‘Liberty once lost’
What US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has told President Hamid Karzai in Kabul – “Please know that the United States will be your friend and ally” – has a…
Behind the Afghan imbroglio
Moscow offered to train a few officers of an Afghan law-enforcement agency. Kabul was ready to accept the offer, but the US killed the proposal. After the rebuff, the Russian…
Assassination of Rabbani
During my meeting with Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani in Kabul last month I could never have imagined that this would be our last meeting. Just a few months ago he and…
Our leadership’s US problem
The pressure that has been building up is reaching its climax. Admiral Mike Mullen has directly implicated the ISI in the recent attack on the US embassy in Kabul. The…
Will the Taliban opt for peace?
For the past 35 years Pakistan protected, housed and fed Afghans fleeing wars, occupation and civil strife. Unlike the Iranians, who confined them to camps and strictly policed their movement,…
Karzai’s defiant tone
The visit to Kabul by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen along with the 35 ambassadors who participate in the NATO council in Brussels was, from Afghanistan’s perspective, particularly welcomes.…
Winter is coming and Afghan refugees are scared
The slum neighbourhood of Charahi Qamber in the Afghan capital is growing, with the arrival this year of some 60 families displaced by the war. Among the 1,150 internally displaced…
Winter is coming and Afghan refugees are scared
The slum neighbourhood of Charahi Qamber in the Afghan capital is growing, with the arrival this year of some 60 families displaced by the war. Among the 1,150 internally displaced…
West overplaying success in Afghanistan, experts say
A Western diplomat spoke carefully during an interview last month in Kabul, his words scrutinised not only by the journalist opposite him but also by his head office, which had…
Afghanistan
Afghanistan and Pakistan have agreed to hold a conference in Kabul of ulemas (religious scholars) from both countries towards the end of January. This was announced in a joint press…
