KABUL: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has offered an invitation to Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to visit Kabul as part of a move to reset ties that have sharply deteriorated between the two uneasy neighbors over Islamabad’s alleged support for the Afghan Taliban.
Ghani made the offer on Saturday to visiting Pakistani National Security Adviser Nasser Khan Janjua in Kabul. He is on a one-day visit after Ghani spoke nearly three weeks ago of his desire to improve ties with Islamabad when he announced his peace talks overture to the Taliban insurgents too.
“This is to initiate state-to-state comprehensive dialogue,” Ghani said in a tweet after meeting Janjua at the presidential palace.
A spokesman for the President, Dawa Khan Meenapal, said the focus of today’s meeting between Ghani and Janjua was the former’s offer of an olive branch to the Taliban, made at a regional meeting in the Afghan capital some three weeks ago and called the “Kabul Process.”
“At the meeting, the Pakistani National Security Adviser spoke about Pakistan’s backing for the Kabul Process,” Meenapal told Arab News.
He could not comment if the Pakistani NSA had made any pledge to persuade the Taliban delegates to speak with Ghani’s government or will hand over several former Taliban leaders who have been languishing in Pakistani jails for years as part of a goodwill gesture to Kabul.
The visit of Pakistan’s NSA and Ghani’s offer to Abbasi come less than a week after the US Secretary of Defense James Mattis said during a visit to Kabul that there was no military solution to the Afghan war and that elements within the Taliban were interested in initiating peace talks with Kabul.
Mattis’ utterances come after weeks of heavy bombardment of areas concentrated with suspected militants and their alleged drugs laboratories as part of Washington’s new war strategy announced last summer.
The militants have focused most of their attacks on urban areas, which some say proves their ability to strike back and to show that Kabul and the US military have not been able to crush its might.
So far the Taliban has refused to indicate whether the group will accept Ghani’s offer or turn it down as it has done several times in the past.
But the movement twice last month showed readiness to engage with the United States, which in an invasion toppled the radical Islamist government from power in late 2001 and whom it sees as the main adversary.
At the same time the militants have stepped up their attacks and on Saturday in a suicide car attack one of the group’s bombers in Kabul killed several locals.
The target of the strike seemed to have been a compound used by foreigners and there was no immediate report of casualties among the foreigners from the strike.
The visit of Pakistan’s NSA and Ghani’s offer to its PM came as Abbasi held an unscheduled meeting with US Vice President Michael Pence about the Afghanistan conflict in Washington on Friday, ANI reported.
A half-hour one-on-one meeting took place at Pence’s residence at the US Naval Observatory near the Pakistan embassy in Washington, as reported by the Dawn.
They discussed the on-going peace process between the Afghanistan ruling party led by Ashraf Ghani and the Taliban, it said.
During the meeting, Abbasi assured Pence of Pakistan’s “sincere commitment” to the efforts to facilitate the peace process in Afghanistan while highlighting Pakistan’s successful efforts in combating terror within its own territory.
Afghan President invites Pakistan PM to Kabul for fence-mending talks
Afghan President invites Pakistan PM to Kabul for fence-mending talks
Thailand-Cambodia fighting rages on as Trump signals intent to intervene
- Clashes raged at more than a dozen locations along their 817-km border
- “I hate to say this one, named Cambodia-Thailand, and it started up today, and tomorrow I am going to have to make a phone call,” Trump said
BANGKOK/PHNOM PENH: Thailand and Cambodia traded accusations of targeting civilians in artillery and rocket attacks on Wednesday, as US President Donald Trump said he would try to intervene to stop the fighting and salvage a ceasefire he brokered earlier this year.
Clashes raged at more than a dozen locations along their 817-km (508-mile) border in some of the most intense fighting since a five-day battle in July, which Trump stopped with calls to both leaders to halt their worst conflict in recent history.
The Southeast Asian neighbors have blamed each other for the clashes that started on Monday.
’IT CANNOT BE AS SIMPLE AS PICKING UP THE PHONE’
Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania late on Tuesday said he would try to stop the renewed hostilities, after enumerating the conflicts he said he had helped stop, such as those between Pakistan and India, and Israel and Iran.
“I hate to say this one, named Cambodia-Thailand, and it started up today, and tomorrow I am going to have to make a phone call,” he said.
“Who else could say, ‘I’m going to make a phone call and stop a war of two very powerful countries, Thailand and Cambodia?’“
Thailand’s army has made clear it wants to cripple Cambodia’s military capabilities and Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul on Tuesday said operations would not stop.
He declined to comment on Wednesday on what the military’s end-game was. Asked about Trump’s remarks, he said the conflict was a matter between the two countries involved.
“Other national leaders may have good intentions in wanting peace,” Anutin told reporters. “It cannot be as simple as picking up the phone and calling. There must be proper appointment and agreed talking points. We still have time to prepare these issues if such discussions are to take place.”
Cambodian government spokesperson Pen Bona said Phnom Penh’s position was that it wanted only peace and had acted in self-defense. A top adviser to Cambodia’s prime minister has signalled the country was ready to negotiate.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who helped Trump broker the ceasefire, said he had spoken with leaders of Thailand and Cambodia on Tuesday and, though no definitive resolution was reached, he appreciated “the openness and willingness of both leaders to continue negotiations in order to ease tensions.”
ROCKETS, JETS AND DRONE-BOMBS
Thailand’s army said fighting took place on 16 different fronts on Wednesday, including both ends of the border. It reported an onslaught of BM-21 rockets fired by Cambodian forces, some of which it said landed near a hospital in Surin province, forcing the evacuation of patients and staff.
The army said Cambodian drones were being used to drop bombs and BM-21 rockets, and tanks were used at other border areas, including near the contested 11th Century Preah Vihear temple, a flashpoint for previous diplomatic and military conflicts.
Cambodia’s military said Thailand used artillery fire and armed drones and fired mortars into homes, while F-16 fighter jets had entered Cambodian airspace on multiple occasions, some dropping bombs near civilian areas.
“Cambodian forces have been fighting fiercely against the advancing enemy and have stood firm in their role of protecting Cambodia’s territorial integrity,” the defense ministry said in a statement.
In July, Trump used the leverage of trade negotiations to broker a ceasefire. Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow on Tuesday told Reuters that tariff threats should not be used to pressure his country into talks.
Last month, Thailand suspended de-escalation measures, agreed at an October summit in Trump’s presence, after a Thai soldier was maimed by a land mine that Bangkok said was newly laid by Cambodia, which rejects the accusation.
HEAVY TOLL ON CIVILIANS
The three days of clashes have taken a heavy toll on civilians, with nine people killed in Cambodia, including an infant, and 46 people wounded, according to its government. Five Thai soldiers had been killed in the fighting and 68 people were wounded, the Thai army said.
On Wednesday, Cambodia withdrew its athletes from the Southeast Asian Games in Thailand, citing safety reasons and their families’ concern.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated from border areas, though some people have chosen not to leave.
“I have to stay behind,” said Wuttikrai Chimngarm, as he hunkered down behind a makeshift bunker of tires stacked six high while shelling shook Thailand’s border province of Buriram.
“I’m the head of the village, if not me, then who? Who will be safeguarding the houses and belongings of the villagers from looters?“
As soon as Monday’s fighting erupted, residents fled the disputed village of Kaun Kriel, about 25 km (15 miles) northwest of Cambodia’s city of Samraong.
“This is my second run because the place I live ... was under attack both times,” said Cambodian Marng Sarun, a 31-year-old harvester, who left with his wife and two children.
