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UN contributes to WFP’s fund for returning Afghans from Pakistan
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has welcomed a contribution of $3.8 million from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to support Afghans forced to leave Pakistan and return to Afghanistan.
The funding will allow WFP to provide cash assistance to nearly 33,000 families or more than 230,000 children, women and men, including persons with disabilities returning to Afghanistan at a time when already one third of the people are going hungry.
“With 500,000 Afghans having returned from Pakistan since last September, the importance of this timely allocation from the Central Emergency Response Fund cannot be overstated,” said Isabelle Moussard Carlsen, Head of Office for OCHA Afghanistan.
“In the face of the harsh Afghan winter, coinciding with the lean season and peak food insecurity, this CERF funding is a lifeline for thousands of returnees ensuring their immediate and long-term food needs are met. We remain committed to a sustained effort in supporting the most vulnerable and call for unwavering global solidarity with Afghanistan,” she said.
These families are arriving at the worst of times, in winter, when hunger bites hardest in Afghanistan and humanitarian funding is at a low point. Last year, funding shortages forced WFP to reduce the ration size and scale back life-saving food assistance, affecting 10 million people.
“With the massive funding shortfalls for humanitarian action in Afghanistan, WFP has been able to respond to new crises only by borrowing from an already underfunded regular programme,” said Mutinta Chimuka, Deputy Country Director of WFP Afghanistan.
“Thanks to the contribution from the Central Emergency Response Fund, WFP will be able to support more than 230,000 Afghans forced to return from Pakistan with cash to cover the families’ food needs for one month. This not only gives them the choice but also stimulates local economies by supporting markets and shops.”
The rapid funding made available through the CERF for WFP in Afghanistan has been crucial to reach some of the most vulnerable communities struck by shocks with life-saving assistance.
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PM’s political deputy says IEA has addressed world’s concerns over threats from Afghanistan
The Political Deputy of Prime Minister Mawlawi Abdul Kabir says the Islamic Emirate has addressed all the concerns of the world regarding threats from Afghanistan.
In a meeting on Saturday with Veronika Boskovic Pohar, the EU envoy for Afghanistan, Abdul Kabir said: “The Islamic Emirate has addressed all the world's concerns regarding threats from Afghanistan.”
Kabir also expressed his gratitude for the help of the EU and said IEA wants positive relations with all the countries of the world.
He called Afghanistan's relations with the world expanding and noted that now, along with the operation of a large number of embassies in the country, the IEA has 40 political missions abroad and this number is increasing.
He called for the EU's assistance to Afghanistan in the areas of development, eradication of drugs, alternative cultivation, job opportunities, and treatment of drug addicts, and stated that IEA is fighting alone against drugs.
Regarding the activities of the EU, Boskovic Pohar said that the union continues to provide humanitarian aid to Afghanistan in various sectors and is in favor of solving the existing problems.
She stressed the relations between the IEA and the EU and added that this union tries to carry out its activities effectively in the required sectors.
On Thursday last week, Acting Economy Minister Deen Mohammad Hanif also met with Boskovic Pohar, and they discussed the continuation of humanitarian and development aid to the country.
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IEA condemns deadly blast in Pakistan’s Quetta
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry has condemned the recent bombing at a railway station in Quetta, Balochistan, which claimed the lives of many civilians.
The foreign ministry on Saturday in a statement expressed its condolences to the families of the victims.
In this explosion that was carried out this morning, 25 people were killed and more than 50 others injured.
Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) has claimed responsibility for this attack.
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United Nations warily awaits Donald Trump’s return to power
The United Nations has been planning for the possible return of Donald Trump and the cuts to U.S. funding and engagement with world body that are likely to come with his second term as president.
There was a sense of "déjà vu and some trepidation" at the 193-member world body, said one senior Asian diplomat, as Republican Trump won Tuesday's U.S. election over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
"There is also some hope that a transactional administration will engage the U.N. on some areas even if it were to defund some dossiers. After all, what bigger and better global stage is there than the United Nations?" said the diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.
A U.S. retreat at the U.N. could open the door for China, which has been building its influence in global diplomacy.
Trump has offered few specifics about foreign policy in his second term but supporters say the force of his personality and his "peace through strength" approach will help bend foreign leaders to his will. He has vowed to solve the war in Ukraine and is expected to give strong
support to Israel in its conflicts with Hamas and Hezbollah in Gaza and southern Lebanon.
Among the top concerns at the U.N. are whether the United States will decide to contribute less money to the world body and withdraw from key multinational institutions and agreements, including the world Heath Organization and the Paris climate agreement.
U.S. funding is the immediate worry. Washington is the U.N.'s largest contributor - with China second - accounting for 22% of the core U.N. budget and 27% of the peacekeeping budget.
A country can be up to two years in arrears before facing the possible repercussion of losing its General Assembly vote.
Trump came to power last time proposing to cut about a third off U.S. diplomacy and aid budgets, which included steep reductions in funding for U.N. peacekeeping and international organizations. But Congress, which sets the federal U.S. government budget, pushed back on Trump's proposal.
A U.N. spokesperson said at the time the proposed cuts would have made it impossible to continue all essential work.
"The U.N. secretariat has known that they could face a Trump comeback all year. There has been prudent planning behind the scenes on how to manage potential U.S. budget cuts," said Richard Gowan, U.N. director at the International Crisis Group.
"So (U.N. Secretary-General Antonio) Guterres and his team are not totally unprepared, but they know the next year will be extremely hard," he said.
Trump's team did not immediately respond to a query about his policy toward the U.N. after he takes office in January.
During his first term, Trump complained that the U.S. was shouldering an unfair burden of the cost of the U.N. and pushed for reforms. Washington is traditionally slow to pay and when Trump left office in 2021 the U.S. was in arrears about $600 million for the core budget and $2 billion for peacekeeping.
According to U.N. figures, President Joe Biden's administration currently owes $995 million for the core U.N. budget and $862 million for the peacekeeping budget.
"I don't want to pre-empt or speak about policies that may or may not happen, but we work with member states in the way we've always worked with member states," Guterres' spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Wednesday.
In 2026, the U.N. Security Council will choose Guterres' successor, a decision in which the Trump administration will hold a veto power.
'GREAT NEWS FOR CHINA'
During Trump's first term, he was critical of the United Nations and wary of multilateralism. He announced plans to quit the World Health Organization, and pulled out of the U.N. Human Rights Council, the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO, a global climate change accord and the Iran nuclear deal.
When Biden succeeded him in 2021, he rescinded the U.S. decision to withdraw from the WHO and returned the U.S. to UNESCO and the climate agreement. Trump's campaign has said he would quit the climate deal again if he won office.
"It will survive. But, of course, it will probably survive severely undermined," Guterres told Reuters in September of a second withdrawal from the climate pact by Trump.
Ahead of the U.S. election, a senior European diplomat said a Trump win would be "great news for China," recalling that during Trump's first term "the Chinese influence in the U.N. increased a lot because it was an open bar for the Chinese."
The diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that if Trump again cuts U.N. funding and withdraws from international pacts "it will just give China the opportunity to present itself as the supporter number one of multilateralism."
U.S. funding for some other U.N. agencies is also in question. One of the first moves by the Trump administration in 2017 was to cut funding for U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), the international body's agency focused on family planning as well as maternal and child health in more than 150 countries.
Trump's administration said UNFPA "supports ... a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization." The U.N. said that was an inaccurate perception. Biden restored U.S. funding for UNFPA.
If Trump again cuts funding, UNFPA warned that "women will lose lifesaving services in some of the world's most devastating crises" in places like Afghanistan, Sudan and Ukraine.
Under Trump's first presidency, the U.S. also opposed long-agreed international language on women's sexual and reproductive rights and health in U.N. resolutions over concern that it would advance abortion rights.
A senior African diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, summed up the impending return of Trump for multilateralism and the United Nations: "The heavens help us."
(Reuters)
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