Diplomatic Briefing
Your exclusive news aggregator handpicked daily!Archive for Afghanistan
Newsline: US Embassy in Kabul says US ambassador to leave
Veteran U.S. diplomat Ryan Crocker will be leaving his post as ambassador to Afghanistan this summer, an embassy spokesman said. Crocker, 62, came out of retirement last July to take over the post after a request from President Barack Obama. Crocker was widely known for his role as U.S. ambassador to Iraq from 2007 to 2009. It is unclear why he is leaving the post a year ahead of schedule or who will replace him. The most likely candidate would be James Cunningham, one of four other ambassadors serving under Crocker in Kabul. There have been persistent rumors that Crocker wanted to leave for personal reasons. The U.S. Embassy last denied such a rumor two weeks ago. “Ambassador Crocker has confirmed, with regret, that he will be leaving Kabul this summer,” acting embassy spokesman Mark Thornburg said. Crocker also served as U.S. ambassador to Lebanon, Pakistan, Kuwait and Syria.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/05/22/us-embassy-in-kabul-says-us-ambassador-to-leave441385/
Newsline: First US diplomatic shipment crosses into Afghanistan
Following a six-month blockade of NATO supplies, first shipment of four containers of office supplies for American Embassy in Kabul crossed into Afghanistan from Pakistan via Torkham border. A media report quoting senior official said that Pakistani government had never put bar on the transportation of supplies for the diplomatic missions. He clarified that ban the transportation of NATO supplies is still intact. According to the media reports the four containers crosses into Afghanistan that was the first shipment after the blockade. Islamabad blocked land route used for supplies to allied forces battling in Afghanistan in protest against NATO air strike on the Salala check post that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on November 26, 2011. The US Embassy in Islamabad was quick to response clarifying that it was nothing to do with the NATO supply-line. The spokesperson claimed that Pakistan had permitted the shipment through and it was carrying office supplies for the Kabul mission. The containers crossed into Afghanistan as President Asif Ali Zardari left the country to attend a NATO summit in Chicago. Islamabad accepted a last-minute invitation after Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar indicated that they were mulling to resume land route for allied forces. According to the reports, almost 300 containers of US embassy supplies, including stationery, computers and printers, are understood to have been stranded in Pakistan for the last six months.
http://www.newspakistan.pk/2012/05/19/diplomatic-shipment-crosses-afghanistan/
Newsline: Afghan foreign ministry summons Iranian envoy
The first counselor of the Islamic Republic of Iran embassy in capital Kabul was summoned by the Afghan foreign affairs ministry. According to a statement released by the Afghan foreign affairs ministry the first counselor of the Iranian embassy in Kabul was summoned to brief the Afghan officials regarding the recent remarks of the Iranian ambassador regarding the long term strategic cooperation agreement between Afghanistan and Washington. The source further added Afghan foreign affairs ministry officials told Mohammad Kazim Naeemi the first counselor of the Iranian embassy in Kabul that the Afghan government being an independent nation has the right to sign agreement with any other nation. This comes as the Iranian ambassador in Kabul following his meeting with the head of the Afghan senate house warned to force Afghan refugees leave Iran if the Afghan senate approves strategic pact document between Kabul and Washington.
http://www.khaama.com/afghan-foreign-ministry-summon-iran-embassy-counselor-905
Newsline: U.S. abandons consulate site in Afghanistan on security concerns
After signing a 10-year lease and spending more than $80 million on a site envisioned as the United States’ diplomatic hub in northern Afghanistan, American officials say they have abandoned their plans, deeming the location for the proposed compound too dangerous. Eager to raise an American flag and open a consulate in a bustling downtown district of the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif, officials in 2009 sought waivers to stringent State Department building rules and overlooked significant security problems at the site, documents show. The problems included relying on local building techniques that made the compound vulnerable to a car bombing, according to an assessment by the U.S. Embassy in Kabul that was obtained by The Washington Post. The decision to give up on the site is the clearest sign to date that, as the U.S.-led military coalition starts to draw down troops amid mounting security concerns, American diplomats are being forced to reassess how to safely keep a viable presence in Afghanistan. The embassy memo says the facility was far from ideal from the start. The compound, which housed a hotel when the Americans took it on, shared a wall with local shopkeepers. The space between the outer perimeter wall and buildings inside — a distance known as “setback” in war zone construction — was not up to U.S. diplomatic standards set by the State Department’s Overseas Security Policy Board. The complex was surrounded by several tall buildings from which an attack could easily be launched.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/citing-security-us-abandons-consulate-site-in-afghanistan/2012/05/05/gIQA9ZkD4T_story.html
Newsline: Australian embassy staff injured in Kabul
Two injured Australian embassy staff have been flown to Germany for treatment after a gas stove exploded at their residence in Kabul. The pair was injured on Thursday April 26. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade says they were transported from the Afghan capital and are in a stable condition.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8462004/aust-embassy-staff-injured-in-kabul
Newsline: US embassy sounds alarm as explosions rock Kabul
Two explosions, including a suicide car bomb targeting foreign guesthouses, rocked Kabul on Wednesday after US President Barack Obama paid a surprise visit on the anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death. Smoke was rising from the guesthouse near the Afghan capital’s main airport and at least two wounded people were seen, one woman suffering from serious burns, said an AFP photographer on the scene. The other explosion hit a nearby area a few minutes later. The US embassy, which neighbours the AFP bureau in Kabul, said its embassy was “under lockdown” and warned staff to “take cover, move away from the windows”. “Duck and cover here at the embassy. Not a drill – avoid the area,” the US embassy said on Twitter. Obama earlier dropped from night skies into Kabul on a brief visit amid secrecy and tight security and signed a deal with President Hamid Karzai, cementing 10 years of US aid for Afghanistan after NATO combat troops leave in 2014.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jDAmtmcK0fbRRIJ5o1em0EWeq4AA?docId=CNG.c804074b47587f04a7aa2c63af6ce86f.301
Newsline: Fresh security review of Kabul embassy area
The well-coordinated, 18-hour terror attacks in Kabul that targeted the Afghan Parliament, Western embassies and Nato forces, has once again forced a security review of Indian assets in Afghanistan. Afghan interior minister Bismillah Mohammadi told reporters in Kabul on Monday that one of the arrested militants revealed to authorities that the al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network was behind the fierce attacks. The Haqqanis — referred to as a ‘veritable arm’ of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) by former top US official Mike Mullen — have repeatedly targeted the Indian embassy in Kabul and kept its four consulates in Afghanistan on their radar. The Haqqanis are the prime suspects of the July 2008 attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul that killed 58 people, including the defence attaché, a senior diplomat and security guards, and another attack in 2009 that killed 17 people. Senior Kabul-based officials told HT on the telephone that while the Indian embassy — located 3 km from one of the places attacked on Sunday — was not the target, “it was only a question of luck”. Several crucial steps have been taken to secure India’s assets. These include special surveillance by the Afghan interior ministry in the area surrounding the Indian embassy in Kabul. Though the Afghans, Indians and Americans share intelligence, Sunday’s attacks point to the stark fact that rockets blasted the fortified diplomatic zone with impunity and no prior intelligence. After a Lashkar-e-Taiba-sponsored 26/11-type attack in 2010 on two guesthouses where Indians were staying, a fortified complex to house Indian staff was commissioned. It is near completion and will be protected by the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, which is already present at the Kabul embassy and four consulates.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/Fresh-security-review-of-Kabul-embassy-area/Article1-841662.aspx
Newsline: 47 dead in Afghan embassy attacks
A total of 36 Taliban militants were killed as they mounted a wave of attacks across Afghanistan, Interior Minister Bismillah Mohammadi said Monday. The attacks against government and foreign military and embassy targets in the capital and three neighbouring provinces ended after 17 hours early Monday when Afghan security forces stormed the last strongholds in Kabul. Eight members of the Afghan security forces and three civilians also died, Mohammadi said. About 40 members of the Afghan security forces and 25 civilians were injured, the minister said. One militant was captured in Jalalabad, he added. The Kabul police department separately said a would-be suicide bomber was captured Monday in Kabul’s Pul-i-Charkhi area, a neighbourhood housing several NATO military facilities. It said the attacker was targeting Kabul. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks launched on Sunday and said they marked the start of the insurgents’ “spring offensive.” The assault on Kabul was the biggest coordinated attack on the capital in 10 years of war following the ouster of the Taliban in a US-led invasion in late 2001.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-44651-47-dead-in-Afghan-attacks
Newsline: Taliban attacks embassies in Kabul
Gunmen launched multiple attacks in the Afghan capital Kabul on Sunday, assaulting Western embassies in the heavily guarded, central diplomatic area and at the parliament in the west. Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for the assault, one of the most serious on the capital since U.S.-backed Afghan forces removed the group from power in 2001. The Taliban said the main targets were the German and British embassies and the headquarters of Afghanistan’s NATO-led force. Several Afghan members of parliament joined security forces repelling attackers from a roof near the parliament. Afghan security forces, who are responsible for the safety of the capital, were scrambling to reinforce areas around the so-called green diplomatic section of the city centre. Attackers fired a rocket-propelled grenade that landed just outside the front gate of a house used by British diplomats in the city centre and smoke billowed from the area after the blast, a Reuters witness said. British embassy sources said staff were in a lockdown. Two rockets hit a British Embassy guard tower near the Reuters office in the city. Fighting was going on at some facilities of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and near the U.S., Russian and German embassies, ISAF said via Twitter. Three rockets hit a supermarket that is popular with foreigners near the German Embassy, Reuters witnesses said. Embassy alarms were sounding. Staff at the embassies were not available for comment. Attackers also fired rockets at the parliament building in the west of the city, and at the Russian embassy, a spokesman for the parliament said.
http://www.lfpress.com/news/world/2012/04/15/19634456.html
Newsline: Qatar to Establish Embassy in Kabul
Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry says Qatar will open an embassy in Kabul to develop political cooperation. Afghanistan and Qatar have also agreement on opening of Taliban office in Doha. Qatar indicated plans to open the Taliban office to play a greater role in Afghanistan’s peace negotiations with Taliban.
http://www.timesca.com/index.php/m-news-by-category/politics-analyses-and-opinions/6337-qatar-to-establish-embassy-in-kabul
