Posted on 01/15/2017 4:45:14 AM PST by huldah1776
China, Pakistan, and Russia highlighted their concern for the growing influence of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Afghanistan during a meeting last month hosted by Russia for the representatives from the three countries.
The three countries agreed upon “a flexible approach to remove certain [Taliban] figures from [United Nations] sanctions lists as part of efforts to foster a peaceful dialogue between Kabul and the Taliban movement.”
The three states underscored their concern “about the rising activity in the country [Afghanistan] of extremist groups, including the Afghan branch of IS [the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria]” and underlined that Taliban were a necessary bulwark in the global fight against the ISIS. The Taliban obviously welcomed the move. “It is joyous to see that the regional countries have also understood that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is a political and military force,” a statement, issued on their behalf, said.
Russia is now arguing that Afghanistan could become a safe haven for the ISIS, from where it would be able to pose a serious threat to Russian hinterland. China too remains worried about the impact of growing ISIS threat in its Xinjiang province. And both of them have found in Pakistan an important interlocutor who could perhaps manage the Taliban in a way that it would be a force against the ISIS.
Russia has an interest in hyping the threat from the ISIS in Afghanistan and it is doing so rather effectively. The Taliban remain the most potent threat to the future of Afghanistan as everyday bombings in the country attest to. But given the uncertainty over President-elect Donald Trump’s Afghanistan policy, Russia feels this is the right moment to insert itself in the region and derail whatever little progress that has been made towards stabilising Afghanistan.
India May Find Itself Isolated
As Russia works with China and Pakistan to engage Taliban, jettisoning its historic animosity to the group, India might find itself regionally isolated. The Afghan government is too weak to assert its primacy in the process. And given Trump’s soft corner for Russia, if he decides to buy into the Russian argument, then India’s Afghan policy will once again be at a crossroads.
There was once a time when the US wanted to reach out to Taliban. Despite the threat of isolation, India stuck to its stand on the group. Eventually, New Delhi’s views prevailed as the Pakistani shenanigans made sure that the so-called peace process with the Taliban did not go anywhere. Today, India once again looks isolated. It would be hoping that Washington and Kabul will heed its advice on Afghanistan and stand up strongly against the China-Pakistan-Russia axis to manipulate regional strategic realities to serve their short-term ends. But hope is not a policy, and it is possible that New Delhi may have to revisit some of the fundamental assumptions of its Afghan policy soon.
Title: "Sanctuaries inside Pakistan key operational issue faced by Afghan forces, US general"
http://thekabultimes.gov.af/index.php/newsnational/12838-sanctuaries-inside-pakistan-key-operational-issue-faced-by-afghan-forces-us-general.html
Pakistan has another problem. Unlike the civil war in the US based in universities, there is a Pashtun spokesman [safe in Afghanistan] who wants to gain independence. Learning from the Kurds?
Title: Pakistan holding hundreds of Pashtun girls as sex slaves: Umar Khattak
[this guy likes Twitter, too] "We are forming a Pashtunistan liberation army, we will launch an armed struggle against Pakistan: Umar Khattak,Pashtun activist"
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/pakistan-holding-hundreds-of-pashtun-girls-as-sex-slaves-umar-khattak/articleshow/56534176.cms
Speaking of the Taliban, they are reported to be buying U.S. weapons from Afghan soldiers.
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/taliban-terrorists-buying-american-weapons-u-s-taxpayer-funded-afghan-soldiers/
Have a blessed day!
What is the India policy...rejection of Taliban too?
Thats kinda like supporting either the Crips or Bloods. Confronted with similar, President Reagan played it well with Iraq vs Iran
Yes he did and few people remember that thanks to our dishonest media. All they remember is Iran-Contra, Oliver North (who did nothing wrong) and a manufactured scandal which they think almost brought the administration down.
Terrorist acts on U.S. soil? There were none. Terrorist acts against U.S. targets abroad? There were some, but those ended too once they figured out that there would be consequences not worth the risk.
By George, I think you've got it!
The Talebans were supported by Al Zwahiri who was a KGB operative friend having done a stint with the FSB in Chechnya.
So this does not surprise me. However leftist truthers are still convinced that Bin Laden is a US armed operation, when in fact Bin Laden was only kinetically supported by the SAud and definitely ideologically supported by the Russia-Paki-China axis.
IIRC, IS also stands for Pakistan’s Intelligence Services, who more or less created the Taliban as their tool for interfering in Afghanistan. IS also abets terrorist attacks against India in an attempt to take over Kashmir. Pakistan is China’s partner in containing India, and China’s stepping stone to the Middle East. So surprising for IS to use fighting ISIS as an excuse to promote their proxy, the Taliban...
“Speaking of the Taliban, they are reported to be buying U.S. weapons from Afghan soldiers. “
The United States has been trying to deal with the middle east as if they were countries. They are tribes. The order of precedence for a middle easterner is, me, my family, the tribe. There is no concept of country, national honor or even national identity. Those are concepts the west overlaid on the people there and they are as alien to the residents as if some Martian came down and declared them. Given that, can we be surprised when they take the solid gold value of American weapons and sell them for sex slaves, tea and opium? Our foreign policy is like a bunch of boy scouts from Oklahoma trying to arrange a jamboree in Afghanistan.
What do you think Russia and China will do when Europe becomes Muslim? Just thinking ahead a decade or two.
China has demonstrated vigor in crushing its Uighur Muslims in Sinkiang, and Russia has major Muslim problems of its own (Chechens, Dagestanis remnants of Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Tajiks, etc.). I presume Islamization of Europe would:
1) destroy NATO;
2) leave failed states and rogues with access to lots of high tech weapons until they break them and lose manufacturing abilities.
3) Selling oil & gas, or products to Europe will collapse when Europe’s economy tanks, wrecking Russia’s source of export earnings.
4) Similarly, China’s export economy would suffer greatly.
5) Surviving non-Muslim pockets of the world would:
a) Purge their own countries of Muslim fifth columns;
b) Align together in a constant state of war to push back the Mohammedan hordes.
6) All of this would occur gradually, plus some major spurts.
Thoughts?
Both are Salafi/Wahabbi.
Both cover women in Burqas, kill non-Sunni Muslims and destroy any art
The only difference is that the Taliban can be manipulated by Pakistan to allow Pakistan to achieve strategic depth in Afghanistan
The Taliban are evil, just like the IS
Central Europe (Finland-Baltics-Poland-Hungary-Serbia-Croatia-Greece) is anti-Muslim
Italy will not be over-run by Moslems, neither Spain
The Netherlands and Germany are fighting back
England may be -- but I doubt it. France may be, but the French are more than capable of killing people quietly
Germany is not officially fighting back until Merkel is gone.
Same with France. They need to get rid of the blind-to-islam globalists. Le Pen is probably their best answer at this point in time. She seems to be the only one speaking about the islamic problem.
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