KABUL, 22 January 2022, (TON): Turkiye and Qatar have reached an agreement on ensuring security at Kabul’s main airport should they be awarded the mission amid ongoing talks with the Taliban government.

Turkish diplomatic sources told media that Ankara and Doha had agreed on a security framework for the airport mission, but added talks continued on other aspects such as financing.

One of the sources said “it is expected for the Taliban to ensure security outside, and for whoever runs the airport to ensure it inside.”

The person said on condition of anonymity “the process is continuing constructively.”

They added that a delegation of Turkish and Qatari officials were holding talks on the issue in Kabul this week.

Qatar’s state news agency said “the Taliban government will be in Doha next week to complete discussions with Qatar and Turkiye over the operation and management of the airport. It added in a statement that delegations from Qatar and Turkiye have held two days of “intense negotiations” in Kabul this week over control of the airport.

KABUL, 22 January 2022, (TON): The Norwegian and Taliban governments said “the Taliban will hold talks with Western officials in Oslo next week on human rights and humanitarian aid in their first official visit to the West since returning to power.”

It said “the visit from Sunday to Tuesday will see meetings with Norwegian authorities and officials from a number of allied countries, including Britain, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy and the United States.”

Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt said "we are extremely concerned about the grave situation in Afghanistan, where millions of people are facing a full-blown humanitarian disaster.”

The Taliban swept back to power in Afghanistan last summer as international troops withdrew after a two-decade presence.

A US-led invasion in late 2001 had toppled the Taliban in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

KABUL, 22 January 2022, (TON): Only united nations can expel invaders and bring down powerful empires, the interim Taliban government said on Friday, rebuffing US President Joe Biden’s assertions about divisions among Afghans.

Abdul Qahar Balkhi, spokesperson for the interim Afghan Foreign Ministry, wrote on Twitter “discord is an external phenomenon instigated by foreign invaders for their survival, however, Afghans defeated them with their shared Islamic beliefs, homeland and celebrated history, and are now taking strong leaps towards becoming an equal nation.”

The statement came hours after Biden’s White House news conference, where he said the US exited Afghanistan because it was not possible to “unify Afghanistan under one single government”.

Biden said “it’s been the graveyard of empires for a solid reason: It is not susceptible to unity.”

Balkhi contended that the US president’s comment on Afghanistan being the “graveyard of empires” was “itself an admission of Afghan unity”.

DHAKA, 22 January 2022, (TON): Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen said that it is the United States that trained Rab on their rules of engagement how to behave with people and how to interrogate.

"They've been trained by the USA. The US has taught them the rules of engagement, how to behave with people and how to interrogate," he told reporters in Sunamganj after attending a number of programmes, recalling the role of the USA and the UK in training the Rab.

Momen said “Rab is very efficient in its work and they are very effective.”

He further said "they're very efficient and they're not corrupt. That's why they've been able to gain the trust of people."

The foreign minister said “the government will definitely encourage Rab to go and take training afresh if they (Rab) have any weaknesses in the rules of engagement and if there are any human rights violations in these rules of engagement.”

But the sections that have been imposed on individuals suddenly are not very justified, said the foreign minister, adding that the US got one-sided information.

NEW DELHI, 22 January 2022, (TON): As nearly three weeks have passed since Pakistan placed all the necessary arrangements to facilitate Indian transportation of wheat to Afghanistan via the Wagah border, New Delhi has yet to communicate the date and other information about the first consignment.

At a weekly news conference here on Friday, Foreign Office Spokesperson Asim Iftikhar said Pakistan had allowed India to transport wheat using its land route to Afghanistan on an exceptional basis.

“We have conveyed to the India side, necessary details of arrangements put in place by Pakistan, and for about 3 weeks now, are awaiting further response from India of the date of dispatch and other information regarding the first consignment.

India announced to donate 50,000 metric tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan as humanitarian assistance in October and sought Pakistan permission to transport food grain through the Wagah border.

Pakistan after careful consideration granted the permission but the two sides locked horns over the modalities.

Since Pakistan otherwise never permits the two-way trade between India and Afghanistan through its borders, it initially proposed that wheat should be transported through Pakistani trucks under the UN banner.

DHAKA, 22 January 2022, (TON): UN Secretary-General's Spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said “the UN will look into the 12 human rights bodies' call for banning Rab from its peacekeeping missions.”

He said in his noon briefing "the UN, I mean, we just received the news of this.  We will obviously be taking a look at it. I would remind you that we do have a pretty stringent human rights screening policy that applies to individual units from every country. But, we, obviously, have been taking very seriously what is being done.”

He said this in response to a question from a journalist that if the UN is concerned and considering any action following a letter from 12 human rights organizations to the Under‑Secretary‑General for Peacekeeping Operations, urging that the Rapid Action Battalion be banned from UN peacekeeping, and US sanctions on Rab.

On December 10, the US announced sanctions on Rab and seven of its current and former members over human rights violations.

NEW DELHI, 22 January 2022, (TON): The Indian government has ordered to block 35 YouTube channels and two websites based in Pakistan, alleged claiming that they were running anti-India propaganda.

The Indian media reported “India's Information and Broadcasting Ministry, in a statement, said that the websites and channels had a total of 120 million subscribers and were running "fake news" on former Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat.”

It said “the YouTube channels, websites, and other social media accounts blocked by the ministry were used by Pakistan for spreading anti-India fake news about sensitive subjects related to India.”

The statement said “it was observed that these YouTube channels had also started posting content to undermine the democratic process of the upcoming elections in five states.”

The statement further said that some of the YouTube channels were being operated by anchors of Pakistani TV news channels.

NEW DELHI, 22 January 2022, (TON): Dozens of Hindu religious leaders and politicians gathered last month for a meeting in Haridwar, a prominent pilgrimage site for Hindus in the northern Uttarakhand state, where multiple speakers called on the community to arm themselves for a genocide against the Muslim minority.

Sadhvi Annapurna Maa of the far-right Hindu Mahasabha (Grand Assembly of Hindus) told a cheering crowd at the event “even if just 100 of us become soldiers and kill two million of them, we will be victorious.”

The videos of the meeting went viral on social media, sparking outrage and prompting calls for the arrest of those who openly called for the killings. In the month since, two speakers have been arrested while others roam free as the police say they are investigating the matter.

Meanwhile, experts have raised an alarm. During a congressional briefing in the United States, Professor Gregory Stanton, the founder of Genocide Watch, warned in unambiguous words that a “genocide could very well happen in India.”

WASHINGTON, 21 January 2022, (TON): US President Joe Biden talking at a news conference in Washington said “withdrawing the US troops from Afghanistan was the right decision.”

He said “the US spent trillions of dollars in Afghanistan and would have had to continue spending money and sending US troops into the country if he had not pulled the troops out.”

He said “look, we were spending a trillion dollars a week, I mean, a billion dollars a week in Afghanistan for 20 years. Raise your hand, if you think anyone was going to be able to unify Afghanistan under one single government. It's been the graveyard of empires for a solid reason.”

He said “it is not susceptible to unity, number one.”

The Biden Administration has faced harsh criticism following the US withdrawal and the chaotic evacuation at Kabul airport and an attack in which over 100 people including 13 US service members were killed and over 100 people were injured.

He said “there is no way to get out of Afghanistan after 20 years easily. Not possible, no matter when you did it. And I make no apologies for what I did.”

LONDON, 21 January 2022, (TON): Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne have agreed to closer cooperation to offer clean, reliable and transparent finance for investment in infrastructure that meets the needs and priorities of our Indo-Pacific partners.

The new agreement will deepen the UK and Australia’s cooperation on infrastructure investment across the Indo-Pacific, setting the scope for joint and complementary financing and technical assistance for high-standard development projects such as disaster resilient and climate adapted infrastructure.

Truss and Payne signed the Memorandum of Understanding today, during Truss’s visit to Australia for AUKMIN and after a roundtable with private investors in Sydney.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said “the UK and Australia are natural partners, and we are determined to play a positive and proactive role by financing and delivering clean infrastructure that is reliable and honest.”

The UK is committed to building a ‘network of liberty’ and that means championing democracy by supporting countries in the Indo-Pacific to resolve their development needs.