Geopolitics
ARTICLES
[ ABC ] North Korea appears to have reactivated Yongbyon nuclear plant, atomic watchdog IAEA says
North Korea appears to have restarted a nuclear reactor that is widely believed to have produced plutonium for nuclear weapons, the UN atomic watchdog has said in an annual report. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has had no access to North Korea since Pyongyang expelled its inspectors in 2009. The country then pressed ahead…
Taliban captured 85 billion dollars of military hardware – now is as strong as Tajikistan’s military… maybe
A lot had been made and reported about the multi-billion dollars “acquisition” of the US military hardware that were left behind by the US forces and the Afghan National Army. A whopping 85 billion dollars worth of it. In a tweet by disclose.tv reveal the below numbers: The numbers look very impressive, until you start…
[ United With Israel ] Biden ‘Not Optimistic’ About Return to Iran Nuclear Deal
President Joe Biden’s mood on a U.S. return to the Iranian nuclear deal is “not optimistic,” according to an Israeli source quoted by Times of Israel. The report followed up on the president’s Friday meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in the Oval Office. The controversial Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) promised Iran economic…
[ MEMO ] Israel: IDF acknowledges failure to destroy ‘Hamas metro’
Senior officers have recognised that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) failed to achieve the goals set for the military offensive against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip between 11 and 21 May, the Times of Israel reported on Wednesday. Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz and IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi have discussed these issues with senior…
[ Euasianet ] Tajikistan: President demands Tajik role in running Afghanistan
The president of Tajikistan has said that his government will not recognize the Taliban’s rule over Afghanistan unless the country’s ethnic Tajik minority is accorded a “worthy role” in the running of the country. Rahmon said his confidence in the Taliban has been undermined by the group’s abandonment of pledges to consider power-sharing with all…
[ Reuters ] EXCLUSIVE-Internal UN document says Taliban threatened, beat staff
The Taliban stopped an Afghan United Nations staff member as he tried to reach Kabul airport on Sunday. They searched his vehicle and found his U.N. identification. Then they beat him. The incidents are among dozens contained in an internal U.N. security document seen by Reuters that describes veiled threats, the looting of U.N. offices…
[ The News Pakistan ] From battlefield to power table: Khalil Haqqani emerges as key player
KABUL, Afghanistan: He has a $5 million bounty on his head and a triumphant smile on his face. The head money marked by the US Treasury Department for Khalil-ur-Rahman Haqqani has lost much of its significance in the fast-changing circumstances of Afghanistan. Khalil, a scion of the feared Haqqani Network, is not an ordinary man…
[ The Guardian ] Ukraine denies minister’s claims of hijacked Afghanistan evacuation flight
A Ukrainian minister has claimed a passenger jet meant to evacuate people fleeing Afghanistan to Ukraine was hijacked at gunpoint and flown instead to Iran, in an unconfirmed incident that was later denied by his own government. Ukraine’s deputy minister for foreign affairs, Yevhen Yenin, said armed hijackers seized the plane at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai international airport,…
[ Middle East Eye ] Algeria severs diplomatic ties with Morocco over ‘hostile manoeuvres’
Source: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/algeria-morocco-sever-diplomatic-ties Algeria announced on Tuesday that it was officially severing ties with neighbouring Morocco “starting today”, after months of tensions between the two countries. Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra made the announcement during a press conference on Tuesday evening. “It has been proven that the (Moroccan) kingdom has not ceased its unfriendly, low and hostile manoeuvres against…
[ The Epoch Times ] New Jersey Military Base to Be Used to House Afghan Evacuees: Pentagon
A military base in New Jersey will house evacuees from Afghanistan as the United States works on flying tens of thousands of Afghans from the Taliban-held country. Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, about 39 miles northeast of Philadelphia, is the fourth base that is preparing to or already has accepted evacuees. The other three bases are Fort Lee in Virginia, Fort McCoy…
Failure to evacuate Afghan contractors will have dire consequences for the rest of US foreign deployments around the world
Daniella Mestyanek Young@daniellamyoungBFF deployed to Africa tells me that all of their translators have quit & nobody wants to work with the US military right now… This is perhaps one of the first signal that a impending translator drought (or local guide for that matter) for US foreign operations/deployment. Locally employed guides and translator (or…
Singapore’s Minister answering Malaysian military’s passive aggression on Singapore’s National Day
In case you missed it, Singapore celebrated the nation’s 56th birthday last Saturday (Aug 21) with a belated bash at the floating platform in Marina Bay, featuring the usual fanfare — fireworks, the Red Lions and displays from the Singapore Armed Forces. Across the Causeway, Malaysia was also highlighting its own military with a display of their…
[ Anny Bonny Pirate ] Afghanistan: The End of the Occupation
Nancy Lindisfarne and Jonathan Neale write: A lot of nonsense about Afghanistan is being written in Britain and the United States. Most of this nonsense hides a number of important truths. First, the Taliban have defeated the United States. Second, the Taliban have won because they have more popular support. Third, this is not because most Afghans love…
[ CS Monitor ] Afghanistan: How the Taliban won over northern ethnic minorities
When the Taliban last ruled Afghanistan in the 1990s, they faced stiff resistance across the country’s north from ethnic-based paramilitaries that resented the southern Pashtun militants. That resistance would prove decisive in 2001 when the same ethnic minorities, backed by U.S. air power, ousted the Taliban regime in Kabul. This time around, the Taliban had…
[ UnHerd ] The man who lost Afghanistan
If there was one family in Afghanistan who incarnated the hopes, illusions and failures of the last two decades there, it was the Ghanis. Ashraf, the father, was the country’s last president. A trained anthropologist, he believed in books, and the power of the ideas within them to move the world. His wife, Rula, a…
[ AP ] Taliban allowing ‘safe passage’ from Kabul in US airlift
The Taliban have agreed to allow “safe passage” from Afghanistan for civilians struggling to join a U.S.-directed airlift from the capital, President Joe Biden’s national security adviser said Tuesday, although a timetable for completing the evacuation of Americans, Afghan allies and others has yet to be worked out with the country’s new rulers. Jake Sullivan…
[ AP ] Detainee says China has secret jail in Dubai, holds Uyghurs
A young Chinese woman says she was held for eight days at a Chinese-run secret detention facility in Dubai along with at least two Uyghurs, in what may be the first evidence that China is operating a so-called “black site” beyond its borders. The woman, 26-year-old Wu Huan, was on the run to avoid extradition…
[ Mothership ] A glimpse inside an overloaded US military plane with over 600 Afghans fleeing country
The cargo plane, which was one of the many which were able to take off with hundreds of civilians on board, was carrying over five times of its suggested load as it departed. Over 600 Afghans, including women and children, were packed into that space. Some of the other flights may have had an even…
FEATURED