KABUL, 12 October 2021, (TON): The United States has agreed to provide humanitarian aid to a desperately poor Afghanistan on the brink of an economic disaster, while refusing to give political recognition to the Taliban rulers, according to a statement released.

The statement came at the end of the first direct talks between the former foes since the chaotic withdrawal of US troops at the end of August.

The Taliban said “the talks held in Doha, Qatar, went well, with Washington freeing up humanitarian aid to Afghanistan after agreeing not to link such assistance to formal recognition of Taliban.”

The United States made it clear that the talks were in no way a preamble to recognition of the Taliban, who swept into power on Aug 15 after the US-allied government collapsed.

Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen said the movement’s interim foreign minister assured the US during the talks that the Taliban were committed to seeing that Afghan soil is not used by extremists to launch attacks against other countries.

On Saturday, however, the Taliban ruled out cooperation with Washington on containing the increasingly active militant Islamic State group in Afghanistan.

BEIJING, 12 October 2021, (TON): China accused India of ‘unreasonable and unrealistic demands’ and urged the country not to misjudge the situation, as the two sides held the 13th round of the corps commander-level talks.

According to senior Colonel Long Shaohua, a spokesperson for China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Western Theater Command, the talks were held on the Chinese side of the Moldo-Chushul border meeting point.

In a statement after the talks were held, Long said China had made great efforts to promote the easing and cooling of the border situation and fully demonstrated its sincerity towards maintaining the overall status of the relations between the two militaries.

He said “however, India still insisted on the unreasonable and unrealistic demands, which made the negotiations more difficult.”

China’s resolve to safeguard national sovereignty is firm, Long said, calling on India to cherish the hard-won situation in the China-India border areas and abide by relevant agreements and consensus between the two countries and militaries.

The spokesperson also voiced the hope that India will show sincerity, take action and work with China to jointly safeguard peace and stability in the border areas.

ALGIERS, 12 October 2021, (TON): Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune demanded France's "total respect", following a row over visas and critical comments from Paris about the North African country.

Last weekend, Algeria recalled its ambassador from Paris and banned French military planes from its airspace, which France regularly uses to reach its forces battling jihadists in the Sahel region to the south.

The moves came after a bitter row over visas, followed by media reports that French President Emmanuel Macron had told descendants of Algeria's 1954-1962 war of independence that Algeria was ruled by a "political-military system" that had "totally re-written" its history.

MOSCOW, 12 October 2021, (TON): The Bars-2021 Russian-Serbian tactical flight exercise has begun in Serbia. This was reported to journalists at the RF Ministry of Defense.

In the military department said “during the exercise, the flight personnel of the two countries will work out combat maneuvering and air combat as part of a pair, performing low-speed attacks on MiG-29 fighters, landing and evacuating those in distress, complex aerobatics, combat use and other missions as intended on Mi-8 helicopters and Mi-35.”

The Defense Ministry said “the ministry said that joint crews of the two countries on MiG-29 aircraft and Mi-8 and Mi-35 helicopters are taking part in the exercises. “They will involve about 10 units of aviation equipment of the Air Force and Air Defense Forces of Serbia from the airfields of Batainitsa and Ladjevtsi.”

ADDIS ABABA, 12 October 2021, (TON): The African Union says it will extend and expand its military operations against Al-Qaeda-linked extremists in Somalia to include other member states, as its current mandate nears an end on December 31.

The Horn of Africa nation has faced renewed instability in recent months, with long-running election delays and an ongoing row between its president and prime minister sapping attention from an insurgency waged by Al-Shabab extremists.

Despite the militants’ ouster from Mogadishu a decade ago, Somalia’s government controls only a small portion of the country, with the crucial help of some 20,000 soldiers from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).

AMISOM said the AU’s Peace and Security Council had agreed to shift to a joint mission with the UN that would enable “other willing and interested AU Member States” to join operations against the extremists.

The plan will need to be endorsed by the UN Security Council and the government in Mogadishu.

The AU expressed “grave concern at the worsening security situation in Somalia,” where there had been a “worrying resurgence” of Al-Shabab activities.

Rebels regularly stage deadly attacks against civilian and military targets in the capital and elsewhere.

The UN Security Council in March extended AMISOM’s mandate until December following fractious talks between Western countries and African members of the council over funding for the peacekeepers.

RIYADH, 12 October 2021, (TON): Abdul Aziz Al-Wasel, Saudi Arabia’s permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, said “an international consensus on the crisis in Yemen is the most effective way to help the people of the country.”

Speaking in the Swiss city during the 48th session of the Human Rights Council, he also highlighted the importance of Security Council resolutions, support for the UN’s special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, and all efforts to reach a political solution to the crisis.

The HRC rejected a resolution on the human rights situation in Yemen that would have extended the mandate for the council’s investigations of war crimes in the country.

Al-Wasel said “this was a response to the just and legitimate demands to end the activities of the investigators, known as the Group of Eminent Experts, demands he said were supported by a majority of council member states from various geographical regions.”

The draft resolution was narrowly rejected by a vote of 21 to 18 against, with seven abstentions. The GEE had been tasked with investigating all alleged violations and abuses of international human rights committed by all parties to the conflict since September 2014.

TUNIS, 12 October 2021, (TON): Tunisia named a new government, 11 weeks after President Kais Saied ousted the prime minister and suspended parliament to assume near total control in moves that his critics call a coup.

Prime Minister Najla Bouden, appointed by Saied last month, said the government’s main priority would be tackling corruption but though Tunisia faces a looming fiscal crisis, she did not mention any program of economic reforms.

Saied at the ceremony said “I am confident we will move from frustration to hope... I warn all who will threaten the state.”

Bouden kept the interim finance and foreign ministers Saied had already installed, while naming Taoufik Charfeddine as interior minister.

The appointment of a government has long been demanded by both domestic political players and foreign donors, along with a clear declaration by Saied of a timeline to exit the crisis.

Saied’s moves have cast doubt on Tunisia’s democratic gains since its 2011 revolution that inspired the Arab spring, and have also delayed efforts to seek a financial rescue package from the International Monetary Fund.

Tunisia faces a rapidly looming crisis in public finances, and the IMF has previously indicated it will negotiate only on the basis of government proposals for credible reforms.

CAIRO, 12 October 2021, (TON): Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly affirmed his country’s belief that a political solution is the best way to end the Yemeni crisis, and rejection of attempts to undermine the freedom and security of navigation in the Arabian Gulf and Bab Al-Mandab Strait.

During talks with his Yemeni counterpart Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed, Madbouly pointed to Egypt’s keenness to coordinate efforts between countries bordering the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to secure navigation through the Bab Al-Mandab Strait.

They discussed ways to enhance Egyptian-Yemeni cooperation, in the presence of the ministers of petroleum and mineral resources, planning and economic development, international cooperation, health and population, and communications and information technology.

Madbouly began the meeting by expressing Egypt’s condemnation of the terrorist attack that targeted the convoy of the governor of Aden and the agriculture minister, and he offered his condolences to the people and government of Yemen for the victims of the attack.

NEW YORK, 12 October 2021, (TON): UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Monday slammed the Taliban for “breaking” promises to Afghan women and girls, and urged the world to donate more money to Afghanistan to head off its economic collapse.

The comments came on the heels of the first face-to-face talks between the United States and the Taliban since the Islamists took control of the country, at which the issue of women’s rights was raised, according to the State Department.

Guterres told reporters “I am particularly alarmed to see promises made to Afghan women and girls by the Taliban being broken.”

He said “I strongly appeal to the Taliban to keep their promises to women and girls and fulfill their obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law.”

Guterres said the United Nations “will not give up” on the issue and said the body discusses it daily with the Taliban, who have been in power since mid-August but whose legitimacy as a government is still not internationally recognised.

MADRID, 12 October 2021, (TON): Spain was evacuating via Pakistan Afghan helpers left behind when western forces quit Kabul, a government source confirmed on condition of anonymity.

The government source declined to give any details of the move, citing security concerns.

But Spanish media, including daily El País and National Radio, reported that Madrid would bring close to 250 Afghan citizens, who had already crossed into Pakistan and would be flown out on military transport planes.

The first flight was expected to arrive on Monday evening.

Spain's evacuations have been weeks in the making, with Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares visiting Pakistan and Qatar in early September to lay the groundwork.

Madrid evacuated over 2,000 people, most of them Afghans who had worked for Spain and their families, during the western withdrawal as the Taliban seized power in Kabul in August.

But the flights had to stop once the final American troops that had been protecting the Afghan capital's airport left.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in August that Spain would not "lose interest in the Afghans who had remained" in their country but wanted to leave.