For more than a decade, wads of American dollars packed into suitcases, backpacks and, on occasion, plastic shopping bags have been dropped off every month or so at the offices of Afghanistan's president -- courtesy of the CIA, a media report on Monday said.
Singh, the joint secretary heading the division for Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran in the ministry of external affairs, held talks with Taliban's foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi on Thursday.
Afghanistan is ripe and ready for more investments from India and offers a lot of opportunities.
We bring you a presentation of some of the most unusual photos from around the world in the month gone by
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked US President Donald Trump for acknowledging Pakistan's role in counter-terrorism efforts after the country arrested a wanted terrorist. Trump thanked the Pakistani government for helping arrest "Mohammad Shareefullah", also known as Jafar, who supported and conducted activities on behalf of ISIS-K in support of multiple lethal attacks, including the Abbey Gate attack in 2021. Sharif said the terrorist, an Afghan national, had been apprehended in an operation along the border with Afghanistan.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai will arrive in Islamabad on Monday on a one-day trip to discuss the frayed ties with Pakistan and seek release of Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Barader as a confidence building measure.
Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai concluded his first visit to Afghanistan for foreign office consultations after assuming office.
Noting that the Barack Obama administration is keeping a close watch on the Hamid Karzai government, the White House on Wednesday said that the Afghanistan president should not expect a blank cheque in his second term. "I think you heard the President speak clearly at West Point (at New York in December 2009) and since then about the need to take governance seriously; that there was not an open-ended blank cheque for waste and abuse going forward in Afghan," said an official.
The Taliban were ready to start formal talks with NATO after the Bonn conference. Taliban representatives were given an assurance that they would be permitted to establish a diplomatic office in a Muslim country other than Pakistan.
Pakistan on Friday said Afghanistan should properly check its facts before making allegations that a plot to kill Afghan President Hamid Karzai was hatched on its soil. The Afghan intelligence agency said on Thursday that it had thwarted a plot to assassinate Karzai by arresting a bodyguard and five persons with links to the Haqqani network and the Al Qaeda. Officials said the plot had its origins in Pakistan's Waziristan tribal region.
The runoff election will be held on November 7
Underscoring the need for more rapid development of Afghan national security forces, President Barack Obama has given his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai a clear time line of 18 to 24 months to achieve the goals set by the US.
Reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Omar has reemerged to reassert direct control over the militant group, ordering attacks and shuffling field commanders in Afghanistan, as his group faces an offensive from the US troops and Pakistani military in Waziristan.
The Taliban has reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack on the presidential palace in Kabul where a press conference was scheduled by President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday. Multiple explosions and gunfire were reported near the presidential palace, which is the site for several important organisations.
Expressing concern over political instability and drug trafficking in Afghanistan, Russia and Pakistan today said the situation could deteriorate further post-2014 after International Security Assistant Forces are withdrawn from the country.
Ladies and gentlemen, today's conference must serve, above all, as an impetus to define a vision that reflects the shared interests of all of us, and agree on working together towards achieving it.
In a significant policy shift, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has agreed to send a group of military officers to Pakistan for training, a decision which could raise eyebrows in India.
The White House on Thursday said the presidents of Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to stay in touch in a regular way, but has refused to get into the details of what transpired at the meeting between George W Bush, Pervez Musharraf and Karzai.
Karzai said Afghanistan wanted India and Pakistan to sort out their problems.
Afghan politician Ali A Jalali, a former interior minister, speaks on the situation in his country.
Addressing a press conference, Karzai said Kabul reserved the right to strike Taliban insurgents on Pakistani soil as a form of self-defence. "Afghanistan has the right of self defence. When the Taliban cross the territory from Pakistan to come and kill Afghans and to kill coalition troops, it exactly gives us the right to go back and do the same," Karzai said.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will host a quadrilateral summit with leaders of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan on Wednesday to discuss the situation in the volatile Af-Pak region.
Dr Singh's is the first by an Indian prime minister since Indira Gandhi visited Afghanistan in 1976.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday returned to Delhi after a two-day visit to Afghanistan, during which he held talks with the Afghan leadership on several bilateral, regional and international issues, including terrorism and stepped up assistance to the war-torn country. Dr Singh held talks with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, First Vice President Mohammad Qasim Fahim and Second Vice President Mohammad Karim Khalili.
In a statement, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said US President Joe Biden was briefed about the rocket attack by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Chief of Staff Ron Klain.
Six days after former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani was assassinated, authorities in Kabul have arrested a prominent Afghan connected to the Taliban militants as a suspect.
A large explosion rocked Kabul's main diplomatic and government residential district on Tuesday morning killing at least four civilians and injuring several others.
The daring terror attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul on Monday has come at a time when the resurgent Taliban has threatened to escalate a campaign of suicide bombings in an attempt to topple the government of President Hamid Karzai, who was himself targeted by the militants in April.
The war-ravaged nation of Afghanistan has offered to try and help bring about a rapprochement between the United States and Iran, even as Washington continues its campaign to isolate Teheran over its alleged nuclear weapons programme in violation of its nonproliferation obligations.
'Through the different ups and downs of my country, India has played a great positive role. The Afghan and Indian people should know this,' says Afghan Ambassador Masood Khalili.
"You can change friends but not neighbours," Atal Bihari Vajpayee famously said this 15 years ago.
In an apparent snub to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, his United States counterpart Barack Obama on Monday did not mention Pakistan in his opening remarks at the NATO Summit meeting on Afghanistan and instead welcomed the presence of officials from the Central Asia and Russia.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has asked Afghan President Hamid Karzai to plug the entry of militants fleeing into his country following a massive army operation against Taliban, officials said on Tuesday.
'I am not bound by the niceties of international politics where people decide issues based on their national interest and give it a moralistic name,'says Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday described as "worrisome" reports that Indian Consulate General in Jalalabad was the target of a terror plot in Afghanistan.
United States Vice President Joe Biden on Monday made an unannounced trip to Afghanistan to have an on ground assessment of the situation in the war-torn country, less than six months before the scheduled start of drawdown of American troops.
Ashraf, who was accompanied by Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik, said he would raise the issue of cross-border attacks from Afghanistan on Pakistan with the Afghan leadership
The national men's team beat India 2-0 to win the South Asian Football Federation championship in Kathmandu late on Tuesday, Afghanistan's first international football title, sending tens of thousands of joyous Afghans into the streets. Fans in cars and on motorbikes joined others on foot, cheering, blowing horns and waving Afghan flags throughout the night.
Mullah Abdul Salaam Zaeef, a former high-ranking member of the Taliban regime has refuted reports that he is involved in any sort of negotiations between the Britain and reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Omar. Earlier, a section of the British media had reported that Mullah Zaeef's recent visit to London was aimed at facilitate British-sponsored talks between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and senior members of the Taliban.
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