The Taliban has said its peace deal with the United States was nearing a breaking point. The movement accused Washington of violations that included drone attacks on civilians, while also chastising the Afghan government for delaying the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners promised in the agreement, AP said. The militants said they had restricted attacks against Afghan security forces to rural outposts, had not attacked international […]
Peace
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Washington will cut aid to Afghanistan by $1 billion starting immediately, after failing to resolve a fierce dispute between rival Afghan leaders, the State Department said, noting the US military withdrawal would continue. Lamenting the failure of Afghan leaders to agree on an “inclusive government,” Pompeo said the feud between President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah had “harmed US-Afghan relations,” adding that Washington would […]
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is to meet with Taliban officials in Doha, Qatar, in an effort to revive the collapsing peace deal between the two parties, despite failure to reach a separate deal with the Afghan government. Pompeo is set to sit down with chief Taliban negotiator Mullah Baradar and other officials from the militant group on Monday in order “to press the Taliban to […]
The Peace Corps is suspending all operations globally and evacuating all volunteers over the spread of the new coronavirus. In an open letter to volunteers posted on Sunday on its website, the federal agency’s director, Jody Olsen, says the decision follows recent evacuations in China and Mongolia due to the outbreak. Olsen said that with evacuations now underway at other posts and travel becoming more challenging […]
The Palestinian Authority condemned on Wednesday the culture of hate and racism within Israel, mainly among the right-wing parties, Al Sabeel newspaper has reported. Such racism in Israel, said the PA, is the “main obstacle” to peace. “Racism and hate,” said the Foreign Ministry in Ramallah, “are reflected daily in the stances and remarks of right-wing officials in Israel and the practices of the Jewish settlers […]
Colombian Farmers Continue Push Against Mining, For Peace By Sandra Cuffie, Towardfreedom.org March 11, 2020 Colombian Farmers Continue Push Against Mining, For Peace2020-03-112020-03-11https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.pngPopularResistance.Orghttps://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2020/03/ariel-velasquez-2048×1537-e1583959238591.jpg200px200px Above Photo: From Towardfreedom.org In La Soledad, coffee farmer Ariel Velásquez wants to protect water sources and lands from mining. Photo by Sandra Cuffe. “What we have has cost us a lot of sweat,” said Ariel Velásquez, as an iridescent green hummingbird flitted between […]
The peace talks on Syria in the Astana format are currently the only effective instrument that has facilitated the efforts to curb violence in that country, according to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. “We are convinced that today the only mechanism that considerably helped to… make a step towards stability has become the Astana process,” IRNA cited Zarif as saying on Wednesday. He described the […]
By Nebojsa Malic, senior writer at RT Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrives in Russia to discuss the situation in Syria with President Vladimir Putin. Moscow and Ankara are on the brink of open conflict over the fate of militant-controlled Idlib province. The summit takes place as Turkey has sent thousands of troops, tanks and drones into Idlib, the last remaining province of Syria held by militants […]
The US military has conducted an airstrike against Taliban fighters in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, jeopardizing a fragile ceasefire and Donald Trump’s much-touted peace roadmap for Afghanistan. A spokesman for US forces said that an airstrike targeted Taliban fighters in Nahr-e Saraj, Helmand, who were “actively attacking” an Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) checkpoint. The Pentagon insisted the strike was defensive and aimed at “disrupting” the Taliban […]
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu celebrated on Tuesday “great victory” in the general elections, as exit polls put him in a strong position to form the next government and face accusations of corruption. At the same time, his opponent, head of the Blue and White party, Benny Gantz, admitted “disappointment”. Netanyahu said in a televised speech to his supporters: “This victory tonight, which exceeded all expectations, […]
Head of Hamas’ Political Bureau Ismail Haniyeh arrived in the Russian capital Moscow on Sunday along with a delegation of senior officials from the movement and met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and other senior officials, the Palestinian group said in a statement yesterday. During the meeting, Lavrov welcomed Hamas to Russia and highlighted its importance at “this critical time”. Lavrov reiterated that Russia rejects […]
February 25, 2020 Nearly a thousand of us were gathered in Chicago beneath the alarming edifice of Chicago’s “Trump Tower.” Iran’s General Qassem Soleimani had been brutally murdered the day before in Iraq, with several of his associates; and the welcome surprise of Iran’s relatively measured response was yet a few days off. A region-wide conflagration seemed just on the verge of engulfing perhaps millions of […]
While President Donald Trump bragged Saturday about an agreement signed by the U.S. government and the Taliban as a milestone towards ending the war in Afghanistan that has raged now for the nearly two decades—devastating the Afghan people and the wider region—Rep. Barbara Lee, one of the staunchest anti-war voices in Congress, denounced the deal as a little more than a sham. “After nearly two decades […]
Iran has said that, despite cutting a deal with the Taliban, the US has absolutely no right to decide Afghanistan’s future, and that intra-Afghan peace talks should be supervised by the UN, not Washington. Tehran views Washington’s actions as “an attempt to legitimize the presence of troops in Afghanistan,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday. The United States lacks the legal standing to sign a […]
The leaders of one of the most demonised and misunderstood groups in the world sat down in Qatar today and signed an accord which will see US and NATO troops withdraw after 18 years of war in Afghanistan. I am, of course, talking about the Taliban, which was dragged unwillingly into a war against the world superpower on 7 October 2001, less than a month after […]
A peace deal between the United States and its once sworn enemy the Taliban has been sealed in twin ceremonies, in which the US has agreed to wind down the war in Afghanistan after more than 18 years of fighting that turned into the longest conflict in American history, and to withdraw all of its troops from Afghanistan. In the historic signing ceremony with the top […]
Pakistan’s foreign minister has urged the US to pull its troops out of Afghanistan in a responsible fashion, after US President Donald Trump said that the expected peace deal with the Taliban may bring American soldiers home. “We want a responsible withdrawal,” Shah Mahmood Qureshi told Reuters in Qatar’s capital Doha, where US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is set to oversee the signing of a […]
Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Asia Times, Nearly two decades after the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan post-9/11, and after an interminable war costing over $ 2 trillion, there’s hardly anything “historic” about a possible peace deal that may be signed in Doha this coming Saturday between Washington and the Taliban. We should start by stressing three points. 1- The Taliban wanted all US troops […]
President Donald Trump says the US is about to sign agreements with the Taliban and the government of Afghanistan that could provide a way for withdrawal of troops from that country after almost 20 years of war. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is headed to Qatar, where he will witness the signing of an agreement with the Taliban in Doha, while Defense Secretary Mark Esper will […]
Eight members of US Congress have nominated Saudi women’s rights activist, Loujain Al- Hathloul, who has been imprisoned by authorities in Riyadh since 2018 for the Nobel Peace Prize. The Saudi security services arrested Al-Hathloul in mid-2018, as part of a campaign against female activists and human rights defenders. According to her family’s testimony before Congress, Loujain was subjected to sexual harassment and was threatened with rape […]
Latest News / Russia: ‘Deal of the century’ won’t achieve peace / Saudi Arabia suspends entry for Umrah pilgrimage, tourism amid coronavirus / Coronavirus: Kuwait has suspended schools for two weeks / Tunisia: New government sets 7 economic and social priorities for next stage / Ghannouchi: ‘Tunisia undergoing new democratic test’ / EU: Asylum seekers rise by 13% in 2019 / Tunisia’s parliament approves a coalition […]
Latest News / Russia: ‘Deal of the century’ won’t achieve peace / Saudi Arabia suspends entry for Umrah pilgrimage, tourism amid coronavirus / Coronavirus: Kuwait has suspended schools for two weeks / Tunisia: New government sets 7 economic and social priorities for next stage / Ghannouchi: ‘Tunisia undergoing new democratic test’ / EU: Asylum seekers rise by 13% in 2019 / Tunisia’s parliament approves a coalition […]
Authored by Brian Cloughley via The Strategic Culture Foundation, Pipelines convey fluids and gas within and between many countries and continents and in addition to making a profit for producers indubitably benefit those for whom the raw materials are destined. In India, for example, the most recent gas pipeline project is going to bring comfort to the neglected peoples of the north-east, as part of the grid being […]
Authored by Ben Barbour via Off-Guardian.org, The Nobel Peace Prize was founded in 1901 by Alfred Nobel, an arms manufacturer. His family factory first gained notoriety for producing weapons for the Crimean War of 1853-1856. Alfred Nobel invented dynamite and various other powerful explosives. These explosives were used to devastate people in conflicts such as the Spanish-American War. After Nobel’s brother died, because of a journalistic […]