kabul: The Afghan government on Monday said that it could not accept the Taliban’s preconditions for the resumption of stalled peace talks, urging that the negotiations will move forward only in line with the decision of the quadrilateral agreement, referring to a recent meeting of senior officials from Afghanistan-Pakistan-China and the US in Kabul where the four nations agreed to outline a comprehensive roadmap for talks with the insurgent group. Meanwhile, the Afghan High Peace…
Posts published in “Day: January 27, 2016”
President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani has warned that the conflict would intensify with its consequences across the region if peace talks with Taliban do not start by April. “Time is not a friend,” he told BBC in an interveiw. “We all understand that February and March are crucial.” President Ghani said observers should understand that the war in his country was “just one component” of a wider war that also encompassed Pakistan. “The problems… are interrelated…
The writer is the author of The Prospect of Nuclear Jihad in Pakistan The changing nature of dominant security threats during the last 14 years’ war on terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the lack of intelligence cooperation between the two states have caused misunderstanding, the blame game and severe fatalities in the region. Every month and every week, terrorists target either the Pakistani security forces or Afghan civilians but they never think to develop…
The writer, a former interior secretary, had led the Pakistani side in India-Pakistan talks on counterterrorism and narcotics control in 2004. The subcontinent may witness a transformational moment if India and Pakistan succeed in calibrating themselves for an abiding engagement in a bid to promote peace and tranquillity in the region, an objective that has proved quite illusive so far. Odds in this regard are heavily stacked against the two countries, but the pursuit is…
(Sikander Ahmed Shah is former legal adviser, Ministry of Foreign Affairs while Abid Rizvi is an expert on international law). THE attack on the air force base in Pathankot, India, came at a critical juncture in the relationship between India and Pakistan. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surprise visit to Pakistan a few weeks prior had indicated a thaw in ties between the two countries, a welcome development considering a series of LoC conflagrations and India’s…
The New Year has brought considerable security concerns, to say the least. Zarb-e-Azb had, without a doubt, decimated the enemy’s habitat in the tribal area and the Taliban were on the run for more than a year now. However, since they have been able to recalibrate enough to strike repeatedly once again, obviously more will be needed than the hardware of the Waziristan Operation. And, expectedly, the latest downside has not been lost on our…
It is rare that we find ourselves in agreement with the president of the United States, Barack Obama, but he is correct in saying that Pakistan needs to be more “decisive” when it comes to the crushing of extremist elements that are openly operating here. Moreover, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif appears to, in part at least, agree with him when he said in London whence he had travelled after the World Economic Forum meeting in…
By BRADLEY OLSON and BRIAN SPEGELE A bedrock belief among oil forecasters has been that China’s voracious appetite for fossil fuels would stoke global energy demand for decades to come. That assumption now appears increasingly shaky. A highly anticipated new energy-demand projection from Exxon Mobil Corp. released Monday cuts the company’s expectations for China. And a slew of data is emerging that points to the toll a weakened economy has taken on Chinese energy demand,…
(CNN)China has expelled Swedish human rights advocate Peter Dahlin, who had been detained for three weeks and made what his organization described as an “apparent forced confession” on state television. A spokesperson for the Swedish embassy in Beijing confirmed Tuesday that Dahlin had been released from detention and expelled from the country but declined to give further details. Dahlin works for the Chinese Urgent Action Working Group, which “undertakes rapid response assistance for rights defenders…
By CHRIS BUCKLEY and THOMAS FULLER BEIJING — A Chinese journalist who was traveling across Thailand on a frantic quest for political refuge messaged his wife recently to say that he would soon reach the border with Laos. Two weeks ago, the journalist, Li Xin, disappeared. Mr. Li’s wife, He Fangmei, and his supporters believe he has joined a growing list of people at odds with Beijing who have been spirited intoChina across borders, especially…
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al Jubeir has denied outright that Pakistan mediated between Saudi Arabia and Iran amid recent tensions, causing our top leadership much embarrassment. They had better explain their recent rendezvous with the Saudis and what that whole drama was about going to the Kingdom to smooth things out. The move was lauded in the media, and for a minute everyone thought that we were an actual player in the conflict and not…