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Peace in Afghanistan Critical for Pakistan: Gilani
Febraury 01, 2012
ISLAMABAD – Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday said peace in Afghanistan was critical for the peace and security in Pakistan. He said Pakistan always supported Afghan President Hamid Karzai's peace efforts and would continue favor an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned process of ...
Obama Confirms Drone Operation in Pakistan
Febraury 01, 2012
KABUL - The US President Barack Obama confirmed that US drones have struck Taliban and Al-Qaeda targets within Pakistan -- operations that until now had not been officially acknowledged, reports said.
"For the most part, they've been very precise precision strikes against al-Qaeda and their affiliates, and we're very careful in terms ...
Rasmussen: NATO Sticks to Transition Roadmap in Afghanistan
January 31, 2012
KABUL - NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Monday the military alliance was sticking to the transition plan in Afghanistan mapped out in 2010, despite French proposals to speed up NATO's handover of security to Afghan forces, Xinhua reported.
"We stick to the roadmap that was outlined at the NATO summit in Libson in November 2010. According to which, we will gradually handover lead responsibility to the Afghans. A process that has been started and ...
Afghanistan, Iran Sign Economic Cooperation Pact
January 31, 2012
KABUL - Afghanistan and Iran have signed an economic cooperation agreement at the end of the second meeting of the Afghan-Iran economic committee, officials said.
Afghan Ministry of Finance said on Monday that Afghanistan and Iran have also agreed to form joint committees to solve trade and transit ...
Taliban Refuse Ceasefire Before Prisoners are Released
January 31, 2012
KABUL - The Taliban have refused US demands for a ceasefire before the release of Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo.
Reports said that the US had pledged to transfer important Taliban figures from Guantanamo Bay to Qatar but now they are insisting on a ceasefire first.
The development comes as the BBC reports the Afghan government is ...
WJ Summons Finance Minister
January 31, 2012
KABUL - Members of Parliament (MPs) on Monday called for summoning several ministers over their failure to spend even 50 percent of their development budget for the last fiscal year.
Wolesi Jirga members issued the call when a final report on last year's budget spending was presented to ...
Trainers to Stay in Afghanistan Until 2014: Canadian DM
January 31, 2012
OTTAWA - Canada intends to keep military trainers in Afghanistan until 2014, according to Defense Minister Peter MacKay, despite France's announcement last week that it would bring home all its troops a year earlier than planned in 2013.
The controversial French decision, which threatens to divide NATO ...
Mohaqiq Skeptical of Taliban Peace
January 31, 2012
KABUL - Skepticism is growing inside Afghanistan's ethnic communities that a peace deal can be struck with the Taliban, under whose rule they were brutalized and persecuted, with many fearing a return to civil war, a prominent Hazara leader said.
Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq said he was deeply worried about NATO plans to ...
Daud Ali Najafi: Radar System Installed to Ensure Air Traffic Safely
January 30, 2012
KABUL - A new radar system, a 20 million euros project, was installed at the Kabul International Airport to ensure the safety of air traffic, a senior official said on Sunday.
A joint venture of Germany and Australia, the radar called "Amlat" would help ensure airspace safety, the acting transport and civil aviation minister, Daud Ali Najafi, told a news conference. The system has 30 antennas installed across the country, with the main control center in Kabul and an amplifier system in ...
Karzai ‘Plans Talks with Taliban’
January 30, 2012
KABUL – President Hamid Karzai is planning to meet the Taliban in Saudi Arabia in an attempt to jump-start peace talks, the BBC has learned.
The landmark meeting will come in the coming weeks, before the establishment of a Taliban office in Qatar, according to Western and ...
MTN Mobile Clinic Offered Free Consultation and Medicines
January 30, 2012
KABUL - MTN mobile clinic visited Nangarhar province and treated around 775 patients for free.
The people appreciated this humane act of MTN Foundation and ask for other organization to run such social projects too.
Mobile clinic doctors provided free health consultation to the ...
Afghan Withdrawal Must Be Carefully Phased: Britain
January 30, 2012
LONDON - Foreign troops must carefully phase their withdrawal from Afghanistan ahead of an end-2014 deadline, British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Saturday, after France suggested giving Afghan forces full responsibility for security in 2013.
"I don't want to see some sort of cliff edge in 2014 when all of ...
Khar to Visit Kabul for Talks on Taliban
January 30, 2012
KABUL - Pakistan and Afghanistan will open a new phase of cooperation over the Taliban insurgency with the visit of Islamabad's foreign minister this week, an official said Sunday.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar will visit Kabul on Wednesday, Afghan foreign ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai told a news ...
Peace Talks Must be Led by Afghans: Senate
January 30, 2012
KABUL - A number Meshrano Jirga (Senate) members, echoing President Hamid Karzai's position, on Sunday stressed peace talks with militants must be led by Afghans.
On the sidelines of the second Bonn conference, the US, Germany and Qatar agreed to set up a Taliban office in Qatar, a move supported by ...
Afghanistan, UN Appeal for $437 Mln in Aid
January 29, 2012
KABUL - The Afghan government and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Saturday appealed for $437 million to help needy Afghans.
The UN said 8.8 million Afghans would be in need of humanitarian assistance in 2012. Over 187,000 people were displaced in 2011, Xinhua reported.
UN humanitarian coordinator Michael Keating made the appeal at a joint press conference with Afghan ...
US, NATO Consulted on Early French Pullout
January 29, 2012
WASHINGTON - The United States and its NATO allies were consulted on the latest French decision to withdraw combat troops from Afghanistan in 2013, the Obama administration said on Friday.
"This timetable was worked through, both with the Afghans and with NATO, as part of our collective process of transferring increasing ...
Taliban’s Qatar Office Not Yet Officially Opened: Peace Council
January 29, 2012
KABUL - No Taliban office has officially been opened in Qatar, Afghan High Peace Council officials said on Saturday.
A key official at the High Peace Council, Masood Stanekzai, told TOLOnews in an exclusive interview that talks are still going on about conditions to open an office for the Taliban in ...
Karzai, Cameron Pledge to Work Toward Afghan Future
January 29, 2012
LONDON - President Hamid Karzai and Prime Minister David Cameron pledged to work toward lasting stability in Afghanistan in talks Saturday in the United Kingdom.
The pair signed a long-term agreement on the future of Afghanistan, as they met at Cameron's official country residence, Chequers.
"The United Kingdom and Afghanistan have a strong relationship ...
Top Army General Backs Plan to Cut 80,000 Troops
January 29, 2012
WASHINGTON - The US Army's top general on Friday endorsed plans to reduce the size of his force by 80,000 soldiers over the next six years, pledging a steady drawdown that would take care of troops and their families rather than "running our nation's Army off a cliff."
General Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff, said ...
Strategic Cooperation Pact Inked with Italy
January 28, 2012
KABUL - President Hamid Karzai, during his visit to European countries, signed a strategic partnership agreement with Italy, his office said on Friday.
Karzai left Kabul for the United Kingdom on a five-day trip on Tuesday. He is also to ink a strategic partnership agreement on long-term cooperation with France.
The Presidential Palace said the Italian government would support Afghanistan beyond 2014 after the ...
Pentagon Cuts Reshape Military, Trim Costs
January 28, 2012
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon unveiled a 2013 budget plan that would cut $487 billion in spending over the next decade by eliminating nearly 100,000 ground troops, mothballing ships and trimming air squadrons in a bid to create a smaller, agile force with a new strategic focus.
The funding request, which includes painful cuts that will be felt ...
US Wants Pakistan to Be Part of Afghan Peace Process
January 28, 2012
WASHINGTON - The United States believes Pakistan has an important role to play in the Afghan reconciliation process and expects Islamabad to have an ample opportunity to stay engaged on the issue going forward, the US State Department said on Thursday.
"We think Pakistan has an important role to play in supporting ...
Taliban Willing to Compromise: Negotiators
January 28, 2012
KABUL - Senior Afghan peace negotiators believe the Taliban are willing to significantly soften past hardline ideologies, with its leaders already laying the ground for possible peace talks in the Gulf state of Qatar.
Former Taliban minister Maulvi Arsala Rahmani, a member of the High ...
Karzai, Berdimuhamedov Vow to Implement Critical Projects
January 28, 2012
KABUL - After arriving to the famous city of Turkmenbashy in Turkmenistan, President Karzai met President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov to discuss a number of important economic projects including the TAPI, the Afghan-Turkmenistan railway and electricity export to Afghanistan.
The two Presidents discussed measures required to finalize for the ...
MPs Concerned at Casting of Blank Votes
January 28, 2012
KABUL - Some parliamentarians denounced as unfair casting of blank and invalid votes by Wolesi Jirga members in the parliamentary administrative board polls on Thursday, a day after they failed for a third consecutive day to elect the house deputy speaker. Lawmakers Ghulam Farooq Majrooh, Saleh Mohammad Saljoqi, Nafisa Azimi, Shah Gul ...
Taliban Has Been Broken: Obama
January 26, 2012
KABUL - US President Barack Obama said in his State of the Union address that the Taliban's momentum has been broken and remaining al-Qaeda operatives are scrambling to escape the US's reach.
He said a focused approach and the end of war in Iraq allowed the US to make "decisive blows" against extremist organizations.
"From this position of strength, we have begun to wind down the war in Afghanistan. 10,000 of our troops ...
Karzai, Zardari, Ahmadinejad to Discuss A Number of Issues
January 26, 2012
BAKU - Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit Pakistan in late February, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Asia and Oceania Affairs Mohammad Ali Fathollahi said, IRNA reported.
Fathollah added that Ahmadinejad will meet his counterparts from Afghanistan and Pakistan, Hamid Karzai and Asif Ali Zardari for ...
UNAMA Stresses Afghan-Led Peace Drive
January 26, 2012
KABUL - The Afghan government should spearhead the ongoing reconciliation process in the country, the United Nations special envoy for Afghanistan said on Wednesday.
At his maiden news conference as head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), Jan Kubiš identified the ...
Karzai Flies to Europe to Sign Strategic Partnership Agreements
January 26, 2012
KABUL - The Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday night left Kabul to Europe to sign strategic partnership agreements with Britain, France, Italy, and Turkmenistan, the President's Office said.
On Thursday President Karzai will meet Turkmen President, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow and will discuss about economic and bilateral ...
No Plan to Experiment New Political System: Crocker
January 25, 2012
KABUL - The US has no plan to change the political system in Afghanistan or divide the country, US ambassador Ryan Crocker said on Tuesday, three days after President Karzai said his country was not a lab for foreigners to experiment new political system once a while.
Ambassador Crocker called it only rumors and said such an effort by Washington would "dishonor the sacrifice of more than 1,800 American service members who have died in the cause of a unified ...
ANP, Home Ministry Must Join Graft Register: AHOOA
January 25, 2012
KABUL - Top Afghan National Police (ANP) and officials working for the powerful interior ministry will have to declare property portfolios and assets, including cash, in the latest drive to tackle endemic graft ...
UNODC and Japan Sign US$9mln Grant Agreement
January 25, 2012
KABUL – UNODC and the Government of Japan on Tuesday signed a $9 million grant agreement to build capacity in the criminal justice sector of Balkh, Bamyan and Herat provinces, in support of the Government of Afghanistan's effort to strengthen the rule of law in the country. The signing ceremony was hosted by the Ministry of ...
2,262 Civilians Killed in 2011: Report
January 25, 2012
KABUL - A total of 2,262 Afghan civilians died last year in the Afghan violence, compared to 2,777 in 2010, a report of the Congressional Research Service (CRS) said on Monday.
The report to the US Congress said that there was a slight fall in death toll from the Afghan conflict in the last year, AFP ...
Hizb Claims to be in Direct Contact with CIA
January 24, 2012
KHOST - US and Afghan officials have shown flexibility in secret talks with one of insurgent factions in the hope it will help end the country's long war, a negotiator for the outlawed Hizb-i-Islami group said on Monday.
Ghairat Baheer, the son-in-law of Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, told Reuters that he had in recent weeks held exploratory talks with CIA director David Petraeus, the former commander of coalition forces ...
U.S. Flouts Law At Guantanamo, Despite Obama Vow: U.N.
January 24, 2012
GENEVA - The United States is still flouting international law at Guantanamo Bay, despite President Barack Obama's election pledge to shut the facility, the United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay said on Monday.
"It is ten years since the U.S. Government opened the prison at ...