Afghanistan

Government shutdown? No. Votes in the House? Not until at least 9 p.m. tonight. And on the Senate side, as Marianne LeVine wrote, “Democrats are desperately trying to make lemonade out of the bag of lemons Joe Manchin handed them today. Senate Democrats spun away Manchin’s utter rejection of their …

On September 25, 2021, Afghanistan’s Economy Minister Qari Din Mohammad Hanif said that his government does not want “help and cooperation from the world like the previous government. The old system was supported by the international community for 20 years but still failed.” It is fair to say that Hanif …

The fall of Kabul was inevitable and the only surprising element was the speed of Taliban’s advance. On the part of India, it was a strategic failure and stinging humiliation. India had invested almost $3bn in construction of dams, power lines, schools, roads and training of Afghan soldiers. India even …

The one clear advantage of the Taliban sweeping into power last month essentially unopposed was they seemed to spare Afghanistan more unnecessary bloodshed. But just as the Taliban ceased their own fighting, another brutal jihadi group began to unleash mayhem across the country. The Islamic State-Khorasan, the Islamic State’s Afghan …

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] …

Tehran used to continuously assure the West that the danger did not lie in Shia Islam to global peace, and the episode of 9/11 occurred on the right time for the Iranians to prove their claim. Though Irans then President Mohammad Khatami provided intelligence to the United States and IRGC-QFs …

The Quad grouping will graduate from the last virtual meet of four leaders to the physical summit on September 24, when US President Joe Biden hosted Japanese outgoing Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in Washington DC. But then Quad has …

On Feb. 15, 1989, Col. Gen. Boris Gromov became the last Soviet commander to leave Afghanistan, crossing the Friendship Bridge into what was then the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. Gromov’s departure ended the USSR’s decade-long military occupation of Afghanistan, characterized by some as the country’s version of the Vietnam War. …

Afghanistan’s new defense minister, Mawlawi Yaqoob, has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal as criticizing Taliban fighters who have been seen taking selfies, wearing Western-style clothes, enjoying themselves at amusement parks and Kabul’s zoo, and generally having a good time – not exactly the dour image cultivated by the …

Gen. Mark Milley testified for the first time before Congress since the United States ended its longest war in Afghanistan. During a Senate hearing held on Tuesday, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that it is a “strategic failure” with the Taliban back in …