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U.S. takes control of Afghan embassy and consulates
The United States has taken control of the Afghan Embassy in Washington and Afghan consulates in two U.S. states, the State Department has said.
The State Department has assumed “sole responsibility” for the security and maintenance of the diplomatic missions and their “furnishings, archives, and financial assets” and will bar anyone from entering them without its permission until further notice, the department said in a notice to be published on May 18 in the Federal Register, the Associated Press reported.
The move came after the department determined that the embassy and the consulates in Little Neck, New York, and Beverly Hills, California, had “formally ceased conducting diplomatic and consular activities in the United States” at noon on May 16.
Washington does not recognize the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) led government in Afghanistan, which took power last year after the withdrawal of U.S. and allied troops, and does not have formal diplomatic relations with the country.
A department official told AP the step did not signal any change in U.S. policy toward Afghanistan.
The United States took control of the facilities in an agreement with diplomats from the former Afghan government who faced “severe financial constraints that made continued operations unsustainable,” the official said.
The department noted Afghanistan had not requested a third country to serve as a “protecting power” for its U.S. facilities or interests. Since Washington closed its embassy in Kabul, Qatar has served as the U.S. protecting power in Afghanistan.
The Islamic Emirate, has however, emphasized the need for the establishment of diplomatic relations with the countries and says that interaction with Afghanistan will benefit all countries.
Bilal Karimi, Deputy Spokesman of the Islamic Emirate, said: “The Islamic Emirate is working on diplomatic issues and has good diplomatic relations with many countries, and it is hoped that diplomatic avenues will be open and there will be no problems in this area, and this will benefit all countries to have diplomatic relations with Afghanistan.”
Former president Hamid Karzai said in a meeting with Iran’s ambassador and special representative, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, that education of girls was a “vital issue” for Afghanistan.
Karzai said he appreciated Iran’s cooperation and its standing with the Afghan people, especially Iran’s contributions to education in Afghanistan.
During the meeting, Karzai said peace and stability in the region are in the interest of all regional countries.
A shipment of humanitarian aid from Uzbekistan was handed over on Thursday to the local officials of Balkh province in the trade port of Hairatan.
Local authorities said the aid, which includes flour, oil, wheat, sugar and meat, has been handed over by Uzbekistan’s Surkhandarya governor to the governor of Balkh.
The governor of Surkhandarya stated the purpose of sending this aid was to support the people of Afghanistan and stressed the need for the development of good relations between the two countries.
Islamabad’s special envoy for Afghanistan Asif Durrani said on Wednesday that Pakistan has suffered more due to Afghanistan’s internal situation than Pakistan has suffered in three wars with India in terms of blood spilt and finances drained.
Durrani said at a one-day International Conference titled “Pakistan in the Emerging Geopolitical Landscape”, which was organized by the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) and the German Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), that over 80,000 Pakistanis died in the two decades of the War on Terror and that his country was still counting its dead and injured.
“After the withdrawal of NATO forces, it was hoped that peace in Afghanistan would bring peace to the region. However, such expectations were short-lived,” he said.
He also stated that attacks by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group on Pakistan’s border areas increased by 65 percent, while suicide attacks increased by 500 percent.
“The TTP’s enhanced attacks on Pakistan while using Afghan soil have been a serious concern for Pakistan. Another worrying aspect is the participation of Afghan nationals in these attacks,” he said.
Durrani also said Pakistan had suffered geopolitically since the Soviet Union invaded the neighboring country.
“The post-9/11 world order has negatively impacted Pakistan. Apart from losing 80,000 citizens’ lives, including 8,000 law enforcement agency personnel, the country’s economic opportunity cost is estimated at $150 billion,” Durrani said.
Talking about the future outlook for Pakistan in the regional context, Durrani said that while “our eastern neighbor is likely to continue with its anti-Pakistan pursuits, the western border poses an avoidable irritant in the short to medium term.”
However, he said Pakistan can overcome its difficulties with Afghanistan, including the TTP challenge.
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