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.
Dismissing Afghanistan's demand to strike at terror sanctuaries across the border, US has said that it has no plans to send combat troops to Pakistan.
Six years after he made his first trip to Afghanistan as Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh on Thursday embarked on a two-day visit to Kabul during which he will discuss terrorism, regional development and ways to step up India's assistance to the war-torn country.
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 President Hamid Karzai sprang a huge surprise when he said that he is not against the idea of a joint force of Afghanistan and Pakistan to patrol the volatile border between the two countries. He was replying to a specific question of Thomas E Freston, investor in media business at the event of the Asia Society in New York.
Mohamed Zia Salehi, chief of administration for the National Security Council, has been receiving money from the US intelligence service for years, the New York Times reported.
These releases are in addition to 26 Taliban detainees freed last year by Pakistan.
In a news conference just hours before the pre-audited results were released, the European Union monitors said they believed that the tally included 1.5 million suspicious ballots, or more than one of every four votes cast.
McCormack told media persons on Monday that the US understood the concerns of Afghanistan on cross-border terrorism and that there has been an increase in Taliban activities over the recent months.
In a candid interview with news channel CNN-IBN, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has stated that the earlier Pakistan realises the perils of nurturing terrorists, the better it was for India and Afghanistan. Here are some excerpts from the interview
Close on the heels of Afghan President Hamid Karzai claiming that a suicide bomber who targeted his spy chief had come from Pakistan, Islamabad has said his government should share any information it has on the 'cowardly attack' to back up the allegation.
The United States on Thursday said it plans to shift to "support role" in Afghanistan by 2013 so as to complete the security transition to Afghan forces by 2014 even as it sought to play down President Hamid Karzai's order to pull out American troops from villages and confine them to bases.
Pakistan is a "twin brother" and India a "great friend", Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Wednesday in an obvious attempt to reassure Pakistan that the strategic partnership agreement signed on Tuesday in Delhi was not targeted against it.
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.
Afghanistan's "accusatory" stance towards Pakistan will not help bilateral ties, Islamabad's envoy at the United Nations has said, advising President Hamid Karzai to "take a leaf out of India's book" and learn from the "enormous maturity" it has shown in dealing with issues. He noted that a "massive change around" has come today in India-Pakistan relations as compared to the post-26/11 environment.
According to The Washington Post, the CIA is making secret payments to multiple members of the Afghan administration to maintain sources of information in a government in which the Afghan leader is often seen as having a limited grasp of developments.
Pervez Musharraf said that Pakistan tried to undermine the Afghan government led by ex-president Hamid Karzai for helping "India stab Pakistan in the back".
Karzai, who will be making his second visit to New Delhi in five months, will hold talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday on the latest developments related to the terror strikes. The main purpose of the visit, which was scheduled during the last few days, is to convey Afghanistan's condolences and solidarity with India in the wake of Mumbai attacks, official sources said.
With the Afghanistan government in Kabul approaching Islamabad for help in opening "reconciliation" talks with the Taliban, a Pakistani role in shaping the political landscape in Afghanistan is now an uncomfortable likelihood for New Delhi.
'India could help in Afghanistan, but if it does too much, it will stoke Pakistan's paranoia and risk making the situation worse,' Michael O'Hanlon, one of America's leading experts on international security, tells Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa.
The US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan James Dobbins is stepping down, Secretary of State John Kerry today said amid a political crisis in the war-torn country.
Streets in capital Kabul were mainly quiet and tense early on Thursday as Afghans awoke and headed to the polls for an anxiously awaited presidential election that Taliban fighters have vowed to disrupt with attacks
Aziz Haniffa reports from Washignton, DC, on Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh's three-day visit to the US capital.
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.
After the Taliban ordered lady newscasters to cover their faces when appearing on television, women presenters for Tolo News obeyed the Taliban diktat.
The Taliban government in Afghanistan is not going anywhere. That being the case, why is the hesitation to establish formal diplomatic relations with the Taliban? asks Lieutenant General Prakash Katoch (Retd).
If Afghanistan is going to make any gains through democratic reforms, the newly elected president must start with addressing corruption at all levels of government and developing a comprehensive government financing plan independent of American support.
An explosion was reported in the capital city of Afghanistan. Sputnik reported citing local sources that the blast was the result of a rocket landing on a residential building near the Kabul airport and that it had killed a child,
All the four gunmen, who had stormed the Indian consulate in Afghanistan's Herat province early on Friday, have been gunned down, Indo-Tibetan Border Police chief Subhas Goswami said.
'The hardliners in Delhi are in for a big disappointment,' predicts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
US President Joe Biden will address the American people on US troops withdrawal from Afghanistan on Tuesday.
President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday night hosted a dinner for visiting South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation leaders and Prime Minister Narendra Modi where the guests were treated to a variety of dishes drawn from various parts of the country.
Gujarati popular dish kela methi nu shaak, mouth-watering chicken chettinad from Tamil Nadu, Punjab's dal makhani and Bengali dish Potol Dorma will be served at a private dinner hosted by President Pranab Mukherjee for visiting foreign dignitaries on Monday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday met Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in Ufa and the two leaders are understood to have discussed Afghanistan's security situation and India's assistance in reconstruction efforts in the war-torn country.
Special envoys of China, Russia and Pakistan have met the top officials of the Taliban's interim government as well as Afghan leaders Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah in Kabul and discussed the formation of an inclusive government, combating terrorism and humanitarian situation, a top Chinese official said on Wednesday.
Afghan presidential run-off candidate Abdullah Abdullah on Wednesday alleged massive election fraud and demanded an immediate halt to vote-counting amid reports that his rival had a million-vote lead, plunging the war-torn country's first democratic transition of power into question.
An ISIS suicide bomber was responsible for the explosion outside the Kabul airport, Politico reported citing US officials.
"The most successful governments in Afghanistan tend to be those who have the biggest tents, which would include all communities and therefore leave all communities satisfied after a point and do not create massive resentments. Now, this is not a government which I would imagine would successfully govern Afghanistan," Dalrymple, the historian said.
He said that he had no intention of remaining in exile in the Gulf nation and was "in talks" to return home.
The president said the ISIS-K was behind the gruesome attack at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul and at a hotel nearby.
