Mediaboss Marketing

ISLAMABAD:

When National Security Adviser (NSA) Dr Moeed Yusuf and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General Lt General Faiz Hameed arrived in Washington last week, there were no photo ops or any fanfare about their visit taking place at a critical juncture.

The NSA and the ISI chief met concerned officials during their stay in the US capital but the only statement was from the US NSA, Jake Sullivan, who tweeted after meeting Dr Moeed and Lt Gen Faiz.

But Dr Moeed was not bothered about it, insisting the PTI governments US policy is pragmatic and unapologetic, but not boastful and urged people not to look for big pictures and all-embracing headlines. He on Sunday said the focus of the visit was more on substance than optics.

Behind the scene there were indeed substantive discussions focused largely on the Afghan endgame and future of Pakistan-US ties, sources familiar with the development told The Express Tribune.

Read: 'US really messed it up in Afghanistan': PM Imran

According to the sources, the NSA and the ISI chief delivered a message to the US authorities, warning them not to abandon Afghanistan. The US was told that the complete detachment of the US from Afghanistan after their troops withdrawal would allow terrorist outfits such as Al Qaeda to regroup and eventually become a security threat not only to the region but also to Washington.

Pakistan wants the US to remain engaged with the Afghan situation in order to ensure that there is some political settlement after its withdrawal instead of civil war. Prime Minister Imran Khan also recently criticised the US approach and blamed Washington for the Afghan mess.

The worry in Pakistan is that the US may abandon Afghanistan altogether leaving regional countries to face the blowback of a potential civil war in Afghanistan. It is because of this reason that Pakistan has been working with regional countries including Russia and China to prevent the civil war in Afghanistan.

Both Russia and China are also critical of the US strategy on Afghanistan and publicly blamed Washington for leaving the neighbouring country in a total mess. But given the role of the US, Pakistan, Russia and China are still seeking to engage with the Biden administration.

For this purpose senior officials of Pakistan, China, Russia and the US are scheduled to meet in Doha on August 11. The so-called Extended Trioka will discuss the current situation in Afghanistan and discuss ways to seek a political settlement.

Read more: US lauds Pakistan's 'sincere' efforts for peace in Afghanistan

In Washington while the NSA and the ISI director general shared Pakistan's perspective, the US conveyed its expectations. Despite Pakistan's insistence on not having a similar influence over the Afghan Taliban, the US feels Pakistan can still play an important role.

However, Dr Moeed dismissed the perception that Pakistan has great influence over the Taliban. If that was the case, Pakistan would have at least persuaded the Taliban to force out the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) from Afghanistan.

Pakistan and China have been pushing the Afghan Taliban to cut ties with the TTP and East Turkestan Islamic Movement ((ETIM). The Taliban in general have made a commitment that they would not allow Afghan soil to be used against any other country.

But observers are skeptical as the recent United Nations Security Council (UNSC) report suggested that the Taliban still maintain contacts with al-Qaeda and other terrorist outfits.

Read the original:
Pakistan asks US not to abandon Afghanistan - The Express Tribune

The U.S. military hit a series of alleged small drone facilities across Iraq and Syria with airstrikes on Sunday evening. Two locations inside Syria and another in Iraq were hit in order to disrupt and deter...unmanned aerial vehicle attacks against U.S. personnel and facilities in Iraq, the Pentagon said in a statement.

Four militiamen were allegedly killed in the strikes, the Associated Press reports, citing militia officials without specifying affiliations. The U.S. military alleges militiamen with Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada were among several Iran-backed militia groups that worked inside the buildings now destroyed. (According to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, those two groups are closely linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.)

Background: Since April, Iranian-backed militias have launched at least five drone attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq, the Wall Street Journal reports. Reuters reported on one of earliest of those, which occurred on April 14 in Erbil. The apparent uptick suggests the units are turning to more sophisticated means of putting pressure on the American presence in the country, according to U.S. officials.

Iraqs prime minister and military condemned the strikes in statements via their spokesmen.

Defensive precision airstrikes on operational and weapons storage facilities is how the Pentagon described its actions in a statement from spokesman John Kirby. (The Pentagon also released three video clips of the strikes, which you can find here, here, and here.)

Disrupt and deter trivia: The last such strike was at the end of February, Reuters Idrees Ali tweeted Sunday evening.

Worth noting: At least two larger developments are unfolding as this militias-vs.-U.S. beef plays out:

One last thing about small drones: For at least the past year, CENTCOMs Gen. Frank McKenzie has been sounding the alarm bells over the disruptive and dangerous threat from unmanned aerial systems and armed small dronesnot that there are a whole lot of countermeasures widely available, as weve reviewed in our podcast as recently as this past October:

Afghanistan is Not a Winnable War, White House Says as Taliban Storms Country // Jacqueline Feldscher: President Ghani leaves Washington empty handed, as Biden rejects Republican calls to reverse U.S. troop withdrawal.

Digital Authoritarianism is a National Security Threat, Pentagon Cyber Leader Says // Mila Jasper: The U.S. must fund the development of technology that can compete with the offerings of authoritarian countries, said Mieke Eoyang, deputy assistant defense secretary for cyber policy.

New Laws Are Probably Needed to Force US Firms to Patch Known Cyber Vulnerabilities, NSA Official Says // Patrick Tucker: Too many firms are shying away from replacing old gear that is only getting easier for criminals to attack

The Army Brief // Caitlin M. Kenney: Plans for Afghan visa applications; Next-gen vaccine; Racism-teaching debate; and more...

Were Not Ready for Another Pandemic // Olga Khazan, The Atlantic: The next big plague is coming, and despite making progress on pandemic preparedness, the U.S. might still suffer mass casualties. Heres why.

Defense Business Brief // Marcus Weisgerber: Defense Business Brief: In-person networking is back; Turkey builds largest wind tunnel; 3D printing advancements and more.

The Only Way Well Know When We Need COVID-19 Boosters // Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic: Research can tell us only so much. The rest is a waiting game.

Welcome to this Monday edition of The D Brief from Ben Watson with Jennifer Hlad. If youre not already subscribed to The D Brief, you can do that here. On this day in 1914, Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo, Bosnia.

The Afghanistan conflict is not a winnable war, and the U.S. will continue withdrawing troops from the country, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Friday, the same day President Biden met with Afghan president Ashraf Ghani.One big reason this matters: Republicans had been pressing Biden to reverse course and stop the withdrawal, Defense Ones Jacqueline Feldscher reports.As for Ghani, he said he respects Americas decision to withdraw and rejects any false narratives of abandonment. But he still painted a grim picture of the security situation in Afghanistan, comparing it to 1861, when the Civil War began in the United States. The then-young republic of the United States was under attack and unity, determination, and ensuring that an exclusionary agenda was not allowed[this] is the type of moment for us, Ghani told journalists. Read on, here.

And finally today: Allegedly classified British documents were found in a soggy heap behind a bus station in Kent last Tuesday morning, the BBC reported this weekend.There were at least two sets of documents recovered in the almost 50-page heap, and one batch concerned the likely Russian reaction to [the Royal Navys HMS Defenders] passage through Ukrainian waters off the Crimea coast. (That event occurred one day after the documents were found.) The other bundle detail[ed] plans for a possible UK military presence in Afghanistan after the US-led Nato operation there ends, the BBC reports, and even shared photos of some of what was found.Said the British military in a statement: As the public would expect, the Ministry of Defence plans carefully. Read on, here.

Read the original here:
Today's D Brief: US strikes militias in Iraq, Syria; Afghanistan, cont.; the next pandemic; And a bit more. - Defense One

A growing cohort of women across Afghanistan are producing masks for their communities, covering a shortage of this simple yet lifesaving piece of equipment. Shukria, a 24-yearold from the town of Nakarabad, produces about 100 masks a day. She learned about the implications of COVID-19 through a country-wide information campaign, run by the Citizens Charter Afghanistan Project, with financing from IDA and the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund.

The campaign empowered us to take the dangers of the coronavirus seriously, Shukria recalls.

The Citizens Charter and the Womens Economic Empowerment Rural Development Project (WEE-RDP) are at the forefront of running public awareness campaigns in rural areas. So far, the Citizens Charter has held meetings for council members and mullahs in some 12,000 communities in 124 districts across Afghanistan. Thousands of rural Afghans are now aware of the COVID-19 pandemic and how to protect themselves and their families.

In addition to raising awareness about COVID-19, IDA is also helping to provide a critical lifeline to households whose livelihoods have been upended by the pandemic. Preventive measures put in place to slow the spread of COVID-19, such as lockdowns and border closures, have increased the number of Afghan households facing food insecurity and hunger. Most people in our village are already poor and they supported their families with daily jobs, says Bakhtiar, a 25-year-old daily-wage worker from Mandozai village, which has been hard hit by COVID-19. In my case, our entire family contracted COVID-19, so we couldnt work and now we face economic difficulties.

Through the Dastarkhwan-e Meli social safety net program the Afghan government is helping villagers like Bakhtiar. Distribution drives are underway, providing relief packages to households facing food insecurity and hunger due to COVID-19. The relief packageswhich provide 2-3 weeks of rations for a familyare locally sourced, creating jobs and stimulating local economies. The program is supported by the Citizens Charter Afghanistan Project and the COVID-19 Relief Effort for Afghan Communities and Households.

The Dastarkhwan-e Meli relief distribution drives will ultimately reach more than 5 million households in the countrys most vulnerable communities.

See more here:
Helping Afghanistan Fight the COVID-19 Pandemic - World Bank Group

WASHINGTON, June 24, 2021 TheWorld Banks Board of Executive Directors today approved a $191 million credit to Bangladesh and a $18 million grant to Afghanistan to help the countries strengthen the higher education sector and respond better to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Higher Education Acceleration Transformation Project the first World Bank-supported regional education project in South Asiawill support regional collaboration in the higher education sector, including student mobility through equivalence programs, credit transfer schemes, and university twinning arrangements within the region. It will also help more women access quality higher education, which will result in increased female labor force participation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit hard the higher education sector in South Asia, causing more dropouts and fewer enrolments. Female students are likely to be disproportionately impacted, further exacerbating the existing gender gap in higher education. The project will support pandemic and emergency response and build systemic resilience in the higher education sector with a specific focus on digitization.

For our collective future, higher education is a necessity, not a choice. As Bangladesh aspires to achieve an upper middle-income status, the country needs to invest in its youth to create a skilled and globally competitive workforce, said Mercy Tembon, World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan. This financing will help Bangladesh strengthen quality and relevance of tertiary education as well as ensure business continuity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It will establish a South Asian Higher Education Portal, hosted in Bangladesh, to facilitate the virtual mobility' of students, by allowing students from the registered universities to take courses for credit outside their home country. In addition to Bangladesh and Afghanistan, students from other South Asian countries will be able to access the portal. It will also strengthen regional cooperation among the National Research and Education networks (NRENs) and provide expanded access and connectivity for students. The project will upgrade the Bangladesh Research and Education Network (BdREN) and will offer a subsidized connectivity package to students and the participating universities in BdREN.

South Asia region has the second-lowest female labor force participation rate globally. To enable more women to access quality higher education, get better jobs, and become leaders, the project will build a network of womens universities and institutions, which will be initially anchored on the Asian University of Women in Chittagong, Bangladesh.

In Afghanistan, the higher education sector is growing rapidly. However, only 30 percent of the students at the tertiary level are women. The regional project will prepare the students, particularly the female students for working in leadership and decision-making positions, said Henry Kerali, World Bank Country Director for Afghanistan.

The project will help meet the increasing demand for quality higher education in South Asia. Further, it will also help South Asian countries benefit from regional cooperation in higher education and strengthen research and innovations capacities in the universities, said Mokhlesur Rahman, World Bank Task Team Leader of the project.

The credit is from the World Banks International Development Association (IDA), and has a 30-year term, including a five-year grace period. Bangladesh currently has the largest ongoing IDA program totaling over $14 billion.

Contacts

Washington

Diana Chung(202) 473-8357dchung1@worldbank.org

Dhaka

Mehrin Mahbub(880-2) 5566-7777mmahbub@worldbank.org

Read the original:
World Bank Helps Improve Higher Education in Afghanistan and Bangladesh - Afghanistan - ReliefWeb

ISLAMABAD: The security team of the establishment will brief the Parliamentary Committee on National Security on developments with regard to Afghanistan and matters of national security on Thursday (July 1) at the Parliament House.

*Highly placed sources told The News here on Sunday that Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javaid Bajwa, DG ISI Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed and other high officials will attend the session.*

Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Mian Shahbaz Sharif, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Senator Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, JUI-F Parliamentary leader Maulana Asad Mahmood, BNP leader Sardar Muhammad Akhtar Mengal and ANP leader Ameer Haider Azam Khan Hoti, are among the members invited for the meeting. The slated meeting which has conspicuous significance in the backdrop of the situation prevailing in the war-torn country from where foreign occupying troops are vacating the country in a couple of weeks and the Taliban are increasingly capturing the vacated areas that will have an impact on Pakistan.

Afghan President Dr. Ashraf Ghani and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah have dashed to Washington for discussion with the US authorities pertaining to the upcoming situation and seeking their support for their administration, are also extremely perturbed about the affairs in their country.

The Thursday briefing will be in closed doors and 29-member committee will get an opportunity to avail a question-answer session, the sources said. It would be first meeting of the committee in about eight months as the last meeting in November last was boycotted by the opposition.

The sources said that the opposition leaders will mull over tomorrow (Tuesday) whether to attend the briefing or not. It is unlikely that Prime Minister Imran Khan would turn up for the meeting since he isn't a member of the committee constituted by the NA Speaker. Other members of the committee are Ms. Sherry Rehman (PPP), Mushtaq Ahmad (JI), Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah (GDA), Syed Faisal Ali Sabazwari (MQM), Senator Hidayat ullah (Ind), Sardar Muhammad Shafiq Tarin (PkMAP), Muhammad Tahir Bizenjo (NP), Muhammad Qasim (BNP), Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haidri (JUI), Kamil Ali Agha (PML-Q), Dr. Shehzad Wasim (PTI), Dilawar Khan (Ind), Azam Nazir Tarrar (PML-N) and Anwar ul Haq Kakar (Ind) members from Senate while the other members from the NA are Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi (PTI), Chaudhary Tariq Bashir Cheema (PML-Q), Ghaus Bux Mehar (GDA), Dr. Khalid Maqbool Siddiquee (MQM), Nawabzada Shahzain Bugti (JWP), Khalid Hussain Magsi (BAP), Sheikh Rashid Ahmad (AML). Speaker Asad Qaisar is chairman of the committee. PTM MNA Mohsin Dawar is among special invitees. The sources pointed out that the parliamentary committee will also discuss some other subjects of national interest if it takes place according to the schedule

Original post:
Parliamentary body to be briefed on Afghanistan, national security - The News International