Pakistan says no meeting planned between Imran Khan and Trump

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi receives Zalmay Khalilzad, US special representative for Afghanistan, in Islamabad on Friday. (AP)
Updated 05 April 2019
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Pakistan says no meeting planned between Imran Khan and Trump

  • US envoy for Afghanistan meets key officials in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Foreign Office said on Friday that a meeting between Prime Minister Imran Khan and US President Donald Trump was unlikely amid efforts by the US to negotiate an end to the 17-year war in Afghanistan.

“No meeting is being envisaged,” Foreign Office spokesman Dr. Mohammed Faisal told Arab News, adding that no “modalities” for a future meeting had as yet been set.

At a weekly press briefing, Faisal said US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad was in Islamabad, where he met with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and held separate delegation-level talks with Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua. 

He was also expected to meet Pakistan’s top military brass.

Khalilzad arrived in Pakistan on Friday after a four-day visit to Kabul. 

In early March, he had attended the fifth round of talks between the Taliban and the US in Doha, which ended with both sides declaring that progress had been made.

Khalilzad is in the region to set up a new round of talks to broker a peace agreement between the Taliban and the Afghan government to ensure the withdrawal of US forces from the region.

The foreign office said Khalilzad briefed Pakistani officials on the outcome of the talks and shared updates on his meetings in Afghanistan and Doha.

Qureshi reportedly assured the special envoy that Pakistan would continue its “sincere” efforts to push forward the peace process.

The Taliban have so far refused to hold direct talks with the Kabul government, which it considers to be a foreign-appointed puppet regime.

 

 

A senior Pakistani foreign office official privy to the meetings between Khalilzad and the foreign minister told Arab News on condition of anonymity that there were strong signs that talks between the Afghan Taliban and the United States would result in an agreement with the Afghan government.

Khalilzad had urged Pakistan to negotiate a settlement, the official said.   

“They want us to negotiate a victory for them in Afghanistan; how can we do that?” the official asked. “They want us to broker a deal with the Taliban and we can’t do that.”

He added: “We have repeatedly told the US that our role is limited.”

The US Embassy in Islamabad declined to comment on discussions between the US and Pakistani officials.    

On Thursday, Khalilzad said relations between Islamabad and Washington would not improve until Pakistan revised its policies toward Afghanistan.

“We … are seeking an agreement between Afghanistan and Pakistan that can result in peace and (can stop) the interferences Pakistan has made in Afghanistan,” Khalilzad said.

His comments were a veiled reference to remarks by Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan last month that suggested Kabul should set up an interim government. Afghanistan recalled its ambassador from Pakistan over the comments.

Earlier, the US Department of State said Khalilzad’s trip was “part of an overall effort to facilitate a peace process that brings all Afghan parties together in inclusive intra-Afghan negotiations.”

The special envoy is expected to make a stopover in Qatar, where the Taliban have long had a political office, during his tour, which concludes on April 10.


Israel’s presence still roils Eurovision a year after major protests over the war in Gaza

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Israel’s presence still roils Eurovision a year after major protests over the war in Gaza

  • About 200 pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched Wednesday in the Swiss host city of Basel
  • Oddsmakers suggest Raphael is likely to secure a place in Saturday’s final with her song “New Day Will Rise”
BASEL: Most contestants at the Eurovision Song Contest are seeking as much publicity as possible.
Israel’s Yuval Raphael is keeping a low profile.
The 24-year-old singer has done few media interviews or appearances during Eurovision week, as Israel’s participation in the pan-continental pop music competition draws protests for a second year.
Raphael is due to perform Thursday in the second semifinal at the contest in the Swiss city of Basel. Oddsmakers suggest Raphael is likely to secure a place in Saturday’s final with her anthemic song “New Day Will Rise.”
Israel has competed in Eurovision for more than 50 years and won four times. But last year’s event in Sweden drew large demonstrations calling for Israel to be kicked out of the contest over its conduct in the war against Hamas in Gaza.
More than 52,800 people in Gaza have been killed in Israel’s military offensive, according to the territory’s health ministry.
About 200 people, many draped in Palestinian flags, protested in central Basel on Wednesday evening, demanding an end to Israel’s military offensive and the country’s expulsion from Eurovision. They marched in silence down a street noisy with music and Eurovision revelry.
Many noted that Russia was banned from Eurovision after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
“It should be a happy occasion that Eurovision is finally in Switzerland, but it’s not,” said Lea Kobler, from Zurich. “How can we rightfully exclude Russia but we’re still welcoming Israel?”
Last year, Israeli competitor Eden Golan received boos when she performed live at Eurovision. Raphael told the BBC that she expects the same and has rehearsed with background noise so she won’t be distracted.
“But we are here to sing and I’m going to sing my heart out for everyone,” she said.
Anti-Israel protests in Basel have been much smaller than last year in Malmo. Another protest is planned for Saturday in downtown Basel, 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from the contest venue, St. Jakobshalle arena.
But concern by some Eurovision participants and broadcasters continues.
More than 70 former Eurovision contestants signed a letter calling for Israel to be excluded. Several of the national broadcasters that fund Eurovision, including those of Spain, Ireland and Iceland, have called for a discussion about Israel’s participation.
Swiss singer Nemo, who brought the competition to Switzerland by winning last year, told HuffPost UK that “Israel’s actions are fundamentally at odds with the values that Eurovision claims to uphold — peace, unity, and respect for human rights.”
At Wednesday’s protest, Basel resident Domenica Ott held a handmade sign saying “Nemo was right.”
She said the nonbinary singer was “very courageous.”
“If Russia couldn’t participate, why should Israel?” she said.
The European Broadcasting Union, which runs Eurovision, pointed out that Israel is represented by its public broadcaster, KAN, not the government. It has called on participants to respect Eurovision’s values of “universality, diversity, equality and inclusivity” and its political neutrality.

South African president to meet Trump on Wednesday over rising tensions

Updated 12 sec ago
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South African president to meet Trump on Wednesday over rising tensions

  • The visit “provides a platform to reset the strategic relationship between the two countries,” it said

JOHANNESBURG: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will meet with his US counterpart Donald Trump in Washington next week amid strained ties between the two countries, Pretoria said Thursday.
Tensions have been rising for months over a range of policy issues, culminating this week with the US resettling a first group of white Afrikaners that Trump claims are facing “persecution” in South Africa.
“On Wednesday, 21 May 2025, President Ramaphosa will meet with President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington DC to discuss bilateral, regional and global issues of interest,” the presidency said in a statement released late Wednesday.
The visit “provides a platform to reset the strategic relationship between the two countries,” it said.
Trump has repeatedly shared unfounded claims that white Afrikaners are facing a “genocide,” a conspiracy theory that has been widely dismissed.
White South Africans, who make up 7.3 percent of the population, generally enjoy a higher standard of living than the black majority of the country.
Pretoria has said Trump’s offer of refugee status to Afrikaners is “entirely politically motivated and designed to question South Africa’s constitutional democracy.”


NATO chief ‘cautiously optimistic’ for Ukraine peace breakthrough

Updated 15 May 2025
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NATO chief ‘cautiously optimistic’ for Ukraine peace breakthrough

  • NATO chief Mark Rutte said Thursday that he was “cautiously optimistic” for progress toward peace in Ukraine, but that it was up to Russia to take the “necessary next steps”

NATO chief Mark Rutte said Thursday that he was “cautiously optimistic” for progress toward peace in Ukraine, but that it was up to Russia to take the “necessary next steps.”
“I’m still cautiously optimistic that if also the Russians are willing to play ball, and not only the Ukrainians are doing this... that you could get to some breakthroughs over the next couple of weeks,” Rutte said at a NATO meeting in Turkiye.


New militarized border zone spurs national security charges against hundreds of immigrants

Updated 15 May 2025
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New militarized border zone spurs national security charges against hundreds of immigrants

SANTA FE, N.M.: Several hundred immigrants have been charged with unauthorized access to a newly designated militarized zone along the southern US border in New Mexico and western Texas since the Department of Justice introduced the new approach in late April.
President Donald Trump’s administration has transferred oversight of a strip of land along the US-Mexico border to the military while authorizing US troops to temporarily detain immigrants in the country illegally — though there’s no record of troops exercising that authority as US Customs and Border Protection conducts arrests. The designated national defense areas are overseen by US Army commands out of Fort Bliss in the El Paso area in Texas and Fort Huachuca in Arizona.
The novel national security charges against immigrants who enter through those militarized zones carry a potential sentence of 18 months in prison on top of a possible six month sentence for illegal entry. The full implications are unclear for migrants who pursue legal status through separate proceedings in federal immigration court.
The Trump administration is seeking to accelerate mass removals of immigrants in the country illegally and third-country deportations, including Venezuelans sent to an El Salvador prison amid accusations of gang affiliation. The administration has deployed thousands of troops to the border, while arrests have plunged to the lowest levels since the mid-1960s.
The federal public defender’s office in Las Cruces indicates that roughly 400 cases had been filed in criminal court there as of Tuesday as it seeks dismissal of the misdemeanor and petty misdemeanor charges for violating security regulations and entering restricted military property. Court records show that federal prosecutors in Texas — where a National Defense Area extends about 60 miles  from El Paso to Fort Hancock — last week began filing the military security charges as well.
Las Cruces-based federal Magistrate Judge Gregory Wormuth is asking for input from federal prosecutors and public defense attorneys on the standard of proof for the trespassing charges “given the unprecedented nature of prosecuting such offenses in this factual context.”
Public defenders say there needs to be proof that immigrants knew of the military restrictions and acted “in defiance of that regulation for some nefarious or bad purpose.”
New Mexico-based US Attorney Ryan Ellison, appointed in April, says hundreds of “restricted area” signs have been posted in Spanish and English to warn that entry is prohibited by the Department of Defense, along New Mexico’s nearly 180-mile  stretch of border.
In a court filings, Ellison has said there’s no danger of ensnaring innocent people when it comes to immigrants who avoid ports of entry to cross the border in willful violation of federal law — and now military regulations.
ACLU attorney Rebecca Sheff said basic freedoms are at risk as the government flexes its power at the border and restricts civilian access.
“The extension of military bases ... it’s a serious restriction, it’s a serious impact on families that live in the border area,” she said.
The Department of Justice has warned Wormuth against issuing an advisory opinion on legal standards for trespassing in the military area.
“The New Mexico National Defense Area is a crucial installation necessary to strengthen the authority of servicemembers to help secure our borders and safeguard the country,” Ellison said in a court briefing.
Democratic US Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico expressed concern Wednesday in a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that anyone may be stopped and detained by US Army soldiers for entering a 170-square-mile  area along the border previously overseen by the Department of Interior and frequently used for recreation and livestock ranching.
Hegseth has emphasizing a hard-line approach to enforcement.
“Let me be clear: if you cross into the National Defense Area, you will be charged to the FULLEST extent of the law,” he said in a post on the social platform X.


Families of victims in South Korea plane crash file complaint against 15 officials

Updated 15 May 2025
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Families of victims in South Korea plane crash file complaint against 15 officials

  • Police suggested a complex incident like the Jeju Air crash would require a lengthy investigation but declined to say when they expect to wrap up their probe

SEOUL, South Korea: Families of victims of December’s devastating plane crash in South Korea have filed a complaint against 15 people including the transport minister and the airline chief who they believe are responsible for the disaster that killed all but two of the 181 people on board.
Police and government officials have already been investigating the Jeju Air crash, so the complaint is largely seen as a symbolic step calling for a swifter and more thorough probe. Many bereaved families complain of what they see as a lack of meaningful progress in efforts to determine what caused the disaster and who is responsible.
On Tuesday, 72 bereaved relatives submitted the complaint to the Jeonnam Provincial Police agency in southern South Korea, according to their lawyers and police.
The 15 people cited in the complaint include the transport minister, Jeju Air’s president and airline officials handling maintenance and safety issues, along with officials at Muan International Airport who are responsible for preventing bird strikes, air traffic control and facility management, according to a statement from a lawyers’ group supporting the relatives.
The statement said the crash was “not a simple accident but a grave public disaster caused by negligent management of risks that must be prevented.”
“Four months after the disaster, we can’t help feeling deep anger and despair over the fact that there has been little progress” in the investigation, Kim Da-hye, a bereaved family member, said in the statement.
Lawyer Lee So-Ah said Wednesday the complaint would formally require police to brief bereaved families of their investigation, though police have so far only voluntarily done so.
The Boeing 737-800 operated by Jeju Air skidded off the runaway at the Muan airport on Dec. 29 after its landing gear failed to deploy, slamming into a concrete structure and bursting into flames.
Authorities have since said they found traces of bird strike in the plane’s engines and that the plane’s two black boxes stopped recording about 4 minutes before the crash. Many analysts said the concrete structure, which housed a set of antennas called a localizer that guides aircraft during landings, should have been built with lighter materials that could break more easily upon impact.
But no exact cause of the crash has been announced and no one has been legally persecuted yet over the crash, the country’s deadliest aviation disaster since 1997.
Jeonnam Provincial Police agency officials said they’ve been investigating the accident. They suggested a complex incident like the Jeju Air crash would require a lengthy investigation but declined to say when they expect to wrap up their probe.