” the army’s media chief said. However, he added, “should the Parliament decide that military courts are not needed, then they will not be renewed.”


Canadian university teachers warned against traveling to the United States

Updated 26 min 56 sec ago
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Canadian university teachers warned against traveling to the United States

  • The Canadian government recently updated its US travel advisory, warning residents they may face scrutiny from border guards and the possibility of detention if denied entry

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia: The association that represents academic staff at Canadian universities is warning its members against non-essential travel to the United States.
The Canadian Association of University Teachers released updated travel advice Tuesday due to the “political landscape” created by President Donald Trump’s administration and reports of some Canadians encountering difficulties crossing the border.
The association says academics who are from countries that have tense diplomatic relations with the United States, or who have themselves expressed negative views about the Trump administration, should be particularly cautious about US travel.
Its warning is particularly targeted to academics who identify as transgender or “whose research could be seen as being at odds with the position of the current US administration.”
In addition, the association says academics should carefully consider what information they have, or need to have, on their electronic devices when crossing the border, and take actions to protect sensitive information.
Reports of foreigners being sent to detention or processing centers for more than seven days, including Canadian Jasmine Mooney, a pair of German tourists, and a backpacker from Wales, have been making headlines since Trump took office in January.
The Canadian government recently updated its US travel advisory, warning residents they may face scrutiny from border guards and the possibility of detention if denied entry.
Crossings from Canada into the United States dropped by about 32 percent, or by 864,000 travelers, in March compared to the same month a year ago, according to data from US Customs and Border Protection. Many Canadians are furious about Trump’s annexation threats and trade war but also worried about entering the US
David Robinson, executive director of the university teachers association, said that the warning is the first time his group has advised against non-essential US travel in the 11 years he’s worked with them.
“It’s clear there’s been heightened scrutiny of people entering the United States, and … a heightened kind of political screening of people entering the country,” said Robinson, whose association represents 70,000 teachers, librarians, researchers, general staff and other academic professionals at 122 universities and colleges.
Robinson said the group made the decision after taking legal advice in recent weeks. He said lawyers told them that US border searches can compromise confidential information obtained by academics during their research.
He said the association will keep the warning in place until it sees “the end of political screening, and there is more respect for confidential information on electronic devices.”

 


Afghan children will die because of US funding cuts, aid official says

Updated 16 April 2025
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Afghan children will die because of US funding cuts, aid official says

  • More than 3.5 million children in Afghanistan will suffer from acute malnutrition this year, an increase of 20 percent from 2024

Afghan children will die because of US funding cuts, an aid agency official said Tuesday.
The warning follows the cancelation of foreign aid contracts by President Donald Trump’s administration, including to Afghanistan where more than half of the population needs humanitarian assistance to survive.
Action Against Hunger initially stopped all US-funded activities in March after the money dried up suddenly. But it kept the most critical services going in northeastern Badakhshan province and the capital Kabul through its own budget, a measure that stopped this month.
Its therapeutic feeding unit in Kabul is empty and closing this week. There are no patients, and staff contracts are ending because of the US funding cuts.
“If we don’t treat children with acute malnutrition there is a very high risk of (them) dying,” Action Against Hunger’s country director, Cobi Rietveld, told The Associated Press. “No child should die because of malnutrition. If we don’t fight hunger, people will die of hunger. If they don’t get medical care, there is a high risk of dying. They don’t get medical care, they die.”
More than 3.5 million children in Afghanistan will suffer from acute malnutrition this year, an increase of 20 percent from 2024. Decades of conflict — including the 20-year US war with the Taliban — as well as entrenched poverty and climate shocks have contributed to the country’s humanitarian crisis.
Last year, the United States provided 43 percent of all international humanitarian funding to Afghanistan.
Rietveld said there were other nongovernmental organizations dealing with funding cuts to Afghanistan. “So when we cut the funding, there will be more children who are going to die of malnutrition.”
The children who came to the feeding unit often could not walk or even crawl. Sometimes they were unable to eat because they didn’t have the energy. All the services were provided free of charge, including three meals a day.
Rietveld said children would need to be referred to other places, where there was less capacity and technical knowledge.
Dr. Abdul Hamid Salehi said Afghan mothers were facing a crisis. Poverty levels among families meant it was impossible to treat severely malnourished children in private clinics.
“People used to come to us in large numbers, and they are still hoping and waiting for this funding to be found again or for someone to sponsor us so that we can resume our work and start serving patients once more.”


Magnitude 5.6 earthquake strikes Hindu Kush region, Afghanistan, EMSC says

Updated 16 April 2025
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Magnitude 5.6 earthquake strikes Hindu Kush region, Afghanistan, EMSC says

  • EMSC first reported the quake at a magnitude of 6.4

KABUL: An earthquake of magnitude 5.6 struck the Hindu Kush region in Afghanistan on Wednesday, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC) said.
The quake was at a depth of 121 km (75 miles), EMSC said, and the epicenter 164 km east of Baghlan, a city with a population of about 108,000.
EMSC first reported the quake at a magnitude of 6.4.

 


US plans to use tariff negotiations to isolate China, WSJ reports

Updated 16 April 2025
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US plans to use tariff negotiations to isolate China, WSJ reports

  • US officials plan to use negotiations with more than 70 nations to ask them to disallow China to ship goods through their countries and prevent Chinese firms from being located in their territories to avoid US tariffs

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump administration plans to use ongoing tariff negotiations to pressure US trading partners to limit their dealings with China, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday citing people with knowledge of the conversations.
US officials plan to use negotiations with more than 70 nations to ask them to disallow China to ship goods through their countries and prevent Chinese firms from being located in their territories to avoid US tariffs, the report added.

 


UNICEF projects 20 percent drop in 2026 funding after US cuts

Updated 16 April 2025
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UNICEF projects 20 percent drop in 2026 funding after US cuts

  • UNICEF has implemented some efficiency measures but “more cost-cutting steps will be required,” said the spokesperson

UNITED NATIONS: UNICEF has projected that its 2026 budget will shrink by at least 20 percent compared to 2024, a spokesperson for the UN children’s agency said on Tuesday, after US President Donald Trump slashed global humanitarian aid.
In 2024, UNICEF had a budget of $8.9 billion and this year it has an estimated budget of $8.5 billion. The funding for 2025 is “evolving,” the UNICEF spokesperson said.
“The last few weeks have made clear that humanitarian and development organizations around the world, including many UN organizations, are in the midst of a global funding crisis. UNICEF has not been spared,” said the spokesperson.
UNICEF did not specifically name the US, but Washington has long been the agency’s largest donor, contributing more than $800 million in 2024. Since UNICEF was established in 1946, all its executive directors have been American.
“At the moment, we are working off preliminary projections that our financial resources will be, at a minimum, 20 percent less, organization wide, in 2026 compared to 2024,” said the UNICEF spokesperson.
Since returning to office in January for a second term, Trump’s administration has cut billions of dollars in foreign assistance in a review that aimed to ensure programs align with his “America First” foreign policy.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said last week that it will cut 20 percent of its staff as it faces a shortfall of $58 million, after its largest donor, the United States, cut funding.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also last month said he is seeking ways to improve efficiency and cut costs as the world body turns 80 this year amid a cash crisis.
UNICEF has implemented some efficiency measures but “more cost-cutting steps will be required,” said the spokesperson.
“We are looking at every aspect of our operation, including staffing, with the goal of focusing on what truly matters for children: that children survive and thrive,” the spokesperson said. “But no final decisions have been taken.”