WASHINGTON, 19 July 2021, (TON): One of America’s former military commanders in Afghanistan said Sunday that the situation there is falling apart even before the United States completes its withdrawal from the embattled Asian nation.

Speaking on “Fareed Zakaria GPS” Gen. David Petraeus said “the situation on the ground has become increasingly dire with each passing week.”

Earlier this year, President Joe Biden announced that U.S. troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan, and he recently moved up the date of the final departure.

“I fear we will look back and regret the decision to withdraw,” Petraeus said. “Sadly, we may regret that sooner than I had originally thought when I said that right after the decision was announced.”

Petraeus, who retired from the Army to become director of the CIA in 2011, added “beyond that, I think we will also look back and regret the hasty way in which we seem to be doing this.”

American, British and other international forces invaded Afghanistan late in 2001 in response to the 9/11 attacks and rapidly ousted the Taliban regime that had supported Osama bin Laden and provided him refuge. Bin Laden fled to neighboring Pakistan and was assassinated there by U.S. forces in 2011.

ISLAMABAD, 19 July 2021, (TON):  Prime Minister Imran Khan praised the courage and valour of the Kashmiri youth, particularly those gallantly facing atrocities in India-held Kashmir, and said they could not accept any “cowardly, gutless, corrupt and liar” as their leader.

He expressed these views at his first election-related public meeting in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), held on the premises of a college in Bagh.

He said that I want to give a special message to the great people of occupied Kashmir, Pakistani nation appreciates and feels proud of you for the way you are showing self-respect while braving atrocities as well as the way youngsters like Burhan Wani are sacrificing their lives.

PM Khan said that Muslims across the world were also looking towards the Kashmiris and praying for the continuity of their indomitable spirit to refuse to be coerced and suppressed by India.

Highlights initiative of Kamyab Pakistan at first election-related public meeting in AJK

Mr Khan maintained that when [Indian Prime Minister] Narendra Modi intensified atrocities in held Kashmir after Aug 5, 2019, the world might have believed that the Kashmiris would bow down. But no such thing happened because the Kashmiris have powerful faith.

While quoting a verse from the Quran, he expressed the hope that good times for the struggling Kashmiris were just round the corner and reassured them that he would keep on taking up their case across the globe as their ambassador and advocate.

The prime minister pointed out that the BJP and RSS ideology posed the biggest threat to India itself because it [ideology] did not target the Muslims alone, but also the Sikhs, Christians and scheduled castes, whom it did not consider as equal citizens.

ISLAMABAD, 19 July 2021, (TON): Pakistan reopened its border with Afghanistan at Chaman to allow several thousand Afghan nationals to cross into their country, who had been stranded in Pakistani territory due to border closure by Pakistani authorities after the Taliban captured Spin Boldak and Wesh areas of Afghanistan last week.

This was the second time that Pakistan opened the border crossing in the last four days for sending back Afghan nationals, including women, children and patients, to their country.

He added that Pakistan opened its border at Chaman as several thousand Afghan families had gathered at the border and were seeking permission to cross into their country, a senior administration official told media over the phone. Pakistani citizens who had been stuck in Wesh were also allowed by the Taliban officials to return home.

The Afghans who returned home along with their families carried wheat flour, ghee, cooking oil and other edible items purchased from Chaman and Quetta.

Assistant Commissioner Arif Kakar said “Pakistan has reopened its border with Afghanistan on humanitarian grounds to allow Afghan families to return home and celebrate Eid in their country.”

Security officials deployed at the border crossing point were strictly checking documents of the Afghans.

KABUL, 19 July 2021, (TON): A group of Afghan female students from Herat won an award at the International Astronomy and Astrophysics Competition, which was hosted by Poland and held online in the first week of July.

The event is an international science competition that enables students from all countries to prove their skills and to unleash their creativity in the fields of astronomy and astrophysics. Participants receive certificates, awards, cash prizes, and global recognition.

The competition honors the best participants from each participating nation with a special national award certificate.

Participants from five countries, including India and Bangladesh, got prizes in the competition. According to the Afghan team, 225 participants and groups from 54 countries attended the competition.

Members of the astronomy group, all of whom are girls, said “the achievement provided them the opportunity to make further efforts toward their goals.”

Amina Karimiyan, head of the group said “there were 225 astronomy groups from 54 countries. Our prize was a telescope and a package of other relevant equipment.”

Behnaz Azizi, a member of the group said “despite limitations that exist in our dear country, we are thinking beyond this and we want to record Afghanistan’s name in the astronomy science.”

TEHRAN, 19 July 2021, (TON): Iran insisted that a prisoner swap deal has been agreed with the United States, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said, a day after Washington denied such an agreement had been reached.

Saeed Khatibzadeh said in a tweet “outrageous the US denying simple fact that there IS an agreed deal on the matter of the detainees. Even on how to announce it.”

“Humanitarian swap was agreed with US & UK in Vienna-separate from JCPOA (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action)- on release of 10 prisoners on all sides. Iran is ready to proceed.”

The US on Saturday accused Tehran of an outrageous effort to deflect blame for the impasse in the nuclear talks and denied that any deal had been reached on a prisoner swap.

Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Abbas Araqchi, tweeted that the United States and Britain must stop linking a humanitarian exchange with the nuclear talks.

The talks are aimed at reviving a 2015 deal between Iran and six major powers that curbed Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for a lifting of sanctions on Iran. Washington abandoned the deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran.

Araqchi said the seventh round of indirect talks between Tehran and Washington would not resume until Iran’s hardline president-elect, Ebrahim Raisi, takes office in early August. The sixth round of the talks in Vienna adjourned on June 20.

Tehran and President Joe Biden’s administration have been communicating on prisoner exchanges aimed at securing the release of Iranians held in US jails and other countries over violations of US sanctions, and of Americans jailed in Iran.

NEW DELHI, 19 July 2021, (TON): Officials said that landslides triggered by heavy rain have left at least 25 people dead in Mumbai.

Several houses have collapsed and it is feared victims could be trapped under the debris.

Authorities have reported 11 incidents of houses or walls collapsing in the Mumbai area in the last 24 hours. In one neighbourhood about half a dozen shacks located at the base of a hill collapsed on top of each other.

Local media reporters told that rescuers were seen using their hands to dig up the ground and retrieve bodies and carrying the injured through narrow lanes on makeshift stretchers.

Narendra Modi, the prime minister, offered condolences in a tweet and announced aid for the victims.

He said “saddened by the loss of lives due to wall collapses in Chembur and Vikhroli in Mumbai. In this hour of grief, my thoughts are with the bereaved families. Praying that those who are injured have a speedy recovery.”

He added, in a second tweet “Rs. 2 lakh [200,000 rupees, or £1,950] each from PMNRF [Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund] would be given to the next of kin of those who lost their lives due to wall collapses in Mumbai. Rs. 50,000 would be given to those injured.”

Several areas in the city were flooded after heavy rainfall over the last 24 hours and suburban train services were disrupted, crippling India’s financial capital.

KABUL, 19 July 2021, (TON): The Taliban’s supreme leader Haibatullah Akhunzada has said he “strenuously favours” a political settlement to the conflict in Afghanistan even as the group launched a sweeping offensive across the nation.

The announcement comes as representatives of the Afghan government and Taliban armed fighters sat down for a new round of talks in Doha over the weekend, stirring hopes that the long-stalled peace talks were being resuscitated.

“In spite of the military gains and advances, the Islamic Emirate [of Afghanistan] strenuously favours a political settlement in the country” Akhunzada said in a message released ahead of next week’s Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

He added that every opportunity for the establishment of an Islamic system, peace and security that presents itself will be made use of by the Islamic Emirate.

For months, the two sides have been meeting on and off in the Qatari capital but have achieved little, if any, notable success, with the discussions appearing to have lost momentum as the Taliban group made significant gains on the battlefield, especially with foreign forces finalising their withdrawal from Afghanistan.

BAGHDAD, 18 July 2021, (TON): The White House said that U.S. President Joe Biden will host Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi at the White House on July 26.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that he visit will highlight the strategic partnership between the two countries and advance bilateral cooperation under a 2008 agreement that governed the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

Psaki listed areas of shared interest such as energy and health and said Biden looked forward to strengthening cooperation with Iraq on “security issues to include joint efforts to ensure the enduring defeat” of the Islamic State militant group.

Psaki made no reference to Iran, which exercises influence in neighboring Iraq through its close relations with the Baghdad government and by backing Shi’ite militia forces that mount attacks on military facilities hosting U.S. forces.

A senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander urged Iraqi Shi’ite militias to step up attacks on U.S. targets during a meeting in Baghdad last week, three militia sources and two Iraqi security sources familiar with the gathering said.

CAP TOWN, 18 July 2021, (TON): South Africans cleaned up shopping centres and stores looted during a week of shocking violence that rocked the country and left more than 200 dead.

Aid organisations also handed out food in communities that had been cut off from main roads or where food shops were ransacked in the unrest.

The violence, the worst in post-apartheid South Africa, erupted after former president Jacob Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in jail for snubbing a corruption inquiry.

His successor President Cyril Ramaphosa, who came to office promising to curb graft, said the riots were a “coordinated and well-planned attack” on the country’s young democracy.

“Using the pretext of a political grievance, those behind these acts have sought to provoke a popular insurrection,” Ramaphosa said in a televised address on Friday night.

The rioting caused widespread destruction, leaving thousands of businesses trashed, including many retail shops that were specifically targeted.

As an uneasy calm set in Saturday, residents in the hard-hit KwaZulu-Natal province swept up debris at the Dube Village Mall in the township of Inanda, north of Durban, shovelling it into refuse bags.

Behind them walls topped with spikes and razor wire had been spray painted with the words “Free Zuma”.

Zuma, whose home province is KwaZulu-Natal, commands support among loyalists in the ruling African National Congress (ANC), who portray him as a champion of the poor.

DHAKA, 18 July 2021, (TON): Bangladesh has sought Russia's active and fruitful cooperation for facilitating the reintegration and return of the Rohingya refugees to their homeland in Myanmar.

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen raised the issue with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov at a meeting on the sidelines of the international conference on Central & South Asia, Regional Connectivity, Challenges and Opportunity in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the two ministers agreed to work together on the Rohingya issue.

Russia, the ministry said, would continue to encourage Myanmar to engage in dialogue with Bangladesh.

The ministry said “the two ministers also expressed happiness at the level of the existing mutual cooperation between Bangladesh and Russia.”