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16 Aug 2021
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Afghan president fled with cars and helicopter full of cash: Russian embassy

August 16, 2021

Russia’s embassy in Kabul said on Monday that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had fled the country with four cars and a helicopter full of cash and had to leave some money behind as it would not all fit in, the RIA news agency reported.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Ghani, whose current whereabouts are unknown, said he left Afghanistan on Sunday as the Taliban entered Kabul virtually unopposed. He said he wanted to avoid bloodshed.Russia has said it will retain a diplomatic presence in Kabul and hopes to develop ties with the Taliban even as it says it is no rush to recognize them as the country’s rulers and will closely observe their behavior.“As for the collapse of the (outgoing) regime, it is most eloquently characterized by the way Ghani fled Afghanistan,” Nikita Ishchenko, a spokesman for the Russian embassy in Kabul, was quoted as saying by RIA.“Four cars were full of money, they tried to stuff another part of the money into a helicopter, but not all of it fit. And some of the money was left lying on the tarmac,” he was quoted as saying.Ischenko, the Russian embassy spokesman, confirmed his comments to Reuters. He cited “witnesses” as the source of his information. Reuters could not independently confirm the veracity of his account immediately.President Vladimir Putin’s special representative on Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov said earlier it was unclear how much money the fleeing government would leave behind.“I hope the government that has fled did not take all the money from the state budget. It will be the bedrock of the budget if something is left,” Kabulov told Moscow’s Ekho Moskvy radio station.Read more: Afghan president Ghani leaves country for Tajikistan: OfficialFive killed at Kabul airport as Afghans try to flee Taliban takeover: WitnessesBiden team surprised by rapid Taliban gains in Afghanistan
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Afghan president fled with cars and helicopter full of cash: Russian embassy

16 Aug 2021
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Lebanese president Aoun says on the brink of forming new government

August 16, 2021

Lebanese president Michel Aoun says a new government could be formed “god willing, in the next couple of days.”For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Fears that Lebanon’s financial meltdown is tipping the country into anarchy have prompted renewed efforts to agree on a new government that can start addressing the two-year-old crisis.The meltdown has hit a crunch point in the last week with shortages of imported fuel forcing hospitals, bakeries and other essential services to scale back or shut down.At least 28 people were killed over the weekend when a fuel tanker exploded as people desperate for gasoline scrambled to get a share.Aoun, the Maronite Christian head of state, is due to meet Najib Mikati, the Sunni Muslim prime minister-designate, on Monday. Aoun on Saturday expressed optimism that a government could be formed soon.“It’s evolving positively. (There are) some issues to be tackled, mainly names,” a senior political source told Reuters. “The whole situation is deteriorating, the whole system is collapsing,” the source added, explaining the impetus.Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the heavily armed, Iran-backed Shia group Hezbollah, on Sunday urged the government to be formed in two or three days, saying this was the only way to prevent anarchy which had already begun.He also said Hezbollah would begin bringing diesel and gasoline from Iran and the timeline would be announced soon.Speaking after meeting Aoun, US Ambassador Dorothy Shea said basic services had “reached the precipice of collapse”.“Every day that goes by without an empowered government committed to and able to implement urgently needed reforms is a day in which the already dire situation slides further into humanitarian catastrophe,” she said.The culmination of decades of state corruption and mismanagement, the crisis entered a new phase last week when the central bank said it would no longer finance fuel imports at subsidized exchange rates.With its currency reserves depleted, the bank has said new legislation is needed to allow use of the mandatory foreign reserve for such imports.The government demanded prices be left unchanged. There has been no resolution to the standoff.The crisis has sunk the currency by more than 90 percent and sent more than half the population into poverty.Despite that, the ruling elite has failed to agree a rescue plan, or to form a new government since Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s cabinet quit last August after the Beirut port explosion.Mikati, a businessman-politician, was designated to form the government after Sunni leader Saad al-Hariri abandoned his attempts, saying he could not agree with Aoun. Each blamed the other.Read more:Lebanon fuel tanker explosion leaves 20 dead, 79 injured in Akkar district‘It’s hell’: Lebanon’s pharmacists, doctors fear more deaths as crisis worsensPeriod poverty on the rise as Lebanon’s economic crisis worsens
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Lebanese president Aoun says on the brink of forming new government

16 Aug 2021
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US created ‘political, security vacuum’ leading to Taliban takeover: Think tank

August 16, 2021

Taliban’s nearly complete takeover of Afghanistan came after the US-backed Afghan military collapsed with shocking speed creating a “political and security vacuum,” analysts have said.As the world watched stunning scenes of Taliban fighters standing in the Afghan president’s office and crowds of citizens and foreigners frantically trying to board planes to escape the country, Champa Patel, director of the Asia-Pacific program at think tank Chatham House, said the fallout was inevitable after American military’s withdrawal from the country.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.“What is frustrating is the analysis and commentary that wants to focus on what this means for China and Russia’s influence in Afghanistan,” she said. “Yet again, Afghanistan has been instrumentalized for other countries’ agendas.”She added, “Why are we talking about what this means for great power competition? The US, through its decision to expedite troop withdrawal, created this political and security vacuum.”What is urgently needed now is to ensure the protection of everyday Afghan people, Patel said.“States should focus their minds on facilitating visas, helping people to safety, humanitarian assistance in the country, and seeking a peaceful political resolution,” she added.Hameed Hakimi, a research associate for the Asia-Pacific program and Europe program at the think tank said Afghanistan has suffered “multiple waves of a brain drain” as regimes have changed in the last 43 years of conflict starting.“This began with the communist coup in April 1978. The last time Taliban consolidated power in 1996, they suffered harsh international sanctions. Taliban leadership are aware of the implications of the sanctions for a country that’s vastly different to the one in 2001.”“For the Western donors, regional countries and the United Nations, there is an urgent task of re-familiarizing themselves with a Taliban government whose leaders they have known for some years in the context of ‘peace talks,’” Hakimi said.“For the Taliban, the biggest challenge lying ahead is to transition from an insurgency to a government; that acceptance among the Afghan populations will materialize only when they see positive changes in their lives.”Dr Patricia Lewis, the director of the International Security program at Chatham House said, from the international security perspective, recent events in Afghanistan demonstrate the “significance of strategic patience.”“The Taliban correctly assumed that, over time, western enthusiasm would wane, and democratically elected politicians would decide to abandon their efforts in the country – they just had to wait them out and be prepared,” Lewis added.“NATO and other western countries had developed an approach of building capacity in the Afghanistan military and developing democratic institutions in the country.”According to Lewis, “such a process takes generations, not mere decades, especially in a country where the underlying culture is very different. What must be understood in western countries is that, along with development aid, military support is a long-term, cost-effective investment in security for all.”She also said: “The complete failure of the Afghan government and armed forces to hold the line and defend against Taliban forces will make it harder to convince the leaders of other countries that defense engagement, as a form of capacity-building and conflict prevention, is worthwhile. The UK has been at the forefront of developing this approach but as witnessed from the events in Afghanistan, none of this capacity-building matters if political determination and national leadership is absent.”Read more:EU ministers to hold emergency talks on AfghanistanRussia-led CSTO bloc ‘deeply concerned’ by Taliban’s growing control in AfghanistanAfghan president fled with cars and helicopter full of cash: Russian embassy
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: US created ‘political, security vacuum’ leading to Taliban takeover: Think tank