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Ghani discusses peace talks situation with Austin

President Ashraf Ghani spoke with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin Friday evening and discussed bilateral relations and recent developments in the peace process, the Presidential Palace (ARG) said.
The US defense secretary said the Biden administration supports enduring peace, which is beneficial to all Afghans, and a permanent ceasefire, according to ARG.
The statement indicated that Ghani and the US defense secretary expressed their concerns over the sharp increase in violence and targeted killings.
This comes on the heels of a briefing by the International Crisis Group, titled “Afghanistan: Give Peace Talks a Chance”.
According to the group, the new US administration needs more time to set its policy course on Afghanistan and review the US-Taliban agreement signed a year ago; and assess whether the Taliban has complied with commitments it made, which include breaking all ties with terrorist organizations.
The group said US officials need to move quickly to persuade the Taliban to extend the May deadline for a total troop withdrawal. In fact the group suggested another six months was needed.
As part of the agreement with the Taliban, the US stated it would withdraw all troops by end April. In doing so, the Taliban agreed to join the peace talks process in Doha.
However, the talks took at least six months to get off the ground. Based on this, the ICG suggests the Biden administration get an extension to the deadline of six months.
The group also however, suggested the Biden administration signal its commitment to supporting the peace process - despite talks having stalled.
“The Biden administration should immediately signal its commitment to continue supporting the negotiations,” the group stated adding that “for the time being the US administration’s top priority should be to keep the Afghan peace process going and buy the time it will need to face the decisions coming its way.”
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Public works minister, Chinese envoy discuss Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor project
The ministry said initial surveys for the Wakhan Corridor project have been completed and that work on the design phase is underway.

Afghanistan’s acting Minister of Public Works Mohammad Esa Sani has discussed progress on the Wakhan Corridor in the far north of the country with China’s ambassador to Kabul Zhao Xing.
According to a statement issued by the ministry, Sani thanked Zhao for China’s cooperation with Afghanistan and said Kabul and Beijing shared long-standing economic, social and political relations.
He also said efforts should be made to further strengthen ties in different areas.
The ministry said initial surveys for the Wakhan Corridor project have been completed and that work on the design phase is underway.
The two officials also discussed the Trans-Afghan railway line that is expected to start from the capital of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, and run through major cities in Afghanistan to Hyderabad, Pakistan.
They also stressed the need to expand bilateral trade and economic cooperation, as well as implementing reconstruction projects.
Once complete, the Wakhan Corridor will stretch eastward, connecting Afghanistan to Xinjiang in China.
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Saudi Arabia rejects Israel PM Netanyahu’s remarks on displacing Palestinians

Saudi Arabia affirmed its categorical rejection of remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about displacing Palestinians from their land, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Israeli officials have suggested the establishment of a Palestinian state on Saudi territory. Netanyahu appeared to be joking on Thursday when he responded to an interviewer on pro-Netanyahu Channel 14 who mistakenly said "Saudi state" instead of "Palestinian state", before correcting himself, Reuters reported.
While the Saudi statement mentioned Netanyahu's name, it did not directly refer to the comments about establishing a Palestinian state in Saudi territory.
Egypt and Jordan also condemned the Israeli suggestions, with Cairo deeming the idea as a "direct infringement of Saudi sovereignty".
The kingdom said it valued "brotherly" states' rejection of Netanyahu's remarks.
"This occupying extremist mindset does not comprehend what the Palestinian territory means for the brotherly people of Palestine and its conscientious, historical and legal association with that land," it said.
Discussions of the fate of Palestinians in Gaza has been upended by Tuesday's shock proposal from President Donald Trump that the U.S. would "take over the Gaza Strip" from Israel and create a "Riviera of the Middle East" after resettling Palestinians elsewhere.
Arab states have roundly condemned Trump's comments, which came during a fragile ceasefire in the Gaza war that Israel has been waging against the militant group Hamas, which controls the narrow strip.
Trump has said Saudi Arabia was not demanding a Palestinian state as a condition for normalising ties with Israel. But Riyadh rebuffed his statements, saying it would not establish ties with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state.
Gaza authorities say the war has killed more than 47,000 of the nearly 2 million Palestinians who live there. Israel launched its offensive after Hamas-led gunmen killed some 1,200 people and seized more than 250 as hostages in an October 7, 2023, attack, according to Israeli tallies.
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US senator claims cash shipments still flowing into Afghanistan despite foreign aid freeze
The $40 million weekly cash transfers to Afghanistan started following the take over of power by the Islamic Emirate in 2021

US Senator Tim Burchett said this week that he believes over $40 million of American taxpayers’ dollars is still going to Afghanistan weekly, despite President Donald Trump’s freeze on foreign aid.
Speaking to Breitbart News, the Republican senator said Friday: “We’ve been told that it is, somehow they’re getting it,” he said.
“That’s on the surface that we know about.”
The $40 million weekly cash transfers to Afghanistan were started following the collapse of the former government and the take over of power by the Islamic Emirate.
However, the cash shipments have gone to the United Nations’-led humanitarian assistance program in the country, and the Islamic Emirate has repeatedly, over the years, dismissed claims that they benefit from this money.
In April 2023, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John Sopko testified to Congress that the U.S. had made available $8 billion to Afghanistan after the August 2021 withdrawal.
Breitbart News reported however that it is not clear whether the $40 million weekly cash infusions for humanitarian aid are being drawn from the $8 billion and over what time period the $8 billion is meant to last for.
SIGAR has however claimed that the IEA “siphoned or benefited from a considerable amount of humanitarian aid,” by infiltrating United Nations-partnered Non-Governmental Organizations to access their aid budgets; imposing taxes and “security” fees on humanitarian workers; directing aid agencies to serve IEA officials and family members; and taxing Afghan aid recipients at high rates, in some cases amounting to 60 to 100 percent of the aid received.
In December 2023, Burchett however introduced a bill to stop the flow of money to the IEA. The bill passed the US House of Representatives unanimously, but did not gain support in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
Last month, Burchett reintroduced his bill, dubbed the No Tax Dollars for Terrorists Act.
At the time, Burchett said in a statement: “I look forward to working it through both chambers and getting it to President Trump’s desk as quickly as possible.”
If passed, the bill would force the State Department to develop and implement a policy to oppose any foreign aid from going to the Islamic Emirate; it would require a report on any cash assistance programs in Afghanistan and how the US keeps the IEA from accessing that; and it would require a report on the Afghan Fund and on IEA members attached to Da Afghanistan Bank - the country’s central bank.
Speaking to Breitbart News, Burchett said his father “used to have a saying, ‘Old men make decisions and young men die.'”
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