A dozen Democratic senators are pushing President Joe Biden to create two high-level posts to assist in evacuating eligible Afghans and others who remained in the country after the U.S. withdrew troops Aug. 31.

Senator Maria Cantwell, leader of the initiative, said her office had been contacted by at least 1,800 people. She said they included U.S. citizens, Special Immigrant Visa holders, journalists and contractors who worked at the now-shuttered U.S. Embassy in Kabul.

“We know that we still have many people in Afghanistan that are stuck there, and they need the U.S. continuing to help them and support them,” she said Wednesday, after introducing a letter signed by 11 colleagues, including Senators Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker, both of whom sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020.

The senators have asked Biden to establish those positions in the president’s office and in the State Department.

The United States evacuated 124,000 people from Afghanistan over two weeks in August in what administration officials described as the largest airlift in history.

This week, the State Department said that about 100 U.S. citizens were still waiting to leave Afghanistan but that their evacuation was challenged by the “unpredictability” of the hard-line Taliban government, which took over after the American withdrawal.

“Rescuing Americans is a floor, not a ceiling,” the senators wrote. “A focus on evacuating Americans to the exclusion of others we have promised to get out is unacceptable. Civilian lives are in danger, and the United States’ international reputation is at risk.”

Rabbi Will Berkovitz, who heads the Jewish Family Service of Seattle, joined Cantwell in making the plea.

“I think what we need is … a point person at the White House who sits on the National Security Council. That person needs to oversee this entire effort, because it just needs to be a high-level person of authority who can get things done,” he said via a Zoom call Wednesday afternoon.

VOA asked White House press secretary Jen Psaki about the criticism and requests presented in the letter.

“We agree that there’s more work to be done in Afghanistan, that it’s important and imperative that humanitarian assistance is able to reach the people of Afghanistan,” she said, adding that Biden raised this with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last week, and that the U.S. government is working with the government of Qatar on humanitarian assistance flights.

“We do have a range of officials who are working on exactly this, from the State Department and from the White House,” she said. Psaki said that she didn’t know the specifics of the request but that the administration agrees “there’s more work to be done.”

“We have staff. We’re committed to doing exactly that,” she said.

Republican effort

Senate Republicans are pursuing the matter through legislation. On Monday, 22 Republican senators introduced the Afghanistan Counterterrorism, Oversight, and Accountability Act, which seeks, among other things, to set up a State Department task force to focus on the evacuation of U.S. citizens, legal permanent residents and Afghan Special Immigrant Visa holders still in Afghanistan.

“We continue to see the grave implications of the Biden Administration’s haphazard withdrawal from Afghanistan,” Senator Jim Risch said in a statement. “An unknown number of American citizens and Afghan partners remain abandoned in Afghanistan under threat from the Taliban, we face a renewed terror threat against the United States, and the Taliban wrongly seek recognition at the U.N., even as they suppress the rights of Afghan women and girls.”

Jacob Kurtzer, director and senior fellow with the Humanitarian Agenda initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the criticism and calls for a plan are valid.

“I think the need for a plan, a specific plan, reflects that this is not something that we can expect to resolve quickly,” he said. “For me, the necessity of a plan is that it’s an indication of the administration’s commitment into the future.”

The Democratic senators also urged the Biden administration to appoint officials who would hold the Taliban accountable on its previous commitments to protect human rights and allow freedom of movement, while also assisting the new Taliban government with humanitarian work and operating an international airport.
…

The Taliban and China called Wednesday for the United States to stop flying drones over Afghanistan’s airspace, saying such actions were in breach of Afghanistan’s sovereignty and a mutual agreement.

“We recently saw [the] United States violating all international rights, law and …commitments [made] to the Islamic Emirate [the Taliban] in Doha, Qatar, as Afghanistan’s sacred airspace is being invaded by U.S. drones,” the Taliban said in a statement.

The Islamist group referred to its February 2020 agreement with Washington that paved the way for U.S. and NATO troops to leave the country. The withdrawal process concluded last month, marking the end of nearly 20 years of international involvement in the Afghan war.

‘Negative consequences’

“We call on all countries, especially the United States, to treat Afghanistan in light of international rights, laws and commitments … in order to prevent any negative consequences,” the Taliban warned without elaborating.

There were no immediate comments from U.S. officials. The warning was apparently issued in response to recent comments by the Pentagon saying Washington retains “all necessary authorities to execute over-the-horizon counterterrorism operations” in Afghanistan.

“We remain confident in these capabilities moving forward,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters on Friday. “Without speaking to specific rules of engagement surrounding airstrikes, there is currently no requirement to clear airspace with the Taliban. And we do not expect that any future over-the-horizon counterterrorism strikes would hinge on such a clearance.”

China also voiced opposition Wednesday to the U.S. drone operations in Afghan airspace.

“The U.S. should earnestly respect Afghanistan’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a news conference in Beijing.

“More importantly, the U.S. should stop habitually imposing wanton military intervention and forcing its own will on others, and avoid repeating the tragedies of plunging people into misery and suffering,” she said.

The Taliban regained power in Kabul in August after U.S.-led NATO forces withdrew from Afghanistan, and the Western-backed government and its military collapsed in the face of increased attacks by the Islamist insurgent group.

Countering threats

Washington has said, however, that it will use its “over-the-horizon” capabilities to launch airstrikes from outside the country to counter terror threats from al-Qaida and the Afghan affiliate of Islamic State, known as Islamic State Khorasan Province or ISIS-K.

Last week, the Taliban rejected as “baseless propaganda” U.S. concerns that the two terrorist groups maintain a presence in the country, even as ISIS-K has claimed responsibility for a series of deadly bombings against Taliban fighters in the eastern Afghan provinces of Nangarhar and Kunar in the past week.

ISIS-K also took credit for an August 26 suicide bombing at the Kabul airport, when thousands of foreign citizens and vulnerable Afghans were trying to catch U.S.-run emergency evacuation flights out of the country. The attack killed more than 170 people, including 13 American service members.
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Gunmen shot and killed a prominent Rohingya Muslim leader Wednesday in a refugee camp in southern Bangladesh, a U.N. spokesperson and a local police official said, following months of worsening violence in the world’s largest refugee settlement.

Mohib Ullah, who was in his late 40s, led one of the largest of several community groups to emerge since more than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims fled Myanmar after a military crackdown in August 2017.

Invited to the White House and to speak to the U.N. Human Rights Council, he was one of the most high-profile advocates for the Rohingya, a Muslim minority that has faced persecution for generations.

Rafiqul Islam, a deputy police superintendent in the nearby town of Cox’s Bazar, told Reuters by phone that Mohib Ullah had been shot dead but had no additional details.

A spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said the agency was “deeply saddened” by the killing of Mohib Ullah. “We are in continuous contact with law enforcement authorities in charge of maintaining peace and security in the camps,” the spokesperson said.

Documented atrocities

Mohib Ullah’s group, the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights, made its name documenting atrocities the Rohingya suffered during the Myanmar crackdown, which the U.N. has said was carried out with genocidal intent.

At the Bangladesh refugee camps, Mohib Ullah went from hut to hut to build a tally of killings, rape and arson that was shared with international investigators.

His organization worked to give refugees more of a voice inside the camps and internationally. Speaking to the U.N. Human Rights Council, he said the Rohingya wanted more of a say over their own future.

But his high profile made him a target of hardliners and he received death threats, he told Reuters in 2019. “If I die, I’m fine. I will give my life,” he said at the time.

The sprawling camps in Bangladesh have become increasingly violent, residents say, with armed men vying for power, kidnapping critics and warning women against breaking conservative Islamic norms.

Aung Kyaw Moe, a Rohingya civil society activist and an adviser to Myanmar’s National Unity Government, the parallel civilian government established after February’s coup, said Mohib Ullah’s death was a “big loss for the Rohingya community.”

“He was always aware there is a threat, but he thinks that despite the threat if he is not doing the work he is doing, no one else would,” he said.
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For the first time, women in India are eligible to apply to the country’s elite military college after a historic Supreme Court ruling paved the way for them to aspire to the top ranks of the world’s second largest military and marking a key step in gender equality.

“Keeping in view gender equality, it is a good first step and something that had to happen given the fact that women are seeking more roles in the army all over the world,” former Lt. General H.S. Panag told VOA.

The battle for the rigorous four-year program in the National Defense Academy has not been easy — so far women enter the military through a shorter 11-month training course that excludes them from higher positions and mostly limits their career to 14 years. 

The Supreme Court cleared the decks this month for women to sit for entrance exams to be held in November. Its ruling came after a public interest petition argued that barring women from the premier military college violated the constitution, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender.

Although qualifying through the military academy will put women on par with male officers, combat roles for them in the army will still be restricted.

Women form a miniscule part of India’s 1.3 million strong military with the army having the smallest percentage — a little over half a percent. The air force has 1.8% and the navy 6.5%.

During the hearing, judges had criticized the government for a “regressive mindset” after it cited numerous reasons to limit women’s role in the army including “motherhood, childcare, and psychological limitations.”

The court has been particularly critical of the army for being slower to induct women.

Last year, it had also cleared the way for them to hold non-combat command positions dismissing the government’s argument that “lower physical standards of women, composition of units that are entirely male mostly from rural background” play a role in deciding appointments of commanding officers.

“Policy makers were resisting women’s entry into military colleges because of a patriarchal mindset, that is why this has happened only after the court’s intervention,” said Akanksha Khullar, a researcher with the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies in New Delhi. “From my numerous interactions with women who joined the armed forces, the men who are under a woman leader do not question the gender, they simply follow instructions.”

The move toward gender parity in the armed forces could still take time. Although the Air Force has three women fighter pilots and the navy deployed four women on warships for the first time this March, allowing women into combat units in the army is not on the horizon. Women have worked in the armed forces mostly as doctors, nurses, engineers, administrators and lawyers.

“Certainly, the physical fitness standards of women cannot be at par with that of men, and this is not a problem where non-combat units are concerned,” points out Panag. “In the United States also for combat roles they have to be on par with physical fitness level of men and I agree with this. They should not be allowed into combat units unless they meet those standards. However, those women who do qualify should be allowed.”

Only a handful of countries, including Australia, Germany, Israel and the United States, allow women to take on combat roles.

“That is too major a leap considering that our government has taken so long to even open the military college to women,” Khullar said.

Some women who have served in the army say conquering the final frontier of combat roles will have to be a gradual process.

Sajita Nair, who joined the army in 1994, a year after it first began recruiting women, is happy that after three decades of serving in the armed forces, women will finally get their due. “This opens the way for them to get into senior positions,” she told VOA. “We have some way to go but we are nearly there. We need to go step by step.”

Nair said qualifying through the military college will give women the chance to build a full career instead of exiting in their thirties, as many have had to do in the past because the “short service commission through which they are inducted has a 14-year cap.

The entry of women will spell a change for the all-male academy located in western India.

It remains to be seen how many aspirants apply and make the cut. But women like Nair are optimistic.

“Overall, it will help the nation,” she said. “We have such able women and they should be given the opportunity, and then of course, it is up to them to prove themselves.”
…

A day after giving their assessments of the end of the war in Afghanistan and future terror threats that may emanate from the country, the top U.S. military officials return Wednesday to Capitol Hill to testify before another congressional panel about the conclusion of the two-decade mission. 

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley, and General Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, are all due to appear before the House Armed Services Committee. 

At a Tuesday hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, lawmakers both praised the decision to end the country’s longest war and condemned its final days as a debacle.

Austin defended the evacuation, saying that while not perfect it went as smoothly as possible and that no other military could have done better. 

“It was the largest airlift conducted in U.S. history, and it was executed in just 17 days,” he told committee members. ”We planned to evacuate between 70,000 and 80,000 people. They evacuated more than 124,000.” 

“It was a logistical success but a strategic failure,” Milley, the nation’s top-ranking military officer, told lawmakers of America’s final days in Kabul, which saw the evacuation of 124,000 people, including about 6,000 Americans. 

Milley said the final outcome, with the Taliban in control of Afghanistan, “is a cumulative effect of 20 years, not 20 days.” 

He also warned of the potential threat from terror groups such as al-Qaida and the Islamic State Khorasan Province, also known as IS Khorasan or ISIS-K. IS Khorasan is an Afghanistan-based affiliate of the Islamic State extremist group. 

McKenzie cited the 2020 Doha agreement, which set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, saying it “had a profound psychological effect” on Afghan forces and may have hastened their collapse. 

“The Taliban were heartened by what they saw happen at Doha and what followed and our eventual decision to get out by a certain date,” McKenzie said. “I think the Afghans were very weakened by that morally and spiritually.” 
…

America’s top military officer has described the Afghanistan evacuation as “a logistical success but a strategic failure.” General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke at a contentious Senate hearing on the U.S. military’s withdrawal and evacuation from Afghanistan. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has the details.

Produced by: Mary Cieslak
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According to the Pakistani government, over 45,000 angioplasty operations are conducted in Pakistan each year; an operation in which a small mesh tube is inserted into a blocked artery to allow blood to flow through it. Up until recently Pakistan had to import these medical devices, but now they’re being manufactured in country. VOA’s Asim Ali Rana files this report narrated by Bezhan Hamdard.

Camera: Wajid Hussain Shah  Produced by: Asim Ali Rana 

 
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Twenty years of American blood and treasure spent in Afghanistan was reduced Tuesday to about six hours of testimony in the United States Senate, with the nation’s top military officer admitting that the war amounted to a “strategic failure” that in the end, perhaps, could never have been won.

The hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee with U.S. President Joe Biden’s top military officials saw a staunch defense of the efforts and sacrifices of the U.S. troops in Afghanistan, with lawmakers both praising the decision to end the country’s longest war and condemning its final days as a debacle. 

In between, it featured sobering assessments of what, if anything, could have been done differently. 

“It was a logistical success but a strategic failure,” General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the nation’s top-ranking military officer, told lawmakers of America’s final days in Kabul, which saw the evacuation of 124,000 people, including about 6,000 Americans. 

“Outcomes in a war like this, an outcome that is a strategic failure — the enemy is in charge in Kabul; there’s no way else to describe that — that outcome is a cumulative effect of 20 years, not 20 days,” Milley added. 

Pressed on whether Washington could have done anything differently to prevent the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan from crumbling and stop the Taliban takeover, Milley was blunt. 

“If you kept advisers there, kept money following, etc., then we could probably have sustained them for a lengthy or indefinite period of time,” he said of the Afghan government and the Afghan security forces. 

“If you would have had a different result at the end of the day, that’s a different question,” Milley added. “I think the end state probably would have been the same no matter when you did it.” 

Testifying alongside Milley, General Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, said that in hindsight, the 2020 Doha agreement, which paved the way for the U.S. exit, “had a profound psychological effect” on the Afghan forces and may have hastened their collapse.

“The Taliban were heartened by what they saw happen at Doha and what followed and our eventual decision to get out by a certain date,” McKenzie said. “I think the Afghans were very weakened by that morally and spiritually.” 

Republican anger 

Such somber assessments did little to mollify some lawmakers, with at least two demanding the resignations of Milley and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for the way the U.S. ultimately left. 

“Our exit from Afghanistan was a disaster,” said Nebraska Republican Senator Deb Fischer. 

Another Republican, Senator Joni Ernst, called the U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan “haphazard.” She pointed to the deaths of 13 U.S. troops and close to 170 Afghans from a suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport days before the last military plane took off. 

“The loss of our service members and abandonment of Americans and Afghan allies last month was an unforced, disgraceful humiliation that didn’t have to happen,” Ernst said. 

Some Democrats, however, praised Biden and his administration for finally ending the U.S. effort in Afghanistan. 

“It took guts, and it was the right thing to do, and it should have been done earlier,” Virginia Senator Tim Kaine said. 

Others scolded their Republican colleagues. 

“Anyone who says the last few months were a failure but everything before that was great clearly hasn’t been paying attention,” said Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren. 

But most of the outrage was saved for the White House, with Republican lawmakers questioning the president’s decision-making, and some accusing him of misleading the American public when he told ABC news last month that his top advisers did not recommend keeping about 2,500 troops in Afghanistan. 

“No, they didn’t,” Biden said at the time. “It was split.” 

On Tuesday, both Milley and CENTCOM’s McKenzie told lawmakers that in the early days of Biden’s presidency, they advised keeping 2,500 to 3,500 troops in Afghanistan because the Taliban had not met their commitments under the 2020 Doha agreement. 

“My view is that 2,500 was an appropriate number to remain and that if we went below that number, in fact, we would probably witness a collapse of the Afghan government and the Afghan military,” McKenzie said. 

Cost of staying 

At the White House on Tuesday, press secretary Jen Psaki defended Biden and the decision to end the war in Afghanistan. 

“There was a range of viewpoints, as evidenced by their testimony today, that were presented to the president, that were presented to his national security team, as would be expected, as he asked for,” she said.

“It was also clear to him that that would not be a long-standing recommendation, that there would need to be an escalation, an increase in troop numbers,” she said. “It would also mean war with the Taliban, and it would also mean the potential loss of casualties. The president was just not willing to make that decision.” 

Milley also cautioned that staying in Afghanistan once the U.S.-backed government had collapsed could have been done, but at a cost. 

“On the first of September, we were going to go to war again with the Taliban. Of that there was no doubt,” he told lawmakers, saying it would have required the U.S. to send in as many as another 25,000 troops. 

“We would have had to reseize Bagram (Airfield). We would have had to clear Kabul of 6,000 Taliban,” Milley said. “That would have resulted in significant casualties on the U.S. side, and it would have placed American citizens that are still there at greater risk.” 

Additionally, Milley and the other U.S. defense officials told lawmakers that even with troops and all but about 100 U.S. citizens out of Afghanistan and out of harm’s way, dangers would remain from terror groups such as al-Qaida and the Islamic State Khorasan Province, also known as IS Khorasan or ISIS-K. 

“A reconstituted al-Qaida or ISIS with aspirations to attack the United States is a very real possibility,” Milley warned lawmakers, adding that the exact nature of the threat might not be evident for months or years. 

“They’re gathering their strength,” CENTCOM’s General McKenzie said of the threat from IS Khorasan, thought to have about 2,000 fighters now roaming Afghanistan.

“We have yet to see how it’s going to manifest itself,” McKenzie said. “We know with certainty that they do aspire to attack us in our homeland.” 

The U.S. first sent troops into Afghanistan to pursue al-Qaida, after the militant group used the country to plan the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on New York and the Pentagon. 

Milley and McKenzie said that despite the Taliban’s commitments under the terms of the Doha agreement, the group had yet to sever its long-standing ties with al-Qaida. 

“I think al-Qaida is at war with the United States, still,” Milley said. 

No going back 

For his part, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told lawmakers that the Pentagon remains focused on the threat but will use its over-the-horizon strike capabilities to target al-Qaida and IS Khorasan as needed. 

“We’ve not been tasked to construct any plans to go back,” Austin said. 

Austin also defended the evacuation, telling lawmakers that it went as smoothly as possible, and that no other military in the world could have done any better.  

“It was the largest airlift conducted in U.S. history, and it was executed in just 17 days,” he told committee members. ”We planned to evacuate between 70,000 and 80,000 people. They evacuated more than 124,000.”  

“Was it perfect? Of course not,” Austin added, describing as “difficult” the first two days of the airlift, when huge crowds had rushed to the airport following the Taliban’s unexpectedly swift takeover.  

“We moved so many people so quickly out of Kabul that we ran into capacity and screening problems at intermediate staging bases outside of Afghanistan,” he said.  

But some lawmakers, such as the committee’s top Republican, Senator Jim Inhofe, were unconvinced. 

“We all witnessed a horror of the president’s own making,” Inhofe said, accusing the Biden administration of failing to create a plan to counter the terror threats likely to emerge in Afghanistan with the Taliban in control.  

“The terrorist threat to American families is rising significantly,” the senator said. “While our ability to deal with these threats has declined decidedly.” 

Austin, Milley and McKenzie are all due to appear again Wednesday before the House Armed Services Committee.  

 
…

The Taliban said Tuesday they plan to temporarily enact articles from Afghanistan’s 1964 constitution that are “not in conflict with Islamic Sharia (law)” to govern the country.

An official announcement quoted Abdul Hakeem Sharaee, the Taliban’s acting minister of justice, as telling the Chinese ambassador about the plan in a meeting in Kabul.

“The Islamic Emirate will implement the constitution of the era of former King Mohammad Zahir Shah for the interim period without any content that is in conflict with Islamic Sharia and the principles of the Islamic Emirate,” Sharaee said, using the Taliban’s name for their new government.

“Moreover, international laws and instruments which are not in conflict with the principles of Sharia and the Islamic Emirate will be respected, as well,” Sharaee added.

The minister did not discuss the provisions they are using from the constitution that granted women the right to vote and opened the doors for their increased participation in Afghan politics. 

Then-King Shah enacted the constitution in 1964, enabling Afghanistan to enjoy a decade of parliamentary democracy on its own, without external help or intervention, before he was overthrown in 1973 in a peaceful coup by his cousin, Mohammed Daoud

The hard-line Taliban swept back to power in August and have promised to rule the conflict-torn country with a more tolerant and inclusive political approach than during their reign in Kabul from 1996 to 2001, when women were barred from public life and education, among other human rights abuses. 

The Taliban are already under fire for excluding women in their male-only caretaker Cabinet introduced earlier this month. Taliban leaders have promised to bring women on board and dismissed criticism of their government, saying it is represents all Afghan ethnicities.

But the failure to give women a role in governance has fueled concerns about a marked deterioration in women’s rights since the Taliban takeover, especially after the new rulers announced that secondary education would resume for boys only. 

Taliban officials have dismissed those fears as unfounded, saying female students will be able to return to schools “very soon” once arrangements for them to study in a “safe and sound” environment are put in place. 

And one of the group’s founders said last week that executions and amputations will be back, though perhaps not in public.

The U.S. said Monday it was “deeply concerned” about the human rights situation in Afghanistan.

“We have also consistently emphasized, as has the international community, the importance of respect for human rights, as well as fundamental freedoms on the part of any government in Afghanistan,” Jalina Porter, principal deputy spokesperson at the State Department, told reporters in Washington.

“Of course, these rights would include freedom of expression, as well as the promotion and protection of the rights of women and girls, as well as other ethnic and minority religious groups,” Porter emphasized.

After invading the country nearly 20 years ago to oust the Taliban for sheltering al-Qaida leaders, the United States and Western allies helped Afghanistan adopt a new constitution in 2004 that envisaged a presidency and enshrined equal rights for women.

But while waging a deadly insurgency against the Western-backed Afghan government, the Taliban adamantly rejected that constitution as an illegal entity and a product of the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan.

The U.S. and the world at large have so far refused to recognize the Taliban as legitimate rulers of the country, saying they want to see if the Taliban uphold their commitment of introducing an inclusive government and respect human rights.

“It seems a pragmatic approach by the Taliban to adopt the 1964 constitution,” said Said Azam, a Canada-based political analyst and former Afghan government official, when asked about the Taliban’s plans. 

He noted that the constitution was the outcome of a comprehensive national debate, and the entire process of drafting and ratification spanned over two years.

“The Taliban’s main goal is to receive widespread acceptance from the Afghan society by implementing the 1964 constitution, therefore,” Azam said.
…

AnushNemat Ullah Haghori is an Afghan father of seven and a recipient of the Special Immigrant Visa, or SIV recipient. He had one-way tickets to the US for himself and his family on August 16, but one day before their trip, the Afghanistan government collapsed. The family finally made its way to America nearly two weeks later. Avetisyan met with them in Washington DC and has their story.
…

Three weeks ago, VOA brought you the story of Nasria, one of the Americans trapped in Afghanistan after U.S. evacuation efforts ended August 30. She asked that we use only her first name for her safety. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has been in touch with her since the evacuation ended and has this update.
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Afghanistan will not address the U.N. General Assembly, in the wake of the Taliban takeover and potential competing claims of representation at the world body.  

A U.N. spokesperson said they were informed by email on Saturday that they were withdrawing. Ambassador Ghulam Isaczai had originally been scheduled to speak on Monday, the final day of the annual debate that draws world leaders to New York.   

Isaczai was appointed by the previous Afghan government of Ashraf Ghani, but still holds the country’s U.N. accreditation.   

On September 20, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres received a letter from the Taliban saying their interim foreign minister, Ameer Khan Muttaqi, wanted to participate in the annual U.N. gathering. It also said Isaczai was “ousted” as Afghanistan’s ambassador, and the Taliban were nominating Mohammad Suhail Shaheen to replace him.   

The secretary-general’s office forwarded this to the General Assembly committee that handles the accreditation of ambassadors. The credentials committee typically does not meet until October or November, so no resolution of the issue is imminent.    

Myanmar has also informed the U.N. that it will not address the annual gathering.   

In February, the military seized power in a coup and detained most of the national unity government. The junta has sought to replace Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun with one of its own but will also have to go to the credentials committee with its request. Myanmar was initially scheduled to speak on Monday, but withdrew several days ago, U.N. officials said.    

New tone  

Meanwhile, Israel’s new prime minister, Naftali Bennett, made his U.N. debut. While he argued the hardline position on why Iran is a threat to Israel’s security, his calm but urgent tone drew a sharp contrast to his predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu. The Iranian threat dominated most of the former prime minister’s U.N. speeches, which were accompanied by props and a cheering section.  

Bennett did not touch on Iran for a full 13 minutes. As for the Palestinians, he never mentioned them. He spoke first of Israel’s pioneering efforts vaccinating its population against COVID-19. Israeli data has helped other governments in developing their own vaccination strategies.   

“We pioneered the booster shot,” Bennett said of the third jab of certain vaccines that scientists say can offer better protection from the virus’ variants. 

“Two months in, I can report that it works: with a third dose, you’re seven times more protected than with two doses, and 40 times more protected than without any 

vaccine,” he said. “As a result, Israel is on course to escape the fourth wave 

without a lockdown, without further harm to our economy.”  

Iranian threat  

On regional foe Iran, Bennett warned Tehran has made “swarms” of killer drones operational.

“They plan to blanket the skies of the Middle East with this lethal force,” Bennett said. He said Tehran has already used the drones — called the Shahed 136 — to attack Saudi Arabia, U.S. targets in Iraq and civilian ships at sea.   

“Iran plans to arm its proxies in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon with hundreds and then thousands of these deadly drones,” he said.   

On the nuclear issue, he said Iran is violating International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguard agreements, including enriching uranium to one step below nuclear weapons-grade.  

“Iran’s nuclear program has hit a watershed moment — and so has our tolerance,” the Israeli prime minister warned. “Words do not stop centrifuges from spinning.”  

He repeated Israel’s long-standing pledge not to let Iran acquire a nuclear weapon.   

The United Arab Emirates, which normalized relations with Israel a year ago in the Abraham Accords, also expressed concern about Iran’s regional activities.   

“We cannot ignore Iran’s development of its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, as well as its interference in the region,” said Khalifa al Matar, the country’s minister of state. ”Therefore, any future agreement with Iran must address the shortcomings of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — JCPOA — and must involve the countries of the region.”  

The JCPOA is the 2015 nuclear deal that lifted certain sanctions on Iran in exchange for its limiting its nuclear activities. The deal has been on life support since the Trump administration withdrew the United States from it in 2018. The Iranians stopped complying with their commitments a year later. Foreign ministers involved in the deal said last week that they hope talks to bring both parties back to compliance under the nuclear deal will resume soon in Vienna.   

Iran maintains its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. 

Yemen’s foreign minister, which is mired in a war with Houthi rebels, on Monday expressed his frustration with what he said is Tehran’s military and logistic support for the rebels.   

“This proves that Iran has been and continues to be part of the problem in Yemen, rather than the solution,” Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak said.    

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 100 presidents and prime ministers traveled to New York for the annual gathering. The U.N. and New York City had numerous health protocols in place, but at least one delegation reported an outbreak.   

At last count, Brazilian media report at least four members of President Jair Bolsonaro’s delegation, including his son, Eduardo, who is a legislator, and the health minister, had tested positive for COVID-19 while in New York.  

 
…

As some 100 American citizens are still waiting to leave Afghanistan, the State Department said Monday that the biggest hurdle to their evacuation remains the “unpredictability” of the Taliban.

“The biggest constraint to the departure of our citizens and others from Afghanistan, of course, remains the Taliban’s unpredictability, regarding who is permitted to depart,” a senior State Department official told reporters during a background briefing Monday.

“The second big constraint is the absence of regular commercial air service to enable folks who wish to depart to do so in a predictable manner,” they added.

The official estimated that roughly 100 American citizens and permanent residents are “ready to go” currently.

The State Department said its officials are in “regular communication” with private groups chartering their own evacuation flights from the country, and also in communication with the Taliban consistently working to negotiate the safe departure of Americans.

Roughly 124,000 people were flown out of Afghanistan after the U.S. announced its military departure and the Taliban took control of the capital in late August.

Since all U.S. forces officially departed on August 31, the State Department says 85 Americans have been able to leave the country.

State Department Correspondent Nike Ching contributed to this report.
…

The prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague on Monday asked the tribunal for permission to resume a war crimes investigation into the actions of the Taliban and Islamic State-Khorasan in Afghanistan. 

The ICC had spent 15 years investigating alleged war crimes in war-torn Afghanistan, but the probe was put on hold a year ago by the U.S.-backed Afghan government, which said it was conducting its own investigation before it fell to the Taliban last month. 

The ICC is a court of last resort for war crimes investigations, when individual member countries are unable or unwilling to conduct their own probes. New ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said that since the internationally recognized Kabul government has fallen, there is a “significant change of circumstances.” 

“After reviewing matters carefully, I have reached the conclusion that, at this time, there is no longer the prospect of genuine and effective domestic investigations … within Afghanistan,” Khan said. 

The ICC judges will now consider Khan’s request. Investigators had been examining alleged crimes by all sides in the conflict, including U.S. forces, Afghan government troops and Taliban fighters. 

Khan said he wants to focus his investigation on actions of the Taliban and Islamic State-Khorasan, the offshoot of the Islamic State terrorist group operating in Afghanistan, and to “deprioritize” alleged war crimes by U.S. forces. 

The earlier inclusion of alleged war crimes by U.S. forces had angered the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump, which imposed sanctions on Khan’s predecessor, Fatou Bensouda, over the issue. The U.S. lifted the sanctions on Bensouda earlier this year under the administration of President Joe Biden. 

Khan said his new focus of an investigation was necessary because of the “gravity, scale and continuing nature of alleged crimes by the Taliban and the Islamic State” and the need to “construct credible cases capable of being proved beyond reasonable doubt in the courtroom.” 

The ICC prosecutor said one focus of a new investigation would be the deadly August 26 attack on Kabul airport, an incident claimed by IS-K, in which 13 U.S. service members and more than 100 Afghan civilians were killed. 

Some material in this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse. 

 
…

Thousands of farmers in India blocked highways and rail tracks on Monday to give renewed momentum to their months-long demand for scrapping agricultural laws that have triggered the country’s longest farm protest and presented a political challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

The nationwide protest, or “bharat bandh,” was held on the first anniversary of the passage of the laws that the government says will modernize the agricultural sector, but which farmers fear will spell an existential threat to their livelihoods.

The legislation allows farmers to do business outside government-run wholesale markets where they have sold their crops for decades at guaranteed prices.

But farmers fear that opening up sales of farm produce to the corporate sector will end an era of assured prices for crops like rice and wheat. They say farmers in states such as Bihar where the system has been scrapped are already in distress and get a lower price for their crop. 

Defiant farmers have camped on highways on the outskirts of New Delhi since November amid the persisting stalemate — the government has often said it is open to a dialogue but will not repeal the laws.

On Monday, thousands of farmers waving flags converged outside key roads leading to the Indian capital choking traffic. A farmer from Haryana, Sunil Kumar, who was among the protestors, said the stir demonstrated the farmers’ determination to continue their struggle has not ended.

Life was also disrupted in the northern states of Punjab and Haryana, lush rice and wheat growing states, that have been at the forefront of the protest.

The farmers stir also reverberated in the south of the country — they held protests in the southern cities of Chennai and Bengaluru and Kerala state. In some places they squatted on rail tracks.

Ahead of Monday’s protest, Rakesh Tikait, one of the farm leaders spearheading the stir, said that they are ready to protest for ten years, but will not allow the “black legislation” to be passed.

Several opposition parties including the Congress Party have supported the farmers’ demands. In a tweet, senior leader Rahul Gandhi called the government “exploitative” and extended support to farmers using hashtag #Istandwithfarmers. 

The government maintains the laws will improve farm incomes and agricultural productivity. Prime Minister Narendra Modi called them a “watershed moment” for Indian agriculture when they were passed last year.

India’s agriculture has not kept pace with its economy shrinking to just 15% of gross domestic product over the decades. But nearly two thirds of the country, or some 800 million people, depend on agriculture for their livelihood as the country has not been able to generate enough non-farm-based jobs. 

“The protest is a reflection of the compound anger they carry at the neglect of agriculture, especially farmers’ incomes which have become so low over the decades,” says agriculture economist Devinder Sharma. “The government believes that facilitating corporate entry would pull agriculture out of the crisis but that will not help because a majority of the farmers are small.”

The bulk of Indian farmers own plots of less than one hectare and fear that the laws will make them vulnerable to corporates that will drive down prices and force them to sell their land.

With the stalemate showing no signs of a resolution, the political impact of the farmers stir will be tested early next year when elections in India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, are held.

Farmers from the state that adjoins New Delhi are among those who have been at the forefront of the ten-month old agitation. They held a mammoth rally earlier this month and say they will step up protests across the state ahead of the polls to show that the government is pursuing what they call anti-farmer policies. 
…

Afghanistan’s Taliban government Sunday asked foreign airlines to resume commercial flights to and from Kabul, saying problems at the capital city’s airport had been resolved and the facility “is fully operational.” 

The Islamist group regained control of the war-torn country in mid-August following the collapse of the Western-backed Afghan government as American and allied troops withdrew from Afghanistan, ending nearly 20 years of involvement in the conflict.

The Kabul airport was closed for all commercial flights in the wake of the emergency evacuation of tens of thousands of foreigners and vulnerable Afghans that ensued after the Taliban takeover of the capital.

The airport, which was damaged during the chaotic evacuation, has since been reopened for a limited number of aid and chartered passenger flights with technical assistance mainly from Qatar.

“As the problems at Kabul International Airport have been resolved and the airport is fully operational for domestic and international flights, the IEA assures all airlines of its full cooperation,” said Abdul Qahar Balkhi, the newly appointed spokesman for the Taliban Foreign Ministry.

Balkhi used an abbreviation for Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the Taliban’s term for their new government. The spokesman noted that the suspension of international flights had left many Afghan citizens stranded. 

“[A] majority of these Afghans are women, children, students, patients, and traders who need to travel freely. Moreover, many Afghan citizens who have international employment or pursue education abroad are now facing difficulties in reaching their destinations,” Balkhi said.

There was no immediate reaction to the Taliban’s call for foreign airlines to resume flight operations.

A spokesman for Pakistan International Airlines (PIA,) when asked for a response, told VOA the state-run carrier is ready to restart commercial flights from Islamabad to Kabul but conditions on the ground are still demanding and “insurance rates are too high” to undertake the operation.

The Taliban’s appeal for foreign airlines to resume their flights comes amid stepped up diplomatic efforts by the Islamist group to seek international legitimacy for its nascent men-only caretaker government that is grappling with a severe economic crisis and has been criticized for excluding women.

The Islamist movement’s return to power prompted Washington to block billions of dollars held in U.S. reserves for Kabul, while the World Bank and International Monetary Fund both halted Afghanistan’s access to crucial funding amid worries about the fate of Afghan basic human rights under Taliban rule. 

The global community at large has not opened direct engagement with the Taliban, saying it is waiting to see if the fundamentalist movement respects human rights and runs Afghanistan through an inclusive government unlike their previous rule from 1996 to 2001.

The Taliban at the time had enforced a brutal justice system, barred women from work and public life, and didn’t allow girls to receive an education. But they have promised to demonstrate a more tolerant governance and respect human rights, especially for women, and prevent Afghanistan from again becoming a haven for international terrorists. 

China, Russia and neighboring Pakistan have all moved to engage with the Taliban and been pressing the world to help Kabul meet urgent humanitarian needs of Afghans.

These countries have demanded the unfreezing of Afghan assets and the removal of other sanctions to prevent an economic meltdown in the turmoil-hit country. But they also have withheld recognition of the Taliban government until it delivers on its stated commitments. 

The Chinese ambassador to Kabul met Sunday with the acting Taliban foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, and renewed Beijing’s call for helping the country.

In post-meeting tweet, Balkhi said that Ambassador Wang Yu “emphasized the need for humanitarian assistance and cooperation with Afghanistan and enhancing trade between the two countries.” 

On Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at the United Nations that international recognition of the Taliban “at the present juncture is not on the table.” He said the government in Kabul fails to reflect “the whole gamut of Afghan society — ethno-religious and political forces — so we are engaging in contacts, they are ongoing.” 

Lavrov noted that Moscow, Washington, Beijing and Islamabad are working collectively to hold the Taliban to the promises they made.

“What’s most important … is to ensure that the promises that they have proclaimed publicly [are] to be kept,” said the chief Russian diplomat. “And for us, that is the top priority.” 

For their part, Taliban officials have defended their government, saying it comprises representatives of all Afghan ethnicities and promising women will be inducted into it “very soon.” But they have pledged not to make any changes in the Cabinet under foreign pressure. 
…

The Taliban hanged a body from a crane parked in a city square in Afghanistan on Saturday in a gruesome display that signaled the hardline movement’s return to some of its brutal tactics of the past.

Taliban officials initially brought four bodies to the central square in the western city of Herat, then moved three of them to other parts of the city for public display, said Wazir Ahmad Seddiqi, who runs a pharmacy on the edge of the square. 

Taliban officials announced that the four were caught taking part in a kidnapping earlier Saturday and were killed by police, Seddiqi said. Ziaulhaq Jalali, a Taliban-appointed district police chief in Herat, said later that Taliban members rescued a father and son who had been abducted by four kidnappers after an exchange of gunfire. He said a Taliban fighter and a civilian were wounded by the kidnappers, and that the kidnappers were killed in crossfire.

An Associated Press video showed crowds gathering around the crane and peering up at the body as some men chanted.

“The aim of this action is to alert all criminals that they are not safe,” a Taliban commander who did not identify himself told the AP in an on-camera interview conducted in the square.

Since the Taliban overran Kabul on August 15 and seized control of the country, Afghans and the world have been watching to see whether they will re-create their harsh rule of the late 1990s, which included public stonings and limb amputations of alleged criminals, some of which took place in front of large crowds at a stadium.

After one of the Taliban’s founders said in an interview with The Associated Press this past week that the hardline movement would again carry out executions and amputations of hands, the U.S. State Department said such acts “would constitute clear gross abuses of human rights.” 

“Everyone criticized us for the punishments in the stadium, but we have never said anything about their laws and their punishments,” Mullah Nooruddin Turabi said in an AP interview. “No one will tell us what our laws should be. We will follow Islam and we will make our laws on the Quran.” 
…

International recognition of the Taliban “at the present juncture is not on the table,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Saturday at the United Nations.

Among the Taliban’s promises are ensuring an inclusive government; respecting human rights, especially for women; and preventing Afghanistan from becoming a haven for terrorists.

But the interim Taliban government, Lavrov said, fails to reflect “the whole gamut of Afghan society — ethno-religious and political forces — so we are engaging in contacts, they are ongoing.”

Russia, the United States, China and Pakistan, he said, are working to hold the Taliban to the promises they made when they seized control of Afghanistan in mid-August. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said the Taliban’s desire for such recognition is the only leverage the world has.

“What’s most important … is to ensure that the promises that they have proclaimed publicly [are] to be kept,” Lavrov added at news conference Saturday afternoon.

Lavrov addressed a wide range of topics, including the Iran nuclear deal and Russian mercenaries in Mali.

On Iran, Lavrov urged a greater effort from the U.S. to rejoin the deal.

“It seems evident they should be more active” in “resolving all issues related” to the accord, Lavrov told reporters, according to Agence France-Presse.

Negotiations stuck

Talks in Vienna among representatives from Iran, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany have stalled, and Iran is no longer in compliance with the nuclear agreement, Lavrov said, “simply because the United State has left it.”

The deal was struck in 2015 and called for Iran to undo most of its nuclear program and allow international monitoring. In exchange, it would receive sanctions relief. Former U.S. President Donald Trump left the deal in 2018, and Iran resumed nuclear activities. U.S. President Joe Biden has said he wants to rejoin the agreement if Iran returns to compliance.

Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said Friday that the talks would resume “very soon,” but Tehran has not been specific about the timeframe, according to AFP.

On Mali, Lavrov said the country had turned to a private military company to help it combat terrorism, something France and the U.S. oppose. Lavrov said the Russian government had nothing to do with any agreement between Mali and Russia’s Wagner Group.

Earlier Saturday at the General Assembly annual meeting, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it was crucial that Afghanistan not be used to spread terrorism globally, and he called on world leaders to help minorities in the country, along with women and children.

The Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in August after the U.S. decision to withdraw troops from the country following 20 years of war the U.S and its allies initiated after the al-Qaida terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

No ‘misuse’ of Afghan situation

“It is important to ensure that the land of Afghanistan is not used to spread terrorism and perpetuate terrorist attacks,” Modi said.

“We also have to be alert that no nation should be able to misuse the delicate situation in Afghanistan for their own selfish motives, like a tool,” Modi added in an apparent reference to Pakistan, locked between Afghanistan and India.

Modi’s appeal to protect women in Afghanistan came amid indications the Taliban have been limiting women’s rights since they seized Kabul, despite recent statements that they were willing to ease restrictions on women and girls. Women were largely banned from public life under the Taliban’s previous reign in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.

The prime minister of India, which competes with China for influence in Kashmir and in the Indian Ocean region, also cited the need to shield oceans from “the race for expansion and exclusion.”

Other speakers Saturday at the assembly included leaders from Ethiopia, Mali and Haiti.
…

Fatima Alzahra Shon thinks neighbors attacked her and her son in their Istanbul apartment building because she is Syrian.  

The 32-year-old refugee from Aleppo was confronted on Sept. 1 by a Turkish woman who asked her what she was doing in “our” country. Shon replied, “Who are you to say that to me?” The situation quickly escalated.

A man came out of the Turkish woman’s apartment half-dressed, threatening to cut Shon and her family “into pieces,” she recalled. Another neighbor, a woman, joined in, shouting and hitting Shon. The group then pushed her down a flight of stairs. Shon said that when her 10-year-old son, Amr, tried to intervene, he was beaten as well.

Shon said she has no doubt about the motivation for the aggression: “Racism.”

Refugees fleeing the long conflict in Syria once were welcomed in neighboring Turkey with open arms, sympathy and compassion for fellow Muslims. But attitudes gradually hardened as the number of newcomers swelled over the past decade.

Anti-immigrant sentiment is now nearing a boiling point, fueled by Turkey’s economic woes. With unemployment high and the prices of food and housing skyrocketing, many Turks have turned their frustration toward the country’s roughly 5 million foreign residents, particularly the 3.7 million who fled the civil war in Syria.

In August, violence erupted in Ankara, the Turkish capital, as an angry mob vandalized Syrian businesses and homes in response to the deadly stabbing of a Turkish teenager.

Turkey hosts the world’s largest refugee population, and many experts say that has come at a cost. Selim Sazak, a visiting international security researcher at Bilkent University in Ankara and an advisor to officials from the opposition IYI Party, compared the arrival of so many refugees to absorbing “a foreign state that’s ethnically, culturally, linguistically dissimilar.”  

“Everyone thought that it would be temporary,” Sazak said. “I think it’s only recently that the Turkish population understood that these people are not going back. They are only recently understanding that they have to become neighbors, economic competitors, colleagues with this foreign population.”

On a recent visit to Turkey, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi acknowledged that the high number of refugees had created social tensions, especially in the country’s big cities. He urged “donor countries and international organizations to do more to help Turkey.”

The prospect of a new influx of refugees following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has reinforced the unreceptive public mood. Videos purporting to show young Afghan men being smuggled into Turkey from Iran caused public outrage and led to calls for the government to safeguard the country’s borders.

The government says there are about 300,000 Afghans in Turkey, some of whom hope to continue their journeys to reach Europe.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who long defended an open-door policy toward refugees, recently recognized the public’s “unease” and vowed not to allow the country to become a “warehouse” for refugees. Erdogan’s government sent soldiers to Turkey’s eastern frontier with Iran to stem the expected flow of Afghans and is speeding up the construction of a border wall.

Immigration is expected to become a top campaign topic even though Turkey’s next general election is two years away. Both Turkey’s main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, and the nationalist IYI Party have promised to work on creating conditions that would allow the Syrian refugees’ return. waste collection fees foreigners there to propel them to leave.  

Following the anti-Syrian violence in the Altindag district of Ankara last month, Umit Ozdag, a right-wing politician who recently formed his own anti-immigrant party, visited the area wheeling an empty suitcase and saying the time has come for the refugees to “start packing.”

The riots broke out on Aug. 11, a day after a Turkish teenager was stabbed to death in a fight with a group of young Syrians. Hundreds of people chanting anti-immigrant slogans took to the streets, vandalized Syrian-run shops and hurled rocks at refugees’ homes.

A 30-year-old Syrian woman with four children who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals said her family locked themselves in their bathroom as an attacker climbed onto their balcony and tried to force the door open. The woman said the episode traumatized her 5-year-old daughter and the girl has trouble sleeping at night.

Some shops in the area remain closed, with traces of the disturbance still visible on their dented, metal shutters. Police have deployed multiple vehicles and a water cannon on the streets to prevent a repeat of the turmoil.

Syrians are often accused of failing to assimilate in Turkey, a country that has a complex relationship with the Arab world dating back to the Ottoman empire. While majority Muslim like neighboring Arab countries, Turks trace their origins to nomadic warriors from central Asia and Turkish belongs to a different language group than Arabic.

Kerem Pasaoglu, a pastry shop owner in Istanbul, said he wants Syrians to go back to their country and is bothered that some shops a street over have signs written in Arabic instead of Turkish.

“Just when we said we are getting used to Syrians or they will leave, now the Afghans coming is unfortunately very difficult for us,” he said.

Turkey’s foreign minister this month said Turkey is working with the United Nations’ refugee agency to safely return Syrians to their home country.

While the security situation has stabilized in many parts of Syria after a decade of war, forced conscription, indiscriminate detentions and forced disappearances continue to be reported. Earlier this month, Amnesty International said some Syrian refugees who returned home were subjected to detention, disappearance and torture at the hands of Syrian security forces, proving that going back to any part of the country is unsafe.

Shon said police in Istanbul showed little sympathy when she reported the attack by her neighbors. She said officers kept her at the station for hours, while the male neighbor who threatened and beat her was able to leave after giving a brief statement.

Shon fled Aleppo in 2012, when the city became a battleground between Syrian government forces and rebel fighters. She said the father of her children drowned while trying to make it to Europe. Now, she wonders whether Turkey is the right place for her and her children.

“I think of my children’s future. I try to support them in any way I can, but they have a lot of psychological issues now and I don’t know how to help them overcome it,” she said. “I don’t have the power anymore. I’m very tired.

 
…

Pakistan’s prime minister is urging the international community to support the new Taliban leaders in Afghanistan instead of isolating them.

In a prerecorded message to the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, Imran Khan said the world community should stabilize the current leaders “for the sake of the people of Afghanistan.”

“If we neglect Afghanistan right now, according to the U.N., half the people of Afghanistan are already vulnerable, and by next year almost 90% of the people in Afghanistan will go below the poverty line,” Khan said.

He noted that the Taliban have promised to respect human rights, form an inclusive government and not allow their country to be used by terrorists.

“If the world community incentivizes them, encourages them to walk this talk, it will be a win-win situation for everyone,” he said.

On Thursday, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi conveyed to the United States that while Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers should be held to their commitments, the world has “a moral obligation” to collectively work to help the Afghan people deal with a severe humanitarian and economic crisis in the war-ravaged country.

Qureshi delivered the message Thursday in his meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during which they discussed the way forward in Afghanistan, according to an official statement issued in Islamabad. The discussions took place in New York, on the sidelines of the General Assembly.

Qureshi “hoped that the world would not repeat the mistake of disengaging with Afghanistan,” according to the statement.

The U.S. State Department said Blinken stressed “the importance of coordinating our diplomatic engagement and facilitating the departure of those wishing to leave Afghanistan” in his talks with Qureshi.

The Taliban swept through Afghanistan in August, after Washington and Western allies withdrew their troops in line with U.S. President Joe Biden’s orders that there was no point in extending America’s longest war beyond 20 years.

The Islamist movement’s return to power prompted the Biden administration to swiftly block billions of dollars held in U.S. reserves for Kabul, while the World Bank and International Monetary Fund both halted Afghanistan’s access to crucial funding amid worries about the fate of Afghan basic human rights under Taliban rule.

Blinken told reporters Thursday the Afghan issue was the focus of his multilateral and bilateral meetings, including with counterparts from Russia and China. He said that the Taliban continue to seek legitimacy and international support for their rule in Kabul, and that the world is united on how to deal with Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

“I think there is very strong unity of approach and unity of purpose. … Again, the Taliban says that it seeks legitimacy, that it seeks support from the international community. The relationship that it has with the international community is going to be defined by the actions it takes. That’s what we’re looking for,” Blinken stressed.

He reiterated U.S. priorities for the Islamist group, including allowing Afghans and foreign nationals to leave the country; respecting human rights, particularly for women, girls and minorities; preventing terrorist groups from using Afghanistan to threaten other countries; and forming a “genuinely inclusive government” that can reflect aspirations of the Afghan people.

The Taliban have dismissed criticism of their male-only interim Cabinet, saying it represents all Afghan ethnicities, and it promised to “very soon” bring women on board.

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Taliban) has writ all over the country and enjoy grassroots support. We truly represent the aspirations of the people of Afghanistan and are ready to engage with the world,” Suhail Shaheen, whom the Taliban have nominated as their permanent representative to the U.N., said Friday.

“The U.N. should listen to us to hear our side of the story. It is proved, policy of isolation is in the interest of none,” insisted Shaheen, who is based in Doha, Qatar, where the Taliban run their political office.

Pakistan, China and Russia have all moved to engage with the Taliban and have been urging the global community to engage with and help the new rulers in Kabul meet urgent humanitarian needs of Afghans.

They have demanded the unfreezing of Afghan assets and the removal of other economic sanctions on Kabul, but they also have linked recognition of the new Taliban government until it delivers on its stated commitments.

“Just as an overwhelming majority of countries around the world, we prefer to most closely watch what the Taliban have been doing in Afghanistan, what final shape the structure of power in that country will take, and how the given promises will be fulfilled. We are monitoring this very closely,” Russian media quoted presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov as saying Friday.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, while addressing a virtual conference of G-20 foreign ministers on Thursday, also underscored the importance of the Taliban ensuring a broad and inclusive governance system in Kabul but slammed the freezing of Afghan assets by the U.S. and international lending institutions.

“Afghanistan’s foreign exchange reserves are its national assets and should be owned by and used for the people rather than being used as a bargaining chip to exert political pressure on Afghanistan,” he said.

Pakistan was among the only three countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, that recognized the Taliban government from 1996-2001, after the movement emerged the winner from the then-Afghan civil war. The rest of the global community isolated Afghanistan, citing human rights abuses by the Taliban, including, among other things, its ban on women and girls from work and receiving an education.

However, Qureshi has recently stated Islamabad was not in a rush to extend diplomatic recognition to the Taliban’s new government, but it would keep sending humanitarian assistance to the neighboring country, with which Pakistan shares a nearly 2,600-kilometer border.

On Monday, the U.N. secretary-general received a letter from the Taliban notifying him that they want to replace Afghanistan Ambassador Ghulam Isaczai, who was appointed in July by the ousted Kabul government, with their own envoy. Acting Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, in his letter, said they want to participate in the current UNGA debate.

Afghanistan is slated to speak last, on Sept. 27. Presumably that would be Isaczai, who is still the accredited representative.

A U.N. spokesperson said it will be up to a nine-member General Assembly credentials committee to decide who will represent Afghanistan at the United Nations. It is unlikely to meet before October, however, making it doubtful the Taliban could address the annual debate. 

 
…

Afghan female activists urged the international community Friday to keep the pressure on the Taliban to let girls return to school, saying Afghanistan’s new de facto rulers cannot be allowed to normalize gender discrimination.

“Don’t let the Taliban’s oppression be normalized,” Shaharzad Akbar, chair of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, told a virtual event on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. “Don’t pretend that it is part of Afghan culture or part of Islam — our religion — to have women oppressed and deprived of their basic human rights.”

Fawzia Koofi, the first female deputy speaker of Afghanistan’s parliament, echoed that.

“Women’s liberty, girls’ freedom — including education in Afghanistan — is a sign of an Afghanistan that could live in peace and harmony with its citizens and with the world,” Koofi said from Qatar, where she fled with her children at the end of August. “So do not think an Afghanistan that is oppressing its nation — oppressing 55% of society to stay in the midst of nowhere — could be a reliable partner to you. It will not.”

Rerun seen on female rights

The Taliban swept into the capital, Kabul, on August 15, after President Ashraf Ghani’s government collapsed. In the intervening weeks, they have announced their interim government, which has no female members. The Taliban have also said girls would be allowed to return to school at the right time, but so far, they have allowed only primary school-age girls to return. Female secondary school and university students remain sidelined.

This is a rerun of what happened when the Taliban seized power in 1996, Koofi said, when so-called temporary measures eventually became permanent.

The female activists emphasized that education for girls and women is a right both in Islam and in the Afghan Constitution.

The U.N. says 4.2 million Afghan children are not enrolled in school, and much of this can be blamed on COVID-19 closures. Around 60% are girls.

“We have to get them back in. We have to make sure they are integrating,” said Henrietta Fore, executive director of UNICEF.

“We can do more with distance education and remote learning,” Fore said, addressing ways to make sure girls’ learning is not interrupted. “We need to have women teachers going back to schools, and we need more women teachers.”

But Koofi said remote learning for girls is not a substitute for being in the classroom, which “demonstrates the power and the future of Afghanistan.”

But what will await them at school is another concern for activists.

“I am as worried about the changes the Taliban will bring to curriculum, especially the curriculum studied by girls, as about the ban on the schools,” Akbar said.

Scholarships, opportunities

The activists, including the young captain of Afghanistan’s now famous all-female robotics team, urged support from the international community in providing scholarships for female students to study abroad and collaborating with Afghan universities to broaden opportunities for girls and women.

One thing is clear: They say the Taliban are afraid of women’s empowerment.

“I was targeted for speaking out for girls’ education,” said Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, who survived being shot by Taliban gunmen in her northern Pakistani town as a teenager in 2012. “And it proved to me that the Taliban were scared of the voice of women and girls.” 
…

A former Afghan policeman who says he is out of work under the new Taliban government is one of thousands of Afghans who have fled over the border to Iran in recent weeks.

Abdul Ahad, a 22-year-old former officer, told VOA that he is leaving the country because he “has no hope for a future” in Afghanistan.

“I lost my job, and I am forced to leave (Afghanistan) searching for a job so I can feed my family,” said Ahad, who worked for four years as a policeman in western Farah province. “I do not know what I will be doing in Iran, but at least I will be able to find a job there, earn some money and send it back to my family.” 

Ahad is far from alone. Multiple sources and eyewitnesses in the border city of Zaranj, the capital of southwestern Nimruz province, have confirmed to VOA that after the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, thousands of Afghans, fearing economic hardships and political persecution under the Taliban, are fleeing over the border to Iran.

An International Organization for Migration (IOM) official in Afghanistan told RFE/RL in July that up to 1.5 million Afghans could flee west in 2021 in search of “protection, safety, and jobs.”

Like many others on the road, Ahad is the breadwinner of his joint family, including his wife and son, parents and three younger brothers. 

As a policeman, Ahad said that he was paid $150 (13,000 AFN) a month, which was his only income “to feed my family, but now without an income, what would my family eat.”

The World Food Program (WFP) said Thursday that 95% of Afghan families do not have enough food.

“Due to the combined effects of unemployment, a drop in the value of the local currency and a rise in prices . . . only 10 percent of families headed by someone with a secondary or university education can afford sufficient food.” said WFP, in a press release.

Fear of Reprisal 

Ahad added that many of his former colleagues in the Afghan security forces had already left for Iran. “Some left because of economic problems, but others fled fearing the Taliban’s reprisal.” 

The Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan last month, pledged amnesty for government officials, but many Afghans who worked for the government remain fearful.

Human Rights Watch alleges the militant group has carried out extrajudicial killings of former government officials and security personnel.

Ahad said that he has been in Zaranj for the past 20 days.

“The route via Pakistan has been shut for the past few days. Now, we have to go to Chahar Burjak district and cross the fence at the Afghan-Iran border,” he said. “They [the smugglers] tell me that it is risky, but we take the risk because we do not have any option.”

‘Taking Risks’ 

Mohmmad Agha, who transports refugees and migrants to the border area with Pakistan, said that because the routes through Pakistan are shut, people cross the fence, overlooked by Iranian security towers.

“People take risks. Some are shot when they try crossing the fence, or caught inside Iran and then deported,” said Mohmmad Agha, adding that, “I have personally seen people shot, and dead bodies are brought to Afghanistan.”

He said that in recent weeks, most of the people coming to Zaranj to leave for Iran are from Afghanistan’s north.

“They are from Badakhshan, Takhar, Jawzjan and other northern provinces. Many of them are former government security personnel and officers,” Agha said.

He said Afghan migrants and refugees would go to Iran and “some will stay there,” and others would go to Turkey, and from there “they will try to go to Europe.”

Last week, Turkey warned of a new wave of Afghan refugees.

The Turkish government said last week that it cannot host more refugees and called on the international community to address the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan so that Afghans do not flee their country.

Mehrab, a local shopkeeper in Zaranj city, told VOA that the number of those coming to his city on their way to Iran, has increased ‘exponentially’ after the Taliban’s takeover.

He said that people are taking dangerous routes to leave the country.

“Smugglers usually transport Afghan migrants and refugees to the Chahar Burjak district (about 90 miles south of Zaranj), then to Pakistan, and from there to Iran,” said Mehrab, who goes by his first name, as many other Afghans. 

Thousands Flee 

Mehrab said people are waiting in Zaranj for the crossing routes to Pakistan to be opened so they can go to Iran. 

“There is no space in the hotels. They (Afghan refugees and migrants) sleep on the streets and in front of shops and in garages,” said Mehrab. “Unlike in the past that only young Afghans would go to Iran, there are many families leaving the country.” 

He added that before the closure of the crossing points to Pakistan and after the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, around 600 to 700 pickup trucks, each with some 20 people, would leave daily to Iran.

In videos obtained by VOA last week, a caravan of hundreds of pickup trucks, packed with men are seen departing from Zaranj city. VOA cannot independently verify the accuracy of the videos and pictures.

In a written response, David Preux, IOM emergency coordinator, said it is difficult to know how many Afghans are crossing to the neighboring countries.

“It is difficult at this point to provide accurate data on crossings into neighboring countries due to operational and security challenges,” said Preux.

IOM, however, said in July, that there was a 30 to 40% increase in the number of people leaving Afghanistan than in the previous month.

 
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Late last month, Muhammad Iqbal Mengal traveled from Pakistan to Afghanistan to report on the Taliban takeover. But just a few days after arriving in Kabul, the journalist and his colleague were detained.

Members of the Taliban held Mengal and photojournalist Shehzad Ahmed for more than 10 days. The pair, who work for the Pakistani broadcaster 92 News, were released after the Pakistan embassy and journalism organizations intervened.

In an interview with VOA’s Urdu Service, Mengal described how Taliban fighters tied him and Ahmed up, before blindfolding and questioning them.

“They kept asking if we are spies and where did we come from?” Mengal said.  

The journalists, who are based in the Khuzdar district of Balochistan in Pakistan, arrived in the Afghan border area of Spin Boldak on August 18—three days after the Taliban took control of the country’s capital.

“I wanted to cover the ground realities. I wanted the world to know what’s happening on the ground in Afghanistan and speak to [local] people,” Mengal said.  

He and Ahmed reported from Kandahar and Herat before heading to Kabul.

On August 28, the journalists were reporting on the aftermath of the suicide bombing at Kabul airport. But when they tried to visit the emergency room of a city hospital, members of the Taliban blocked them.  

“They said, we can’t enter the hospital or cover the outside scenes because upper leadership doesn’t allow it,” he said.

The journalists left the hospital but Mengal said they got lost and so approached a Taliban checkpoint for help.  

Mengal said the Taliban fighters asked the journalists to come to a nearby office. But, he said, “They found us suspicious and took our mobile phones away. They started to search us and found Pakistani ID cards on us which made them more suspicious.”

After that, the journalists had their hands tied, were blindfolded and taken away for investigation.  

At least 14 journalists have been detained briefly by the Taliban since August 15, according to media watchdog the Committee to Protect Journalists. Some of those detained said they were beaten.  

The arrests have cast doubt on Taliban promises that media will be allowed to operate freely, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator Steven Butler said in a statement.  

“We urge the Taliban to live up to those earlier promises, to stop beating and detaining reporters doing their job, and allow the media to work freely without fear of reprisal,” Butler said.

A Taliban spokesperson has said the beatings will be investigated.

Many of the arrests took place as media covered protests by women calling for their rights to be protected.

The spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights has also called on Taliban to allow Afghans to exercise their rights.  

In a September 10 statement, the spokesperson called on the group “to immediately cease the use of force toward, and the arbitrary detention of, those exercising their right to peaceful assembly and the journalists covering the protests.”

Mengal and Ahmed of 92 News were finally released on September 9 without charge.  

“Our [news] channel, friends, and family even the embassy in Kabul and journalist organizations, all came together to help us and that’s how we got rescued,” Mengal said.

This story originated in VOA’s Urdu Service.
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Pakistan says it has conveyed to the United States that while Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers should be held to their commitments, the world has “a moral obligation” to collectively work to help the Afghan people deal with a severe humanitarian and economic crisis in the war-ravaged country.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi delivered the message Thursday in his meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, when they discussed the way forward in Afghanistan, said an official statement issued in Islamabad. The discussions took place in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

Qureshi “hoped that the world would not repeat the mistake of disengaging with Afghanistan,” according to the statement.  

The U.S. State Department said Blinken stressed “the importance of coordinating our diplomatic engagement and facilitating the departure of those wishing to leave Afghanistan” in his talks with Qureshi.  

The Taliban swept through Afghanistan in August, after Washington and Western allies withdrew their troops in line with U.S. President Joe Biden’s orders that there was no point in extending America’s longest war beyond 20 years.  

The Islamist movement’s return to power prompted the Biden administration to swiftly block billions of dollars held in U.S. reserves for Kabul, while the World Bank and International Monetary Fund both halted Afghanistan’s access to crucial funding amid worries about the fate of Afghan basic human rights under Taliban rule.

Blinken told reporters Thursday the Afghan issue was the focus of his multilateral and bilateral meetings, including with counterparts from Russia and China. He said the Taliban continue to seek legitimacy and international support for their rule in Kabul, saying the world is united on how to deal with Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

“I think there is very strong unity of approach and unity of purpose… again, the Taliban says that it seeks legitimacy, that it seeks support from the international community; the relationship that it has with the international community is going to be defined by the actions it takes. That’s what we’re looking for,” Blinken stressed.  

He reiterated U.S. priorities for the Islamist group, including allowing Afghans and foreign nationals to leave the country, respecting human rights, particularly for women, girls and minorities, preventing terrorist groups from using Afghanistan to threaten other countries, and forming a “genuinely inclusive government” that can reflect aspirations of the Afghan people.

The Taliban have dismissed criticism of their male-only interim cabinet, saying it represents all Afghan ethnicities and it promised to “very soon” bring women on board.

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Taliban) has writ all over the country and enjoy grassroots support. We truly represent the aspirations of the people of Afghanistan and are ready to engage with the world,” Suhail Shaheen, whom the Taliban have nominated as their permanent representative to the U.N., said Friday.

The U.N. should listen to us to hear our side of the story. It is proved, policy of isolation is in the interest of none,” insisted Shaheen, who is based in Doha, Qatar, where the Taliban run their political office.

Pakistan, China, and Russia have all moved to engage with the Taliban and have been urging the global community to engage with and help the new rulers in Kabul meet urgent humanitarian needs of Afghans.  

They have demanded unfreezing of Afghan assets and removal of other economic sanctions on Kabul but they also have linked recognition of the new Taliban government until it delivers on its stated commitments.

“Just as an overwhelming majority of countries around the world, we prefer to most closely watch what the Taliban have been doing in Afghanistan, what final shape the structure of power in that country will take, and how the given promises will be fulfilled. We are monitoring this very closely,” Russian media quoted presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying Friday.  

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, while addressing a virtual conference of G-20 foreign ministers on Thursday, also underscored the importance of the Taliban ensuring a broad and inclusive governance system in Kabul but slammed the freezing of Afghan assets by the U.S. and international lending institutions.

“Afghanistan’s foreign exchange reserves are its national assets and should be owned by and used for the people, rather than being used as a bargaining chip to exert political pressure on Afghanistan,” he said.  

Pakistan was among the only three countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, that recognized the Taliban government from 1996 to 2001, after the movement emerged the winner from the then-Afghan civil war. The rest of the global community isolated Afghanistan, citing human rights abuses by the Taliban, including among other things, its ban on women and girls from work and receiving an education.

However, Qureshi has recently stated Islamabad was not in a rush to extend diplomatic recognition to the Taliban’s new government but will keep sending humanitarian assistance to the neighboring country, with which Pakistan shares a nearly 2,600-kilometer border.  

On Monday, the U.N. secretary-general received a letter from the Taliban notifying him that they want to replace Afghanistan Ambassador Ghulam Isaczai, who was appointed in July by the ousted Kabul government, with their own envoy. Acting Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, in his letter, said they want to participate in the current UNGA debate.  

Afghanistan is slated to speak last, on September 27. Presumably that would be Isaczai, who is still the accredited representative.

A U.N. spokesman said it will be up to a nine-member General Assembly credentials committee to decide who will represent Afghanistan at the United Nations. It is unlikely to meet before October, however, making it doubtful the Taliban could address the annual debate.
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