Category: Politics

The Biden administration has suspended all arms sales to the government of Afghanistan after the Taliban took control over the country. On Wednesday, a notice was posted to defense contractors to put pending or undelivered arms transfers under review.

The statement was issued by the State Department Political/ Military Affairs Bureau, “In the light of rapidly evolving circumstances in Afghanistan, the Directorate of Defence Sales Controls is reviewing all pending and issued exports licenses and other approvals to determine their suitability in furthering world peace, national security and the foreign policy of the United States”. Further updates will be issued in the coming days for the defense equipment exporters.

Multiple reports have confirmed the seizing of billions of US weaponry by the Taliban after the collapse of the Ashraf Ghani administration. Black Hawk helicopter, A-29 Super Tucano attack aircraft, and mine-resistant humvees are some of the equipment which was seized by the Taliban along with US-made M4 carbines and M16 rifles.

According to the data, the US sold weapons worth USD 227 million to Afghanistan by 2020. The United States’s approximately 47% of arms are exported to the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia individually accounting for 24%.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg blames the Afghan leader for the “tragedy”. Stoltenberg said the alliance was surprised by the speed of the Taliban victory over the entire nation of Afghanistan.

Jens Stoltenberg reported via video link from Brussels said that ultimately the Afghan political leadership failed to stand up to the Taliban and achieve the peaceful solution which Afghans desperately wanted. He calls it a tragedy that we are witnessing today due to the failure of the leadership. He said this after he chaired a meeting on Tuesday of NATO envoys which was held to discuss the security implications of the Taliban’s sweeping victory.

The international security efforts in Afghanistan have been led by NATO since 2003. However, it wound up combat operations in 2014 to focus on training the national security forces. After the US withdrawal, the allies faced a difficult choice. They knew that if they allowed the Taliban to retake the country it would be risky if they left or faced reprisal attacks. The need to re-engage in the combat was also necessary if they stayed. Now they are working to ensure the safety of NATO’s remaining civilian personnel and Afghan employees in Afghanistan.

Malaysia’s longest governing political party seems set to reclaim the premiership it lost in the 2018 election. The lawmakers were summoned to the palace by the King on Thursday to verify their candidate has enough support to take office.

Initially, former Deputy Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s choice would essentially restore the ruling alliance of Muhyiddin Yassin. He resigned as the prime minister after the infighting in the coalition cost him majority support. Ismail is a UMNO vice president who appeared to have the majority support. His appointment can also see the return of the United Malays National Organization. UMNO has ruled Malaysia since the country’s independence from Britain in 1957. The party was ousted in 2018 due to a multi-billion dollar financial scandal.

Ahmad Maslan who is UMNO’s Secretary-General tweeted that all the lawmakers from UMNO and other parties in the former ruling alliance who have earlier supported Ismail have been summoned to meet the King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah.

Sabri is poised to become the next PM of Malaysia under the same alliance. However, many Malaysians will view this as nothing more than a game of musical chairs with a baton passed from Muhyiddin’s Bersatu party.

The Malaysian King, Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah has ruled out a new general election and called for an end to political bickering at a meeting which was held on August 17. Elections are ruled out due to COVID-19 red zones and inadequate health facilities in many parts of the country.

The party leaders have begun the process of selecting a new Prime Minister amid a worsening coronavirus outbreak. After 18 months in office Prime Minister, Muhyiddin Yassin resigned followed by the mounting public anger over what was widely perceived as his government’s poor handling of the pandemic. Malaysia is facing the world’s highest infection rates and deaths per capita. The daily cases breaching 20,000 this month despite seven months of emergency and lockdown.

The king has ruled out the election and Muhyiddin was appointed as the caretaker Prime Minister until a successor is found. Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was summoned for a group meeting at the palace and told that the King “urged them to end their bickering”. All the lawmakers were asked to individually submit the name of a preferred candidate for Prime Minister by the King.

In the first press conference since taking power, the Taliban have pledged not to seek “revenge” against their opponents in Afghanistan. The announcement came after the return of their co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar which crowned the group’s astonishing comeback after being ousted in a US-led invasion nearly 20 years ago.

The terror group called the government staff to return to work and open shops in Kabul. Some residents reacted cautiously and few women took to the streets after thousands of people had tried to flee the nation. The people are afraid and want to escape the hardline Islamist rule expected under the Taliban.

Spokesman of Taliban Zabihullah Mujahid told the reporters that the new regime would be “positively different” from the 1996-2001 stint at the helm. They were infamous for their deaths by stoning and barring women from working in contact with men. He further added that the government would be soon formed but offered few details and only said that the Taliban will “connect with all sides”.

Baradar is now the deputy leader of the Taliban who is chosen to touch down in Afghanistan’s second-biggest city Kandahar. He spent months in Qatar leading talks with the United States and the Afghan peace negotiators.

Haksinde Hichilema was declared president-elect on Monday which called for a celebration among the Zambian people. The business quickly went back to normal after the peaceful transfer of power after the election.

The before and after voting day last week there were concerns of violent days that had been prevalent among the citizens have brushed aside. The capital city Lusaka was busy with traffic, while the businesses and marketplaces reopened the very next day. The rapid return to normal by the residents is still being marveled at in the southern African countries.

The convoy of police and military vehicles zoomed towards Hichilema’s residence carrying security commanders who were going to pledge allegiance to Hichilema. He was arrested several times and this time again he was charged with treason. Many low-ranking officers already took their place at Hichilema’s residence on the outskirts of the capital. Zambia is one of Africa’s stable democracies with regular elections and peaceful transfers of power since its founding president, the late Kenneth Kaunda.

Lungu has earlier deployed the military on the streets and signaled that he will contest the result in which he lost by a large margin to Hichilema. However, hours later he conceded and called him “my brother”. Later they were seen together smiling for the photographers.

After President Ashraf Ghani fled the country on Sunday, Afghanistan’s First Vice President Amrullah Saleh announced himself as the country’s new “legitimate caretaker President”. Amid the fleeing of the President, there were reports that Saleh also fled with Ghani which later was clarified through a tweet that he is inside Afghanistan.

Saleh had tweeted earlier, “In my soil. With the people. For a cause and purpose. With a solid belief in righteousness. Opposing Pak backed oppression and brutal dictatorship in our legitimacy”. Showing his disappointment with the US he further added, “Futile to argue with Biden; won’t bow to Taliban under any circumstances”. He asked Afghas to prove that Afghanistan is not like Vietnam and “the Taliban aren’t even remotely like Vietcong”.

Citing the Constitution of Afghanistan he said that in the absence, escape, resignation, or death of the President, the First Vice President becomes the caretaker President. He said he is currently inside the country and is the legitimate caretaker President. He is currently reaching out to all the leaders to secure their support and consensus. He called Afghans to “join the resistance” after the Taliban took control of Kabul, Afghanistan.

Uganda is to take in 2,000 refugees as the deal was agreed upon after a request from the US government. Refugees are welcomed who have fled Afghanistan after the Taliban took over the nation on Sunday.

Refugee Minister Esther Anyakun said in an interview that the first group of 5000 Afghani’s were expected to arrive on Tuesday. However, the discussion about the arrangements is still ongoing by the officials. The refugees will be tested for COVID-19 before they are sent to the isolation center by the government. The cost of the refugee center and testing will be covered by the US government.

There is a long history of Uganda welcoming refugees and it has the largest number of to-home refugees in any country in Africa. 90% of Uganda’s refugees come from the neighboring countries of the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. The refugees in Uganda live in settlements or villages alongside residents. They are sometimes provided with plots of land and are also allowed to work.

It is decided that the refugees from Afghanistan will be temporarily for three months before the U.S. government resettles them elsewhere. Albania and Kosovo also accepted the U.S. request to temporarily take in Afghan refugees.

On Monday, business tycoon and the opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema won the presidential election of debt-burden Zambia. 155 out of 156 constituencies reporting officials results showed landslide of 2,810,757 votes captured by Hinchilema against 1,814,201 for President Edgar Lungu.

The electoral commission chairman Justice Esau Chulu said in a televised address that he declared Hakainde Hichilema as the president-elect of the Republic of Zambia. Hichilema is a 59-year-old veteran politician of the opposition party who beat his long-time rival Lungu. He won following a bruising race held against the backdrop of deteriorating standards of living across the nation.

For six years Lungu had tried to retain his mandate as the president despite growing resentment about rising living costs and crackdowns in dissent. Now Hichilema will have to face an economy wracked by high debt, inflation, and unemployment as a president of the country. Hichilema has an economics degree and he has promised to rebuild the investor’s confidence.

It’s Hakainde Hichilema’s sixth time to run for the top job and the third time where he has challenged 64-year-old incumbent Lungu. He posted his picture on Twitter standing in front of a crowd with the caption “Thank you Zambia”.

On Monday, the United States President Joe Biden announced that he will address the nation on the current situation in Afghanistan. The Taliban has seized power from the Ashraf Ghani-led government in the wake of the American troops leaving the nation after two long decades.

The announcement came after Biden faced criticism in the US and abroad for his decision to withdraw the troops. Senator Mark Warner, the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence found the images as “Devastating” which were being broadcast out of Afghanistan before the statement was released by the president. He vowed to ask tough but necessary questions about why they weren’t better prepared for a worst-case scenario involving such a swift and total collapse of the Afghan government and the security forces.

Biden will not take any questions from the reporters gathered in the East Room following his speech. This will be his first public remark on Afghanistan. Biden was previously scheduled to remain at Camp David until Wednesday but he had to return to the White House to deliver the address.