ISLAMABAD, 28 September 2021, (TON): Prime Minister Imran Khan has urged the global community to provide consistent humanitarian and developmental assistance to the Afghan Taliban as it would provide additional leverage to continue persuading them to honour their commitments.

In an opinion piece for Washington Post, the prime minister wrote that the international aid will give Taliban a "greater reason" to stick to their promises.

Imran added "today, with Afghanistan at another crossroads, we must look to the future to prevent another violent conflict in that country rather than perpetuating the blame game of the past.”

According to the premier, engaging with the Taliban was the "right thing" to ensure peace in Afghanistan.

The international community will want to see the inclusion of major ethnic groups in government, respect for the rights of all Afghans and commitments that Afghan soil shall never again be used for terrorism. Taliban leaders will have greater reason and ability to stick to their promises if they are assured of the consistent humanitarian and developmental assistance.

The PM opined that abandoning Afghanistan "as in the 1990s, will inevitably lead to a meltdown. Chaos, mass migration and a revived threat of international terror[ism] will be natural corollaries. Avoiding this must surely be our global imperative."

KABUL, 28 September 2021, (TON): Economists have slammed the US move to freeze Afghanistan’s assets as unfair and politically motivated.

They want the Biden administration to reverse the decision and the new Afghan government to take immediate steps to prevent a looming economic meltdown. The US froze Afghanistan’s over nine billion dollars reserves after the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul on August 15.

The situation deteriorated when Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) directed local financial institution not to pay a customer more than 20,000 afs a week. Companies have been allowed to withdraw up to $25,000 a month in four phases.

Banking restrictions and declining economic activities have caused problems for ordinary Afghans. Some people rallied in Kabul asking the US to unfreeze Afghanistan’s assets.

An economic faculty teacher at Kardan University, who wished not to be named, told media, the International Monitory Fund (IMF) controls all financial affairs of central banks of member countries.

In difficult economic situations, the teacher added, member countries could borrow money from the IMF and maintain relationships with other nations.

KABUL, 28 September 2021, (TON): No representative from Afghanistan will address the annual high-level UN General Assembly in New York after the ambassador for the government ousted by the Taliban,  who was due to speak on Monday, withdrew his name.

The move comes amid competing claims for Afghanistan's UN seat in New York after the Taliban seized power last month.

Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi last week asked to address the gathering of world leaders at the United Nations and nominated the Islamist group's Doha-based spokesman Suhail Shaheen as Afghanistan's UN ambassador.

Ghulam Isaczai is the current UN ambassador, who represents Afghanistan's government ousted by the Taliban, and has also asked to renew his accreditation. He was scheduled to address the final day of the high-level UN gathering on Monday, but withdrew late on Sunday, diplomats said.

Isaczai did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

NEW YORK, 28 September 2021, (TON): The Security Council on Monday marked the 25th anniversary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, with calls for its entry into force and the elimination of nuclear weapons everywhere.

Speaking at the event, the Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) pointed to its “near universal adherence”, with 185 signatures and 170 ratifications.

He said that the Treaty has created and sustained a norm against nuclear testing so powerful, that less than one dozen tests have been conducted since adoption, and only one country has violated it this millennium.

Before the adoption of the treaty in 1996, the average explosive yield of nuclear tests each year was equivalent to nearly 1,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs.

Mr. Floyd said “nuclear testing not only created geopolitical instability and supported the development of more powerful and deadly nuclear weapons, it also caused untold human suffering and environmental damage. Because of the CTBT, we have left this world far behind.”

In addition to its core mission, the Treaty includes a verification regime in the form of a global network, that provides useful data for civil and scientific purposes, including tsunami warning and climate change studies.

Established under the treaty, the International Monitoring System (IMS), provides round-the-clock, real-time monitoring of any explosive nuclear activities on Earth, and is now more than 90% complete, with over 300 stations certified.

Despite its 185 signatures, the Treaty is yet to enter into force, which would require ratification by eight countries (the US, China, Iran, Israel, Egypt, India, Pakistan and North Korea).

BEIJING, 28 September 2021, (TON): A British frigate was sailing through the sensitive Taiwan Strait on Monday en route to Vietnam, according to an official tweet from the vessel, in a move likely to anger Beijing amid heightened tensions between China and Taiwan.

China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has stepped up military and political pressure to force the democratically ruled island to accept Chinese sovereignty.

While U.S. warships pass through the strait on an almost monthly basis, despite Chinese opposition, U.S. allies have generally been reluctant to follow suit.

Taiwan Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng did not comment directly when asked about the British warship, saying he did not know what missions foreign ships in the Taiwan Strait were carrying out.

He told reporters in Taipei, adding they keep a close watch on all movements near Taiwan “when they pass through the Taiwan Strait our nation’s military will have a grasp of the situation, but will not interfere.”

Britain’s HMS Richmond had been deployed in the East China Sea taking part in United Nations sanctions enforcement operations against North Korea.

WASHINGTON, 28 September 2021, (TON): Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken will travel to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on September 29 to serve as a co-chair, alongside Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai, of the inaugural U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC) Ministerial.

They will meet with the European Union co-chairs, European Commission Executive Vice Presidents Margrethe Vestager and Valdis Dombrovski, to advance shared democratic values, expand and deepen our transatlantic trade and investment ties, and update the rules of the road for the 21st century economy.

On September 30, Secretary Blinken will join the U.S. and EU co-chairs to visit Argo AI, an autonomous driving technology company.

RIYADH, 28 September 2021, (TON): President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan is traveling to Saudi Arabia on Monday to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as the U.S. tries to press the kingdom to move toward a cease-fire in its yearslong war with Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Sullivan will be the highest-ranking Biden administration official to visit Saudi Arabia. Besides seeing the crown prince, often referred to by his initials, MBS, Sullivan is expected to meet with deputy defense minster Khalid bin Salman, a brother to the crown prince, according to two senior administration officials.

The officials were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The Biden White House has largely steered clear of the crown prince since making public in February a CIA report that showed MBS likely approved the killing of Washington Post columnist and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi in a 2018 operation at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul.

One senior administration official said “but the White House has resolved that bringing an end to perhaps the world’s most complex conflict can’t be done without engaging with the most senior Saudi officials face to face.”

National Security Council spokesperson Emily Horne said Sullivan was traveling to Riyadh on Monday and would also visit the United Arab Emirates, a Saudi ally in the war, but did not provide additional details.

BERLIN, 28 September 2021, (TON): German Social Democrat Olaf Scholz vowed to strengthen the European Union and keep up the transatlantic partnership in a three-way coalition government he hopes to form by Christmas to take over from Angela Merkel's conservatives.

Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD) came first in Sunday's national election, just ahead of the conservatives, and aim to lead a government for the first time since 2005 in a coalition with the Greens and the liberal Free Democrats (FDP).

Scholz, 63, projected a sense of calm assurance when asked whether the close election result and the prospect of prolonged coalition negotiations sent a message of instability in Germany to its European partners.

He said "Germany always has coalition governments and it was always stable."

The SPD, Germany's oldest party, won 25.7% of the vote, up five percentage points from the 2017 federal election, ahead of Merkel's CDU/CSU conservative bloc on 24.1%, provisional results showed. The Greens came in with 14.8% and the FDP won 11.5%.

The SPD's recovery marks a tentative revival for centre-left parties in parts of Europe, following the election of Democrat Joe Biden as U.S. president in 2020. Norway's centre-left opposition party also won an election earlier this month.

Scholz, who served as finance minister in Merkel's outgoing 'grand coalition', said a government led by him would offer the United States continuity in transatlantic relations.

WASHINGTON, 28 September 2021, (TON): The State Department announced “US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman will travel next month to Pakistan and India, bitter rivals that have clashed on the way forward in Afghanistan.”

Sherman, after CIA chief Bill Burns, will be one of the first high-level officials under President Joe Biden to visit Pakistan.

The State Department said “Sherman will meet senior officials in Islamabad on October 7-8 after an earlier visit to New Delhi and Mumbai on October 6-7, when she will meet officials and civil society leaders and address the US-India Business council's annual ideas summit.

The trip comes as India, one of the top allies of the Western-backed Afghan government that collapsed last month, urges the world to pay closer attention to Pakistan's role in the turmoil.

Despite being exposed for funding a long-running disinformation campaign against Pakistan last year, India continues to use its rumor mills to alter global opinion about its arch-rival in the region.

Details gathered by The Express Tribune show that more than 40 news items have been produced by mainstream Indian media outlets during this month alone. Each one of them paints Islamabad in a negative light — particularly blaming it for the situation in Afghanistan.

While the spread of unverified information about Islamabad is a permanent feature in New Delhi’s playbook, it churns out more misinformation around key global events.

The current surge in misleading news items has been timed around the collapse of the Ashraf Ghani government in Kabul and the subsequent withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan.

DHAKA, 28 September 2021, (TON): The Border Guard Bangladesh nabbed ten Bangladeshi people as they came back from India without travel documents through Maheshpur border in Jhenaidah.

The arrestees including three women and two children are inhabitants of different districts in the country.

The assistant director of BGB-58 Mohammad Nazrul Islam said “the accused people were handed over to Maheshpur police station and a case was also filed against them in this regard.”