Frankly Speaking: Afghan scenes of defiance similar to Iran imminent, says former Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib

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Updated 10 October 2022
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Frankly Speaking: Afghan scenes of defiance similar to Iran imminent, says former Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib

  • As public anger grows in Afghanistan, similar protests could spill over from Iran, former Afghanistan National Security Adviser
  • Taliban conned the world and never really intended to change their extremist ways, former National Security Adviser 

RIYADH: More than a year after the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan following an abrupt US military withdrawal, public frustration with the regime and its oppressive policies is growing, according to the deposed government’s former national security adviser.

“I think with every passing day, the Afghan people’s frustration is growing with the Taliban’s oppression,” said Dr. Hamdullah Mohib, national security adviser of Afghanistan from 2018 to 2021, during an interview with Katie Jensen, host of “Frankly Speaking,” the Arab News talk show on which leading policymakers and business leaders appear.




Dr. Hamdullah Mohib served as national security adviser of Afghanistan from 2018 to 2021. (AN photo)

Mohib’s comments come against the backdrop of mass protests in neighboring Iran, where the killing of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, by the Islamic Republic’s morality police became a lightning rod for public anger against the oppression of women and ethnic minorities.

“The danger here is even more than I think in Iran, because the Afghan people have changed, have seen many changes in regimes, and know it can happen,” said Mohib, who previously served as deputy chief-of-staff to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, and ambassador of Afghanistan to the US from 2014 to 2018.

Although Mohib does not expect the protests in Iran to have a direct impact on events in Afghanistan, he believes it is only a matter of time before similar scenes of defiance emerge on the streets of Kabul and other cities.

“There will definitely be some influence, but I don’t know if it will be right now that time where the frustration boils over for mass mobilization in Afghanistan. But if this situation continues, this oppression of the Afghan people continues, I’m certain that there will be mass mobilization in the country. It’s just a matter of when it will be.”

 

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The US beat a rushed retreat from Afghanistan in August 2021 after reaching a shaky peace deal with the Taliban. Since then, the country has been plunged into economic crisis, poverty and international isolation.

During negotiations in Doha, the Taliban sought to convince the world they had changed since their previous stint in power from 1996 to 2001, when an extreme interpretation of Islam saw women and girls barred from education and public life, and widespread suppression of free expression.

However, on returning to power, the regime reimposed many such restrictions, rolling back two decades of progress on women’s rights and the nation’s institutional development.

“I think the Taliban played the negotiations well,” said Mohib. “They played all parties, including the Qataris, the Pakistanis. I think they used the Americans, they used all parties well in the negotiations part. And then there was this global effort to try to create this space for the Taliban who had been the pariah for so long. So, they used that space and I think many countries were fooled by it.

 

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“And, then, once the Taliban were in power, they never intended to keep the promises. And we see that they haven’t been able to deliver, or whether willingly not able to deliver or not deliver. We believe that they never had the intention to deliver on any of the promises that they had to the international community and Afghans.”

For Mohib, the US, Qatar and Pakistan all share a portion of blame for the republic’s collapse and the Taliban’s restoration.

“I think there is a lot of blame to be shared,” he said. “Those of us with bigger responsibilities obviously have a bigger share of the blame. And the US negotiating directly with the Taliban and excluding the Afghan government meant the Taliban were not in the mood to make any kind of reconciliation at that point. So I think that’s where a big share of the blame goes.”

Concerning Pakistan, in particular, Mohib said Islamabad badly miscalculated in its support for the Taliban, failing to recognize the threat posed by the group’s Pakistani offshoots.

 

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“The Pakistani government always denied that there was any presence of the Taliban in their country,” he said. “We knew there was a huge amount of support for the Taliban. They had their families, they were hosted in Pakistan, they mobilized from Pakistan. So there is a big part of blame that goes to Pakistan, and I think they’re suffering as a result of their support to the Taliban.

“Now everything we had warned them against is happening. The Taliban support to the Pakistani Taliban and other groups is now materializing as we had anticipated.”

Mohib also believes Qatar miscalculated when it allowed the militants to open an office in Doha in 2013 and agreed to mediate in peace negotiations. In Mohib’s view, Qatar was exploiting the role of mediator to further its own diplomatic ends.

“Countries like Qatar which hosted the negotiations used the Afghan peace process as a leverage in its own conflict with the GCC countries,” he said.

“Countries across the world wanted to play the mediator role. This is something that has been an aspiration for many. Even European nations wanted to do that. And Qatar playing that role meant it had an oversized role for itself in international diplomacy.

 

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“Negotiation with the Taliban and the US presence in Afghanistan was the key topic during that period when it (Qatar) had its own tensions with the other GCC countries — the UAE, Saudi Arabia. And so for Qatar to be able to play host to these negotiations meant they had some leverage with the Americans to use for their own sake in this tension that they had in this region.”

As national security adviser at the time of the republic’s collapse, surely Mohib and the deposed government itself must also share in the blame?

“It’s all of us,” Mohib said. “I started off by saying that we are all to blame. Myself included. I obviously spent a lot of time, and have this past year, reflecting on what could have been done that would’ve been different.

“I think the problem is that most leaders in Afghanistan, whether in government or outside of government, did not anticipate what would happen. I think everybody tried to do their best, but the directions were so different. There was never cohesion.

“We were all to blame. I take my share of that, and I feel we could have done a better job. Could we have prevented the Taliban takeover? I still believe we couldn’t have once the negotiations began, and the decision by the chief negotiator was to engage the Taliban directly behind the government’s back and have secret annexes in the negotiations that the government and the Afghan people are still not aware of. And once that was, the Taliban had more leverage than the Afghan government did.”

 

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When the republic collapsed in August 2021, President Ashraf Ghani was widely reproached for fleeing to the UAE rather than remaining in Kabul to fight, leaving 40 million of his countrymen at the mercy of the Taliban.

 

More recently, unflattering parallels have been drawn between Ghani and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose decision to remain in Kyiv in the face of Russia’s invasion made him a popular icon of resistance — a move that likely changed the course of the war.

Could things have played out differently for Afghanistan had Ghani and other top officials chosen to stay?

“I commend what Zelensky is doing,” said Mohib. “Afghanistan had that kind of a moment where we needed to stand. When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, my family included, we fought the Soviet Union for 10 years and lost a million Afghans as a result. And then, as a leader, you make decisions based on what happens and what is best for your people.

“There is a moment to stay, and then there is a moment to leave. And, yes, it’s not a popular decision among some of our allies who would’ve expected a different outcome right now. But once the emotions are cleared, 10 years down the line, or 20, when people can reflect back without emotions included, I think people will start to see why a decision like that was made.”

 

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Many critics of the US withdrawal bemoaned what they saw as the squandering of lives and wealth on trying to transform Afghanistan, only for the Taliban to undo 20 years of sacrifice overnight.

Does Mohib think the US investment in Afghanistan was worth it?

“The US had a huge investment in Afghanistan. Not just military presence. There was a lot of civilian presence in Afghanistan. The Afghans looked up to American democracy as an example that could be replicated in Afghanistan,” he said.

“I think there are two discussions here. One is, was the investment in Afghanistan a total waste? And, it’s a different discussion to what is happening right now. I agree the situation in Afghanistan is dire right now. And we all owe our responsibility to that situation, and we must do everything we can to change that. That’s an undeniable fact.

“When it comes to the investment in education, the investment in Afghan society, the reason you see so many voices outside that are able to articulate what they want, is an achievement of that investment. People are more worldly. They have seen what is possible, and they know they have rights.

“Even if there is an oppressive regime trying to silence their voices, they know they have a voice. We see brave women still protesting. We see Afghans, even if they’re in the diaspora, voicing their concerns about what is happening in Afghanistan.”

 


Pakistan army kills 30 militants trying to cross from Afghanistan

Updated 6 sec ago
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Pakistan army kills 30 militants trying to cross from Afghanistan

  • The militants belong to the Pakistan Taliban or its affiliated groups
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s army said Friday it had killed 30 militants attempting to cross the border from Afghanistan over the last three days, after 16 soldiers died in a suicide attack in the same frontier region last week.
The militants belonged to the Pakistan Taliban or its affiliated groups, the military said in a statement accusing archfoe India of backing them.
“The security forces demonstrated exceptional professionalism, vigilance preparedness, and prevented a potential catastrophe,” it said.
“A large quantity of weapons, ammunition and explosives was also recovered,” the statement added.
The killings took place in the border district of North Waziristan, where last week 16 Pakistani soldiers were killed in a suicide attack claimed by a faction of the Pakistan Taliban.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif lauded the security forces for “thwarting an infiltration attempt.”
“We are determined to completely eliminate all forms of terrorism from the country,” his office said in a statement Friday.
The prime minister’s statement also accused India of fomenting militancy in Pakistan.
The nuclear-armed neighbors regularly trade accusations that the other supports militant groups operating in their territory.

Trump says he is disappointed in Putin

Updated 04 July 2025
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Trump says he is disappointed in Putin

  • US leader will also speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday
  • The Kremlin earlier said Putin told Trump that Moscow will not ‘give up’ on its aims in Ukraine

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump told reporters early on Friday he is disappointed in Russian President Vladimir Putin and does not think Putin will stop the war in Ukraine.

Trump also said he will speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday.

Earlier on Thursday, Trump said that a phone call Putin resulted in no progress at all on efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

“No, I didn’t make any progress with him at all,” Trump told reporters on Thursday when asked if he had moved closer toward a deal to end Russia’s invasion, adding that he was “not happy” about the ongoing war.

The Kremlin earlier said Putin told Trump that Moscow will not “give up” on its aims in Ukraine.

The pair spoke as US-led peace talks on ending the more than three-year-old conflict in Ukraine have stalled and after Washington paused some weapons shipments to Kyiv.

The Kremlin said the call lasted almost an hour.

Trump has been frustrated with both Moscow and Kyiv as US efforts to end fighting have yielded no breakthrough.

“Our president said that Russia will achieve the aims it set, that is to say the elimination of the root causes that led to the current state of affairs,” Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters.

“Russia will not give up on these aims.”

Moscow has long described its maximalist aims in Ukraine as getting rid of the “root causes” of the conflict, demanding that Kyiv give up its NATO ambitions.

Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine has killed hundreds of thousands of people and Russia now controls large swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine.

Even so, Putin told Trump that Moscow would continue to take part in negotiations.

“He also spoke of the readiness of the Russian side to continue the negotiation process,” Ushakov added.

“Vladimir Putin said that we are continuing to look for a political, negotiated solution to the conflict,” Ushakov said.

Moscow has for months refused to agree to a US-proposed ceasefire in Ukraine.

Kyiv and its Western allies have accused Putin of dragging out the process while pushing on with Russia’s advance in Ukraine.

The Kremlin said that Putin had also “stressed” to Trump that all conflicts in the Middle East should be solved “diplomatically,” after the US struck nuclear sites in Russia’s ally Iran.

Putin and Trump spoke as Kyiv said that Russian strikes on Thursday killed at least eight people in Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was visiting ally Denmark on Thursday.

A senior Ukrainian official said that Trump and Zelensky planned to speak to each other on Friday.

The US deciding to pause some weapons shipments has severely hampered Kyiv, which has been reliant on Western military support since Moscow launched its offensive in 2022.

Zelensky told EU allies in Denmark that doubts over US military aid reinforced the need for greater cooperation with Brussels and NATO.

He stressed again that Kyiv had always supported Trump’s “unconditional ceasefire.”

On Wednesday, Kyiv scrambled to clarify with the US what a White House announcement on pausing some weapons shipments meant.

“Continued American support for Ukraine, for our defense, for our people is in our common interest,” Zelensky had said on Wednesday.

Russia has consistently called for Western countries to stop sending weapons to Kyiv.


North Korean detained after crossing land border: Seoul military

Updated 04 July 2025
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North Korean detained after crossing land border: Seoul military

  • The Military Demarcation Line is the de facto border area separating the two Koreas
  • ‘Relevant authorities’ to investigate the detailed circumstances of the incident

SEOUL: A North Korean who crossed the heavily fortified land border into the South has been detained and taken into custody, Seoul’s military said Friday.

The North Korean, identified as a male civilian, managed to cross the Military Demarcation Line in the midwestern part of the Demilitarized Zone on Thursday, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

The MDL is the de facto border, which runs through the middle of the DMZ – the border area separating the two Koreas, which is one of the most heavily mined places on earth.

“The military identified the individual near the MDL, conducted tracking and surveillance,” the JCS said in a statement.

It then “successfully carried out a standard guiding operation to secure custody,” it added.

The operation took about 20 hours, according to Seoul, after the man was detected by a military surveillance device sometime between 3:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. Thursday (1800 to 1900 GMT).

The mission to safely guide him to the South involved a considerable number of South Korean troops, the JCS said, and took place in an area difficult to navigate due to dense vegetation and land mine risks.

The man stayed mostly still during the day, and South Korea’s military approached him at night.

He willingly followed the troops after they offered to guide him safely out of the DMZ, according to the JCS.

It said “relevant authorities” will investigate the detailed circumstances of the incident.

North Koreans are typically handed over to Seoul’s intelligence agency for screening when they arrive in the South.

The incident comes after a North Korean soldier defected to the South by crossing the MDL in August last year.

Also last year, another North Korean defected to the South across the de facto border in the Yellow Sea, arriving on Gyodong island off the peninsula’s west coast near the border between the Koreas.

Tens of thousands of North Koreans have fled to South Korea since the peninsula was divided by war in the 1950s, with most going overland to neighboring China first, then entering a third country such as Thailand before finally making it to the South.

Defections across the land border that divides the peninsula are relatively rare.

The number of successful escapes dropped significantly from 2020 after the North sealed its borders – purportedly with shoot-on-sight orders along the land frontier with China – to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

No unusual activities by the North Korean military have been detected, the JCS said Friday.

South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung, who took office last month, has vowed a more dovish approach toward Pyongyang compared with his hawkish predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol.

“Politics and diplomacy must be handled without emotion and approached with reason and logic,” Lee said Thursday.

“Completely cutting off dialogue is really a foolish thing to do.”


Trump orders national park entry fees hike for foreign tourists

Updated 04 July 2025
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Trump orders national park entry fees hike for foreign tourists

  • US president: ‘The national parks will be about America First’

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Thursday said national parks would hike entry fees for foreign tourists to “improve affordability” for Americans, as he launched the country’s year-long 250th birthday celebrations.

“For this anniversary, I’ve just signed an executive order to raise entrance fees for foreign tourists while keeping prices low for Americans,” Trump told a cheering crowd at a rally in Iowa.

“The national parks will be about America First,” the Republican leader said, after issuing an executive order.

In it, Trump also instructed the interior and state departments to “encourage international tourism to America’s national parks.”

The order outlined that revenue raised was to be used to improve the infrastructure and “enhance enjoyment” of the country’s vast national park system.

It is a rare move by the climate skeptic president to promote the environment and green spaces.

In the executive order, Trump also revoked a 2017 directive by former president Barack Obama on “promoting diversity and inclusion in our national parks,” in his latest attack on DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) initiatives.

Some conservation groups have however voiced concerns about hundreds of National Park Service permanent staff members being laid off since Trump took office in January, ahead of peak tourist season in summer.


MAGA faithful cheer Trump for pausing Ukraine weapons after bristling at Iran strikes

Updated 04 July 2025
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MAGA faithful cheer Trump for pausing Ukraine weapons after bristling at Iran strikes

  • With the Ukraine pause, Trump is sending the message to his MAGA backers that he is committed to following through on his campaign pledge to wind down American support for Ukraine’s efforts to repel Russia

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump is getting praise from his most ardent supporters for withholding some weapons from Ukraine after they recently questioned the Republican leader’s commitment to keeping the US out of foreign conflicts.
This week’s announcement pausing deliveries of key air defense missiles, precision-guided artillery and other equipment to Ukraine comes just a few weeks after Trump ordered the US military to carry out strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
Bombing those sites in Iran had some hardcore supporters of the “Make America Great Again” movement openly questioning whether Trump was betraying his vow to keep America out of “stupid wars” as he inserted the US military into Israel’s conflict with Tehran.
With the Ukraine pause, which affects a crucial resupply of Patriot missiles, Trump is sending the message to his most enthusiastic backers that he is committed to following through on his campaign pledge to wind down American support for Ukraine’s efforts to repel Russia, a conflict he has repeatedly described as a costly boondoggle for US taxpayers.
“The choice was this: either prioritize equipping our own troops with a munition in short supply (and which was used to defend US troops last week) or provide them to a country where there are limited US interests,” Dan Caldwell, who was ousted as a senior adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, posted on X.
Caldwell publicly worried before the Iran strikes that US involvement could incite a major war and ultimately cost American lives.
Far-right influencer Jack Posobiec, another ardent MAGA backer, warned as Trump weighed whether to carry out strikes on Iran last month that such a move “would disastrously split the Trump coalition.”
He was quick to cheer the news about pausing some weapons deliveries to Ukraine: “America FIRST,” Posobiec posted on X.
Both the White House and the Pentagon have justified the move as being consistent with Trump’s campaign pledge to limit US involvement in foreign wars.
“The president was elected on an America first platform to put America first,” Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell said.
At the same time, the decision is stirring anxiety among those in the more hawkish wing of the Republican Party. Many are flummoxed by Trump’s halting the flow of US arms just as Russia accelerates its unrelenting assault on Ukraine.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican who hails from a district that former Vice President Kamala Harris won in 2024, wrote to Trump and the Pentagon on Wednesday expressing “serious concern” about the decision and requesting an emergency briefing.
“We can’t let (Russian President Vladimir) Putin prevail now. President Trump knows that too and it’s why he’s been advocating for peace,” Rep. Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, wrote on X. “Now is the time to show Putin we mean business. And that starts with ensuring Ukraine has the weapons Congress authorized to pressure Putin to the negotiating table.”
Trump spoke by phone with Putin on Thursday, the sixth call between the leaders since Trump’s return to office. The leaders discussed Iran, Ukraine and other issues but did not specifically address the suspension of some US weapons shipments to Ukraine, according to Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser.
Zelensky said in Denmark after meeting with major European Union backers that he hopes to talk to Trump in the coming days about the suspension.
The administration says it is part of global review of the US stockpile and is a necessary audit after sending nearly $70 billion in arms to Ukraine since Putin launched the war on Ukraine in February 2022.
The pause was coordinated by Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby.
Colby, before taking his position, spoke publicly about the need to focus US strategy more on China, widely seen as the United States’ biggest economic and military competitor. At his Senate confirmation hearing in March, he said the US doesn’t have a “multi-war military.”
“This is the restrainers like Colby flexing their muscle and saying, ‘Hey, the Pacific is more important,’” said retired Navy Adm. Mark Montgomery, an analyst at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.
Backers of a more restrained US foreign policy say the move is necessary, given an unsettled Middle East, rising challenges in Asia and the stress placed on the US defense industrial complex after more than three years of war in Ukraine.
“You’re really coming up to the point where continuing to provide aid to Ukraine is putting at risk the US ability to operate in future crises,” said Jennifer Kavanagh, a senior fellow and director of military analysis at Defense Priorities. “And you don’t know when those crises are going to happen.”
“So you have to be a little bit cautious,” she added.