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As it prepares to participate in two international conferences on Afghanistan, India on Wednesday cautioned against treating any section of Taliban as "good", in an apparent message to the US which has expressed readiness to hold talks with "moderate" militia.
Maintaining that it would be unwise to negotiate with Taliban and leave people to their mercy, sources here said efforts should instead be made to strengthen the age-old tribal structures which are still intact in Afghanistan.
The situation in Afghanistan, over which world concerns are growing because of resurgence of Taliban, will be discussed at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Moscow on March 27 and a conference in The Hague later this month.
India is expected to be represented by the Prime Minister's Special Envoy S K Lambah at the SCO meeting. Some high-ranking official will also be attending The Hague meet.
At these meetings, India will present its prescription for stabilisation of Afghanistan, which would include giving thrust to developmental initiatives besides military and security components in creating a zone of peace.
India feels that efforts should be made to create 'secure areas' and promote developmental activities in such areas, a process that would alienate the Taliban.
Iranian Ambassador to Kabul, Feda Hussian Maliki, said Iran will provide business facilities to the Afghan merchants.
Zaranj-Dilaram highway has been constructed by the Indian government over the past six years.
Nearly 130 Afghan cops and 11 Indian engineers have been killed in Taliban ambushes and attacks, during the implementation of the project.
British and Saudi vested interests behind possible deal, says Haroun Mir
Invoking art, history and “the common humanity that binds us,” President Obama offered a “new day” in America’s relationship with Iran, using a videotaped message released on the Internet to make an unusual appeal directly to Iranians for a shift away from decades of confrontation.
The Israeli president, Shimon Peres, issued an audio statement on Friday appealing to “the noble Iranian people on behalf of the ancient Jewish people.”
Two separate blasts in eastern Afghanistan killed seven civilians and one policeman Saturday, officials said.
President Barack Obama plans a significant increase in the size of the Afghan police force, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke said on Saturday.
Holbrooke said an initial plan by the Obama administration to help boost the ranks of the Afghan police force from 78,000 to 82,000 over the next three to four years was now regarded as too little.
The Obama administration must be close to finishing its "Af-Pak" policy review, because it started leaking all over this week. Much of what seems to be taking shape is promising, and if true, deserves support from the loyal opposition.
In addition to the 17,000 additional U.S. forces already announced, there now looks to be this: a major expansion of the Afghan National Army; a significant civilian surge to build up Embassy Kabul, staff up the PRTs, and improve coordination with international donors; a regional diplomatic initiative, including Iran, to reinvest Afghanistan's neighbors as stakeholders in its stability; more material support for Pakistan's civilian government, but also a tougher line on terrorist sanctuaries, including perhaps the expansion of U.S. direct action into Quetta, where the DIA has said the Taliban's senior leadership is openly operating.
Squadron Leader Steve Smith is one of a new generation of British warriors who commute to combat. They are engaging the enemy not from Kabul nor from Kandahar, but via joysticks and computer screens more than 8,000 miles away, at Creech air force base, deep in the Nevada desert. Smith’s job is to pilot what British and American commanders are calling “the most effective weapon against Al-Qaeda” — the MQ-9 Reaper unmanned drone.
The growing strategic importance of drones was highlighted last week when the CIA recommended that the military increase its use of them in Pakistan to combat the mounting insurgency threat. With a 66ft wingspan, the remote-controlled Reaper can stay airborne for 22 hours unseen and unheard at an altitude of 21,000ft — the only thing limiting its air time is fuel.
For the most part, the “hunter-killer” Reaper is used to survey an area, relaying video images back to mission command to help ground troops understand their surroundings. As its name suggests, though, this drone can also engage the enemy. The Reaper can carry an awesome payload: up to four Hellfire missiles and two 500lb Paveway II bombs, all laser-guided. When the order comes from a troop commander on the ground — “Cleared hot” — the pilots in Nevada pull the trigger.
A senior State Department official confirmed Washington was interested in gaining US access to a strategic route that crosses Iranian territory and was already being used by some of Tehran's allies.
India has built a road between the Afghan cities of Delaram and Zaranj, which is on the border with Iran, to provide supplies and commercial goods to Afghanistan without going through its arch-enemy Pakistan.
The Iranians "already provide a route for Indian assistance and some other supplies that go up to Afghanistan", the senior US official said. The route from Chabahar links with the Indian road.
Iran had indicated in recent months "there were some NATO countries that might even provide supplies through that route", the official said.
In a sign of just how resigned Western officials are to the ties, the British government has sent several dispatches to Islamabad in recent months asking that the ISI use its strategy meetings with the Taliban to persuade its commanders to scale back violence in Afghanistan before the August presidential election there, according to one official.
In the context of the conference on the future of Afghanistan coming up in The Hague on March 31, an assessment of some of the ground realities, including those pertaining to Pakistan.
In strikingly ominous tones, Mr. Obama warned — just as President George W. Bush did repeatedly over the years — of intelligence estimates that al Qaeda “is actively planning attacks on the U.S. homeland from its safe haven in Pakistan.”
“The situation is increasingly perilous,” he told government officials, top military officers and diplomats in remarks at the White House.
Setting benchmarks for Pakistan could be particularly difficult. For years, the United States has simply paid bills submitted by the Pakistani government for counterterrorism operations, even during truces when its military was not involved in counterterrorism. Pakistan has resisted linking its aid to specific performance criteria and officials acknowledged that developing those criteria could be problematic.