KABUL: The powerful governor of Afghanistan’s northern Balkh province, Atta Mohammed Noor, has stepped down following months of tension with President Ashraf Ghani — and days after being warned by his party supporters of his dismissal.
The presidential palace stated on Monday that Ghani had accepted “Atta’s resignation, which he had offered some time back.”
Noor, an ethnic Tajik and a leader of Jamiat-e-Islami (JI), was appointed in office by former President Hamid Karzai in 2004, but he has reportedly been under pressure for some time to resign.
A source close to Noor told Arab News that the long-serving governor of Balkh had agreed early this year to step down if Ghani accepted some of his conditions, including an increased role for his party in key national and international issues, which also involved appointments and dismissal of ministers.
He said Ghani did not accept Noor’s conditions and made a “hasty” move that could likely compel the JI to call for a boycott of Ghani’s government, as the JI leaders vowed days back during a meeting with Noor.
Salahuddin Rabbani, the country’s foreign minister, who is also a JI leader, will also step down along with other members of the party who serve in various government capacities, “putting legitimacy of the government in question,” the source said.
The fate of JI’s senior leader, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, who serves as the chief executive in Ghani’s administration, is also in limbo, he added.
Noor managed to generate revenues for his province by building relations with Uzbekistan, which gave him a good reputation among the population of Balkh and turned his constituency into a model city in Afghanistan, both in terms of reconstruction and security, while much of the rest of the country suffers from violence and crime.
The JI has for long held clout in Afghanistan’s economy and politics. Former President Hamid Karzai also tried to replace Noor once but failed because of the party’s stature. Dr. Abdullah Abdullah was the JI’s presidential candidate during the 2014 elections and became the chief executive under a US-brokered deal with Ghani.
Many in Afghanistan’s political circles allege that Ghani tried to reduce the JI’s influence in recent months, mostly by replacing its prominent figures.
Earlier in summer this year, Ghani stopped First Vice President Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum from returning to Afghanistan. Dostum is another factional leader from Balkh to announce the formation of an opposition alliance with Noor and another senior member of Ghani’s government.
Weeks ago, Noor accused Ghani’s government of barring his plane from traveling to Kandahar, where a group of opposition parties and parliamentarians had gathered to discuss the shortcomings in Ghani's administration and express concern over alleged government meddling in the 2018 parliamentary elections and the 2019 presidential polls, in which Ghani is highly expected to run for the office again.
Dostum, Noor and many of those who had gathered in Kandahar accuse Ghani of monopolizing power and nepotism — an allegation denied by Ghani, who seems to be under pressure from the US and Western donors to bring reforms in his government.
Ghani chose to replace Noor with Mohammed Dawood, who has served as commander of the JI in the past.
Noor’s departure adds further to the already deepening political tension in the government over Taliban insurgents and Daesh affiliates making headway in the battle arena and with the growing calls for convocation of a grand traditional assembly “Loya Jirga,” which may decide on the formation of an interim government and the fate of the US forces in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan’s Balkh governor steps down amid heightened tension
Afghanistan’s Balkh governor steps down amid heightened tension
Trump warns Maduro against playing ‘tough’ as US escalates pressure campaign on Venezuela
- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday fired back at Donald Trump, who has ordered US naval forces to blockade the South American country's oil wealth, saying the US president would be "better off" focusing on domestic issues rather than threatenin
- The Defense Department, under Trump’s orders, continues its campaign of attacks on smaller vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean that it alleges are carrying drugs to the United States and beyond
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida: President Donald Trump on Monday delivered a new warning to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as the US Coast Guard steps up efforts to interdict oil tankers in the Caribbean Sea as part of the Republican administration’s escalating pressure campaign on the government in Caracas.
Trump was surrounded by his top national security aides, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, as he suggested that he remains ready to further escalate his four-month pressure campaign on the Maduro government, which began with the stated purpose of stemming the flow of illegal drugs from the South American nation but has developed into something more amorphous.
“If he wants to do something, if he plays tough, it’ll be the last time he’ll ever be able to play tough,” Trump said of Maduro as he took a break from his Florida holiday vacation to announce plans for the Navy to build a new, large warship.
Trump levied his latest threat as the US Coast Guard on Monday continued for a second day to chase a sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration describes as part of a “dark fleet” Venezuela is using to evade US sanctions. The tanker, according to the White House, is flying under a false flag and is under a US judicial seizure order.
“It’s moving along and we’ll end up getting it,” Trump said.
It is the third tanker pursued by the Coast Guard, which on Saturday seized a Panama-flagged vessel called Centuries that US officials said was part of the Venezuelan shadow fleet.
The Coast Guard, with assistance from the Navy, seized a sanctioned tanker called Skipper on Dec. 10, also part of the shadow fleet of tankers that the US says operates on the fringes of the law to move sanctioned cargo. That ship was registered in Panama.
Trump, after that first seizure, said the US would carry out a “blockade” of Venezuela. Trump has repeatedly said that Maduro’s days in power are numbered.
Last week, Trump demanded that Venezuela return assets that it seized from US oil companies years ago, justifying anew his announcement of a blockade against sanctioned oil tankers traveling to or from the South American country.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose agency oversees the Coast Guard, said in a Monday appearance on “Fox & Friends” that the targeting of tankers is intended to send “a message around the world that the illegal activity that Maduro is participating in cannot stand, he needs to be gone, and that we will stand up for our people.”
Russian diplomats evacuate families from Caracas
Meanwhile, Russia’s Foreign Ministry started evacuating the families of diplomats from Venezuela, according to a European intelligence official speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.
The official told The Associated Press the evacuations include women and children and began on Friday, adding that Russian Foreign Ministry officials are assessing the situation in Venezuela in “very grim tones.” The ministry said in an X posting that it was not evacuating the embassy but did not address queries about whether it was evacuating the families of diplomats.
Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Yván Gil on Monday said he spoke by phone with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, who he said expressed Russia’s support for Venezuela against Trump’s declared blockade of sanctioned oil tankers.
“We reviewed the aggressions and flagrant violations of international law that have been committed in the Caribbean: attacks against vessels and extrajudicial executions, and the unlawful acts of piracy carried out by the United States government,” Gil said in a statement.
The scene on a Venezuelan beach near a refinery
While US forces targeted the vessels in international waters over the weekend, a tanker that’s considered part of the shadow fleet was spotted moving between Venezuelan refineries, including one about three hours west of the capital, Caracas.
The tanker remained at the refinery in El Palito through Sunday, when families went to the town’s beach to relax with children now on break from school.
Music played on loudspeakers as people swam and surfed with the tanker in the background. Families and groups of teenagers enjoyed themselves, but Manuel Salazar, who has parked cars at the beach for more than three decades, noticed differences from years past, when the country’s oil-dependent economy was in better shape and the energy industry produced at least double the current 1 million barrels per day.
“Up to nine or 10 tankers would wait out there in the bay. One would leave, another would come in,” Salazar, 68, said. “Now, look, one.”
The tanker in El Palito has been identified by Transparencia Venezuela, an independent watchdog promoting government accountability, to be part of the shadow fleet.
Area residents on Sunday recalled when tankers would sound their horns at midnight New Year’s Eve, while some would even send up fireworks to celebrate the holiday.
“Before, during vacations, they’d have barbecues; now all you see is bread with bologna,” Salazar said of Venezuelan families spending the holiday at the beach next to the refinery. “Things are expensive. Food prices keep going up and up every day.”
Venezuela’s ruling party-controlled National Assembly on Monday gave initial approval to a measure that would criminalize a broad range of activities that could be linked to the seizure of oil tankers.
Lawmaker Giuseppe Alessandrello, who introduced the bill, said people could be fined and imprisoned for up to 20 years for promoting, requesting, supporting, financing or participating in “acts of piracy, blockades or other international illegal acts against” commercial entities operating with the South American country.
The Defense Department, under Trump’s orders, continues its campaign of attacks on smaller vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean that it alleges are carrying drugs to the United States and beyond.
At least 104 people have been killed in 28 known strikes since early September. The strikes have faced scrutiny from US lawmakers and human rights activists, who say the administration has offered scant evidence that its targets are indeed drug smugglers and that the fatal strikes amount to extrajudicial killings.
