Afghanistan blames US invasion, sanctions for environmental damage, delayed climate action

People sit near a tree, following flash floods after heavy rainfall in Dahane Larkhab area in Dushi district of Baghlan province on May 26, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 19 January 2025
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Afghanistan blames US invasion, sanctions for environmental damage, delayed climate action

  • Afghanistan ranked 7th on global index of countries most vulnerable, least prepared to adapt to climate change
  • Use of bombs and mines during wars destroyed agricultural land, left toxic footprint on environment

KABUL: The US invasion of Afghanistan and subsequent sanctions exacerbated the impacts of climate change in the country, the National Environmental Protection Agency said on Sunday, as Kabul called on the international community for support in combating the ecological crisis.

Between the 2001 US-led invasion and its chaotic withdrawal in 2021, the US military had dropped tens of thousands of bombs on Afghanistan, many of which are munitions that can leave a toxic footprint on the environment.

“The presence of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan for 20 years has had a wide-ranging impact on Afghanistan,” Dr. Zainul Abedin Abed, technical and policy deputy director-general at NEPA, told Arab News.

“Among the environmental impacts, we can mention cases such as the destruction of agricultural land … These impacts have put pressure on the Afghan environment and accelerated climate change. The US and NATO have used weapons and chemical substances, which is irreparable.”

In April 2017, the US military dropped the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, known as “the mother of all bombs,” on Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province. It is the most powerful non-nuclear bomb ever used by Washington in a conflict.

“The adverse effects of the MOAB in Tora Bora district of Nangarhar province included an increase in premature births, skin diseases and neurological problems,” Abed said, adding that the bomb also destroyed homes and caused damage to the local economy.

Afghanistan has suffered through decades of war even before the US-led invasion, including a decade of Soviet invasion that also saw foreign forces deploying chemical weapons, such as napalm, to destroy crops.

The country lost around 80 percent of its forests in the conflicts, according to Taliban Deputy Foreign Minister Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai.

“The destructive bombs that the Soviet Union used on our forests have destroyed a major part of the country’s forests. Our country faced another crisis as the US and NATO forces experimented with their weapons in Afghanistan, which couldn’t be used anywhere else, without any mercy on the people of Afghanistan,” Stanikzai said at the national climate change conference in Kabul on Wednesday.

“Now, I call on the world countries, the United Nations, the European Union, America as well as neighboring and regional countries to support Afghanistan in these difficult times. It’s their moral responsibility, especially those countries that contributed to climate change.”

Dr. Abdul Latif Nazari, Afghanistan’s deputy minister of economy, said at the conference that it was “important to lift sanctions and remove restrictions so the international organizations can work with our entities,” such as NEPA.

Afghanistan is one of the most vulnerable and least prepared countries to adapt to climate change, ranking seventh on the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index, despite being a country with the 11th lowest contributor per capita to global carbon emissions.

“Afghanistan’s contribution to global climate change has been inconsequential,” Kabul-based environmental expert Noorudin Jalali told Arab News.

“However, the impact of international interventions on Afghanistan has been huge. Consecutive drought, deforestation, air pollution and huge damage to the country’s ecosystem are some of the major effects that climate change has had on the country’s environment.”

The use of bombs and mines “devastated the country’s environment and agriculture” and will take years and billions of dollars to recover, he added.

Afghanistan is already suffering from the impacts of climate change. After three consecutive years of drought, Afghanistan experienced severe flooding in 2024 that killed hundreds of people, devastated vast agricultural land in its northern provinces and left millions of people without their primary source of income and food.

Since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, Afghanistan has been excluded from representation under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change — which leads efforts in global climate cooperation — while major sources of funding for climate adaptation have also been suspended.

“Without the support of the international community and international organizations, Afghanistan will not be able to fight the climate change challenge. The sooner this support is facilitated, the better for the country and its people,” Jalali said.


Musk, with Trump at White House, says US will go ‘bankrupt’ without cuts

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Musk, with Trump at White House, says US will go ‘bankrupt’ without cuts

  • Trump administration finds itself on a collision course with the US courts, as federal judges questioned the legality of White House cost-cutting measures
  • Musk, who also heads SpaceX — which has multiple US government contracts — and Tesla, said he is seeking to be as transparent as possible
WASHINGTON: Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has been tapped by President Donald Trump to lead federal cost-cutting efforts, said Tuesday that the United States would go “bankrupt” without budget cuts.
Musk leads the efforts under the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and was speaking at the White House with Trump, who has in recent weeks unleashed a flurry of orders aimed at slashing federal spending.
In particular, Musk took aim at the country’s budget deficit, which topped $1.8 trillion in the last fiscal year.
He said that reducing federal expenses was not optional.
The remarks, however, came as the Trump administration finds itself on a collision course with the US courts, as federal judges questioned the legality of White House cost-cutting measures.
Trump’s sweeping plans, which have effectively shuttered some federal agencies and sent staff home, have sparked legal battles across the country.
Multiple lawsuits seek to halt what opponents characterize as an illegal power grab.
Asked about his conflicts of interest on Tuesday, Musk, who also heads SpaceX — which has multiple US government contracts — and Tesla, said he is seeking to be as transparent as possible.
The DOGE reform team has triggered alarm among critics as well by gaining access through the US Treasury to the personal and financial data of millions in the United States.

Turkish writer, son accused of fleeing after crash can be extradited, US judge rules

Updated 2 min 58 sec ago
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Turkish writer, son accused of fleeing after crash can be extradited, US judge rules

BOSTON: A US judge on Tuesday ruled that a Turkish author and her son can be extradited to Turkiye to face charges that he caused a reckless, fatal car crash in Istanbul and then fled the country with the help of his mother.
US Magistrate Judge Donald Cabell in Boston rejected arguments that Turkish novelist and poet Eylem Tok and her 17-year-old son, Timur Cihantimur, had not been charged with extraditable offenses, clearing the way for the US State Department to consider turning them over.
Further litigation is likely and could further delay their extradition, which Turkiye has been pursuing since their arrest in June as the mother and son were about to tour a private school in Boston.
David Russcol, Tok’s lawyer, said her attorneys “are evaluating Ms. Tok’s options for further judicial review of the serious legal issues involved.” Her son’s lawyer had no immediate comment.
According to prosecutors, the teenager was driving a Porsche on the night of March 1 when, while speeding around a corner, he crashed into a group of people on all-terrain vehicles. One person, Oguz Murat Aci, died and four others were injured.
Prosecutors said the teenager immediately fled the scene after saying something like “my life is over.” He was picked up by the family’s driver, and within hours Tok had bought one-way plane tickets for them to fly to Cairo, Egypt. They then continued on to the United States.
Their lawyers argued the teenager could not be extradited for the crime of causing reckless killing and injury because the US-Turkiye extradition treaty only covered individuals who are formally charged, while he was only facing an arrest warrant.
They also argued that Tok’s alleged offenses of concealing a cellphone that authorities viewed as evidence and protecting an offender by helping her son flee were not extraditable under that treaty.
But Cabell rejected those arguments. With regard to Tok’s son, he said it was clear that the term “charged” in the treaty did not mean a formal charge. “Rather, construed in the generic and more elastic sense, it is synonymous with accused,” he said.


16 Pakistanis killed in shipwreck off Libya: Islamabad

A migrant looks at the sea from the deck of the boat of the NGO Proactiva Open Arms on July 1, 2018. (AFP)
Updated 43 min 57 sec ago
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16 Pakistanis killed in shipwreck off Libya: Islamabad

  • “So far 16 dead bodies have been recovered and their Pakistani nationalities established on the basis of their passports,” a spokesperson for Pakistan’s foreign ministry said in a statement

ISLAMABAD: Emergency workers have recovered the bodies of 16 Pakistanis after a boat capsized off the coast of Libya, with 10 others believed to be missing, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said Tuesday.
Thirty-seven people survived the accident, according to authorities.
The ministry first reported the accident on Monday. It said 63 Pakistanis had been onboard the vessel and 10 are still missing, according to unconfirmed reports.
“So far 16 dead bodies have been recovered and their Pakistani nationalities established on the basis of their passports,” a spokesperson for Pakistan’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
“There are 37 survivors including 1 in hospital and 33 in police custody.”
A team from Pakistan’s embassy in Tripoli visited the coastal city of Zawiya to meet with local officials and those from Zawiya hospital.
“The Embassy in Tripoli is in the process of gathering further information and maintaining contact with the local authorities,” the statement added.
Each year thousands of Pakistanis pay large sums to traffickers to launch risky and illegal journeys to Europe, where they hope to find work and send funds to support families back home.
Pakistanis are frequently among those drowned on crammed boats which sink on the Mediterranean Sea separating North Africa from Europe — the world’s deadliest migrant route.
An official from the Federal Investigation Agency, speaking anonymously to AFP in 2023, estimated Pakistanis attempt 40,000 illegal trips every year.
In June that year the Mediterranean witnessed one of its worst migrant shipwrecks when a rusty and overloaded trawler sank overnight. It was carrying more than 750 people — up to 350 of them Pakistanis according to Islamabad — but only 82 bodies were ever recovered.

 


UK’s Princess Catherine visits women’s prison

Britain’s Catherine, Princess of Wales, visits a mother and baby unit at HMP Styal, a prison and young offender institution.
Updated 49 min 16 sec ago
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UK’s Princess Catherine visits women’s prison

  • Catherine visited HMP Styal in northwest England to meet offenders who had used the services of a charity-run mother and baby unit

LONDON: Britain’s Catherine, Princess of Wales, on Tuesday visited a women’s prison to meet ex-offenders and those still serving, as she continues her return to public duties having completed her cancer treatment.
Catherine visited HMP Styal in northwest England to meet offenders who had used the services of a charity-run mother and baby unit.
“It is great that you are looking at the mother’s wellbeing as well. The best thing for baby is to have a mother whose emotional needs and wellbeing is met as well,” she told staff at the unit.
Former inmate Sam told the princess that parental support was better in jail than outside.
“I only left six weeks ago and I am just getting rolling with everything again. I have said so many times that I just wish I could take this (prison) nursery and put it in my hometown,” she said.
Catherine, 43, who is mother to Prince George 11, Princess Charlotte, nine, and six-year-old Prince Louis, has only recently begun a gradual return to royal duties after a shock cancer diagnosis last year.
It was the princess’s fifth public engagement in just over two weeks.


Ukraine prepared to offer territory swap with Russia: Zelensky

Updated 11 February 2025
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Ukraine prepared to offer territory swap with Russia: Zelensky

LONDON: Ukraine will offer to swap territory with Russia in any potential peace negotiations, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview published Tuesday, adding that Europe alone would not be able to shoulder Kyiv’s war effort.
Zelensky will meet US Vice President JD Vance on Friday at the Munich Security Conference, the Ukrainian leader’s spokesman told AFP, as Washington pushes for an end to the nearly three-year war with Russia.
Vance has been a frequent critic of US support that has been vital to Ukraine’s war effort.
“There are voices which say that Europe could offer security guarantees without the Americans, and I always say no,” Zelensky told the Guardian newspaper in an interview published on the UK newspaper’s website on Tuesday.
“Security guarantees without America are not real security guarantees,” he said.
Trump is keen for both sides to reach a deal, the terms of which are a source of concern in Ukraine.
Zelensky told the Guardian he would offer Russian President Vladimir Putin territory that Ukraine seized in Russia’s Kursk region six months ago.
“We will swap one territory for another,” he said, adding that he did not know which territories he would ask for in return.
“I don’t know, we will see. But all our territories are important, there is no priority,” he said.
Russia says it has annexed five regions of Ukraine — Crimea in 2014 and then Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia in 2022 — though it does not have full control over them.


Trump confirmed Monday that he would soon dispatch his special envoy Keith Kellogg, who is tasked with drawing up a proposal to halt the fighting, to Ukraine.
The US president is pressing for a swift end to the conflict, while Zelensky is calling for tough security guarantees from Washington as part of any deal.
Kyiv fears that any settlement that does not include hard military commitments, such as NATO membership or the deployment of peacekeeping troops, will allow the Kremlin time to regroup and rearm for a fresh attack.
Zelensky has said he would offer US companies lucrative reconstruction contracts in a bid to win over Trump.
“Those who are helping us to save Ukraine will renovate it, with their businesses together with Ukrainian businesses. All these things we are ready to speak about in detail,” he told the Guardian.
Ukraine has some of the biggest mineral reserves in Europe and it is “not in the interests of the United States” for those to fall into Russian hands, he said.
“Valuable natural resources where we can offer our partners possibilities that didn’t exist before to invest in them. For us it will create jobs, for American companies it will create profits,” he added.
The Munich meeting comes with Russia advancing across Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, where over the past year it has captured several settlements, most completely flattened by months of Russian bombardments.