Middle East Experience

The Taliban launched a charm offensive to rehabilitate their image on the world stage, making a major promise to respect the rights of women as they try to govern Afghanistan.“We assure the international community that there will be no discrimination against women, but, of course, within the frameworks we have,” Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said at a news conference in Kabul on Tuesday.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Activists and local journalists, however, say events on the ground tell a different story, with reports of the Taliban conducting home searches and arrests.And Afghan women are wary of any real change and are preparing for the worst.Roya Rahmani, the first woman to serve as Afghanistan's ambassador to the US, told CNN earlier this week: “Based on what I know of them and their actions on the ground, I am afraid that the very basic rights of women are in line to be sacrificed.”She added that “access to education, employment, even physical presence of women in the public sphere is not tolerated,” and stressed: “What the Taliban are going to offer to women is way below equal citizenship. There's little reason to think anyone would have citizenship rights under the Taliban, based on previous experience. But even so, women will be treated as a ‘lower class,’ deemed fit only for specific roles and nothing else.”Fawzia KoofiFormer Afghan MP and peace negotiator Fawzia Koofi said she doesn’t know what her future might hold in a country ruled by the Taliban, but the former politician who faced assassination attempts in the past insisted she will not flee.She told CBC Radio: “I'm in Kabul with my two daughters... because I just feel that my being in Kabul will help... keep the morale high.”“I will continue to stay in Afghanistan for as long as I can. But in the meantime, I don't know what will happen tomorrow to me, because B-52 airplanes and rockets, the superpowers, NATO, nobody actually were able to defeat Taliban. Taliban are not afraid of them. But they are afraid of the women,” she added.Zarifa GhafariNo stranger to death threats and assassination attempts, Afghanistan's youngest mayor, Zarifa Ghafari, said she awaited the moment the Taliban sent fighters to kill her.“I'm sitting here waiting for them to come. There is no one to help me or my family. I'm just sitting with them and my husband. And they will come for people like me and kill me,” Ghafari told British newspaper i on Sunday.She was among the many Afghan women who decided to stand their ground, saying on Twitter last week: “I am ready to stay here until the last moment of my life for the prosperity of this beautiful land.”Salima MazariSalima Mazari, one of the three female district governors in Afghanistan and a woman who took up arms against the Taliban, has reportedly been captured.She had predicted that there will be “no place for women” prior to the Taliban’s capture of Kabul, according to an interview she gave to the Associated Press.“In the provinces controlled by the Taliban, no women exist there anymore, not even in the cities. They are all imprisoned in their homes.”Read more:On Independence Day, Afghan protestors show defiance as Taliban struggles to governWatch: ‘Desperate’ Afghans hand babies to soldiers, UK says can’t take minorsHiding from Taliban hit squads: Former Afghan official describes ordeal, anger at US
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Afghan female politicians stand their ground against Taliban, refusing to flee

The US Capitol Police said they were investigating a bomb threat on Thursday near the Library of Congress.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Police identify man with possible explosives near US Capitol

The United States unveiled terrorism-related sanctions on an oil-smuggling operation with alleged links to Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Friday as talks to resurrect the landmark nuclear deal remain in limbo. 

In a statement announcing the designations, Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused the IRGC’s elite overseas branch, known as the Quds Force, of funding its activities with revenue from Iranian oil sales. 
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Intel: US sanctions oil broker reportedly linked to Iran’s Quds Force

Taliban insurgents have seized Afghanistan’s second- and third-biggest cities as resistance from government forces crumbled, stoking fears that an assault on the capital Kabul could be just days away.A government official confirmed that Kandahar, the economic hub of the south, was under Taliban control as international forces complete their withdrawal after 20 years of war.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Herat in the west also fell to the hardline Islamist group.“The city looks like a frontline, a ghost town,” provincial council member Ghulam Habib Hashimi said by telephone from Herat, a city of about 600,000 people near the border with Iran.“Families have either left or are hiding in their homes.”A senior US defense official said there was concern that the Taliban -- ousted from power by US-led forces in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks on the United States -- could make a move on Kabul within days.But Washington was hoping the Afghan security forces would put up more resistance as the insurgents move closer to the capital.Afghan First Vice President Amrullah Saleh said after a security meeting chaired by President Ashraf Ghani that he was proud of the armed forces and the government would do all it could to strengthen the resistance to the Taliban.The fighting has raised fears of a refugee crisis and a rollback of gains in human rights since the Taliban were ousted. Some 400,000 civilians have been forced from their homes sincethe beginning of the year, 250,000 of them since May, a UN official said.“The situation has all the hallmarks of a humanitarian catastrophe,” the UN World Food Programme’s Thomson Phiri told a briefing, expressing concern about a “larger tide of hunger”.Under Taliban rule, women could not work, girls were not allowed to attend school and women had to cover their face and be accompanied by a male relative if they wanted to venture out of their homes. In early July, Taliban fighters ordered nine women to stop working in a bank.Of Afghanistan’s major cities, the government still holds Mazar-i-Sharif in the north and Jalalabad, near the Pakistani border in the east, in addition to Kabul. Sheltering in parks Families were camping out in a Kabul park with little or no shelter, having escaped violence elsewhere in the country.The United Nations has said a Taliban offensive reaching Kabul would have a “catastrophic impact on civilians”. But there is little hope for a negotiated end to the fighting, with the insurgents apparently set on a military victory.The Taliban also took the towns of Lashkar Gah in the south and Qala-e-Naw in the northwest, security officials said. Firuz Koh, capital of central Ghor province, was handed over without a fight, officials said.The militants, fighting to defeat the government and impose their strict version of Islamic rule, have taken control of 14 of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals since August 6.After seizing Herat, the insurgents detained veteran commander Ismail Khan, an official said. They had promised not to harm him and other captured officials.A Taliban spokesman confirmed that Khan, who had been leading fighters against the Taliban, was in their custody.The Pentagon said on Thursday it would send about 3,000 extra troops within 48 hours to help evacuate US Embassy staff.Britain said it would deploy about 600 troops to help its citizens leave. Many other embassies and aid groups said they were also getting their people out.NATO allies held consultations on the crisis. Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg tweeted: “Our aim remains to support the Afghan government & security forces. We maintain our diplomatic presence in Kabul & the security of our personnel is paramount.”The United Nations is evaluating the security situation on “an hour-by-hour basis” but is not evacuating staff from the country, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. It is relocating somestaff to Kabul from other parts of Afghanistan, he added. Biden’s decision The speed of the Taliban offensive as US-led foreign forces prepare to complete their withdrawal by the end of this month has led to recriminations over President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw US troops.Biden said this week he did not regret his decision, noting that Washington has spent more than $1 trillion in America’s longest war and lost thousands of troops.The loss of Kandahar is a heavy blow to the government. It is the heartland of the Taliban - ethnic Pashtun fighters who emerged in 1994 amid the chaos of civil war.US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told Ghani on Thursday the United States remained “invested” in Afghanistan’s security.But at home, criticism of Biden’s policy has been mounting.The US Senate’s Republican leader Mitch McConnell, said the exit strategy was sending the United States “hurtling toward an even worse sequel to the humiliating fall of Saigon in 1975”,referring to North Vietnam’s victory in the Vietnam war. He urged Biden to commit to giving more support to Afghan forces.Read more:Trump blames Biden for ‘unacceptable’ violent surge by Taliban in AfghanistanAfghan female bank employees forced out of jobs as Taliban takes controlTurkey still keen to run Kabul airport even as Taliban advances, officials say
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Assault on Afghan capital Kabul expected in days as Taliban seize more cities

The floods in Turkey's Black Sea region forced more than 1,700 people to evacuate, many of whom are now sleeping in student dorms.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: 38 dead as floods ravage Turkey's northern coast

Firefighters in Algeria found dead two sisters embracing their mother after fleeing the fires that erupted in the village of Ikhlijen in the city of Tizi Ouzou.According to the Algerian newspaper An-Naha, the two young women were identified as Sarah and Jawhar. They were found charred and clinging to the body of their mother, who died of suffocation as a result of inhaling smoke from the fires.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Firefighters battled wildfires still raging across northern Algeria Friday assisted by volunteers, but the deadly blazes in the worst-hit province of Tizi Ouzou were largely extinguished, the emergency services said.The North African country was observing a second day of national mourning for the 71 people confirmed killed in by far the deadliest wildfires to hit the Mediterranean this summer.Algeria’s state prosecutor on Thursday ordered an investigation after a mob lynched a man they accused of sparking the country’s deadly wildfires.Video footage posted online Wednesday showed a crowd beating to death 38-year-old Jamal Ben Ismail and setting him ablaze.The grisly murder was staged in Larbaa Nath Irathen, in the Tizi Ouzou district, one of the worst hit by the fires.Read more:(With AFP)
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Algeria fire tragedy: Sisters found charred hugging mother following village blaze

Pentagon says forces could potentially remain in Kabul beyond original withdrawal deadline.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: More US troops arrive at Kabul airport to bolster Turkish mission

Tunisian President Kais Saied on Friday received an official US delegation headed by deputy national security adviser Jonathan Finer, who carried a written message from President Joe Biden, the Tunisian presidency posted on Facebook.During the meeting Saied said the measures he had taken - dismissing the prime minister, freezing Parliament and assuming executive authority - were within the framework of implementing the constitution and responding to a popular will in light of the political, economic and social crises, and rampant corruption and bribery.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Read more:
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Tunisia’s President Kais Saied receives US delegation carrying message from Biden

Israel is reopening the Erez pedestrian crossing to merchants and businesspeople after closing over coronavirus concerns last year.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Israel loosens restrictions on trade, travel from Gaza

Lebanon’s worsening fuel crisis has reached a painful crunch point, with bakeries, businesses and hospitals either scaling back operations or shutting down completely, making life even harder for Lebanese already enduring a financial meltdown.As the fuel oil that powers Lebanon has disappeared from the market, Lebanese have sweltered at home in the summer heat without light or AC, routinely tossing out the contents of fridges while having to set aside hours to fill up the car - if increasingly scarce gasoline can be found.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Many say living conditions are worse than during the 1975-90 civil war.It marks a new low in the financial crisis that erupted in late 2019, the result of decades of corruption and mismanagement by a ruling elite that has failed to find solutions as more than half the population has sunk into poverty.In the latest policy failure, the government is sparring with the central bank over its decision to end fuel subsidies, a step that would spell sharply higher prices.While the stand-off continues, importers told Reuters the country faced a huge shortage of fuel.“During the civil war, even with how horrible it was, there weren’t any power cuts,” said Hassan Khalife, 50, who owns a small barbecue joint near parliament in Beirut.“The state, which is supposed to take care of its people, is doing the opposite, it’s trying to humiliate us as much as it can,” he said.Khalife has downgraded from three refrigerators to one, which he powers via a line from a neighbor’s generator that whirrs loudly across the street.“We’ve become used to the sound, it’s like hearing birds or something,” he said.On Wednesday, Lebanon’s electricity minister told reporters that the country needs 3,000 megawatts of power but only has enough fuel to produce 750. People say they get one or two hours of electricity from the grid per day, if any.Read more:Lebanon’s prime minister rejects president’s call for fuel crisis meetingLebanon says importers must supply stored fuel bought before subsidy endAngry residents block Lebanon’s roads after central bank lifts fuel subsidies
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Life comes to a halt in Lebanon as blackouts sweep the nation