COAS, UK CDS discuss Afghan peace process, bilateral cooperation
Pakistan Army greatly values its friendly relations with the UK, Gen Bajwa tells Gen Carter
UK Chief of Defence Gen Sir Nicholas Patrick Carter appreciated Pakistan’s sincere efforts for peace and stability in the region, especially the Afghan peace process, the ISPR reported. PHOTO: ISPR
RAWALPINDI:
Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa discussed the current developments in Afghan peace process and measures taken to further enhance bilateral and defence cooperation with United Kingdom s Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS) General Sir Nicholas Patrick Carter on Monday.
When U.S. policymakers debate the future of Afghan women, they often frame a binary choice. The United States can either abandon them as collateral damage of a foolhardy Western experiment imposed on an archaic society or fight a forever war to protect them. But the notion that Afghan women must be either forsaken or defended in perpetuity is based on an antiquated view of Afghan society and on a misunderstanding of the path that Afghan women envision will sustain and protect their rights.
As the United States prepares to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan by September 11, it must strive to better understand what Afghan women have worked for and what they will need in order to secure their future. The U.S. pullout casts a dark shadow over the prospect of protecting Afghan women’s rights. But military disengagement does not have to mean relinquishing women’s gains. Washington and its allies still have tools at their disposal to help Afghan women defend their rights and to ens
President Biden’s announcement that U.S. troops would withdraw by September 11 has many Afghans and observers warning of a quick collapse of the Afghan state and a new phase in the country’s civil war. Without minimizing the challenges ahead, the United States should avoid any self-fulfilling prophecy of imminent collapse by insisting that the only future for Afghanistan is one that advances the gains of the past 20 years. As troops begin to depart, it is an opportune time to examine three forms of leverage the United States has to promote a political settlement.
Members of the Taliban in Laghman Province, Afghanistan, on March 13, 2020. Many fear that the extremist group will return to power after the Americans leave. (Jim Huylebroek/The New York Times)
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U.S. orders big drawdown at Kabul embassy as troops leave
Zalmay Khalilzad, special envoy for Afghanistan Reconciliation, testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 27, 2021, during a hearing on the Biden administration s Afghanistan policy and plans to withdraw troops after two decades of war. (T.J. Kirkpatrick/The New York Times via AP, Pool)
AP Diplomatic Writer
WASHINGTON The State Department on Tuesday ordered a significant number of its remaining staff at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul to leave Afghanistan as the military steps up the pullout of American troops from the country.
The order came as the U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan told lawmakers that it no longer made sense to continue the 20-year deployment of American troops there. At the same time, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said he shared lawmakers’ concerns that the rights of women and minorities could be jeopardized after the withdrawal is complete.
“We should all remain concerned that those rights could suffer,” Khalilzad told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Asked if the U.S. would retain any leverage to protect those rights once its troops are gone, Khalilzad was circumspect. He said aid and other types of diplomatic support “would be not available if they did not respect the human rights of Afghan women or others.”