Blinken Suggests Pathway to ‘International Legitimacy’ For Taliban Regime

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday laid out a pathway for the Taliban to achieve the “legitimacy and support” that, he says, it is seeking. His comments provided another indication that the Biden administration has not ruled out the possibility of recognizing a regime led by the radical Islamist militia.  Read

One Minute Before Midnight in Kabul, Evacuation Mission Ends; ‘Hundreds’ of US Citizens Left Behind

The last U.S. military aircraft flew out of Kabul at 3:29 eastern time on Monday – a minute before midnight in Kabul – drawing a line under a 17-day evacuation mission marking the culmination of President Biden’s bid to end America’s longest war.  Read

US Drone Strike in Kabul Stops ‘Imminent ISIS-K Threat’ to Airport

For the second time in two days, the U.S. military on Sunday carried out a targeted unmanned airstrike against ISIS-K terrorists, destroying a vehicle in Kabul which it said posed an imminent threat to the Kabul airport where the U.S.-led evacuation mission is drawing to a close.  Read

US Marine Officer Relieved of Command After Assailing Leadership Over Afghanistan Says He’s Resigning

 Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller, the U.S. Marine Corps officer relieved of his command Friday after posting a searing online video criticizing military leaders over the Afghanistan withdrawal, said on Sunday he was resigning from the Corps.  Read

New Iranian Cabinet: Wanted Terror Suspects, Sanctioned Rights Abusers

When Iran’s new president earlier this month nominated as his interior minister a man wanted by Argentina for suspected involvement in the deadliest terrorist attack in the country’s history, Buenos Aires voiced outrage. Ebrahim Raisi ignored the protest. And then on Wednesday he named another man, wanted in connection with the same terrorist attack, as one of his vice presidents.  Read

Biden: It’s in the Taliban’s ‘Self-Interest’ That the US Completes its Evacuation Mission by Aug. 31

 It is in the Taliban’s “self-interest” to continue to cooperate with the U.S. evacuation at the Kabul airport, because it wants the U.S. “to leave on time, on target,” President Biden said on Thursday.  Read

CENTCOM Head: US Military and Taliban ‘Share a Common Purpose,’ Doesn’t Believe Taliban Let Attack Happen

The U.S. military and Taliban “share a common purpose” built around the August 31 target date for the Kabul airport evacuation operation to end, and there is no indication the Taliban allowed Thursday’s deadly suicide bombing to take place, in the view of Central Command commander Gen. Kenneth McKenzie.  Read

ISIS-K: The Taliban’s ‘Sworn Enemy’ – or Covert Collaborator?

ISIS-K, the group named by the Biden administration as posing a serious terrorist threat as the clock runs out on the evacuation mission at the Kabul airport, is generally described as a rival of the Taliban. But the lines are more blurred when it comes to the Taliban’s most dangerous faction, the Haqqani Network.  Read

US Embassy Urges Americans to Leave Kabul Airport Gates Due to ‘Security Threats’

Citing “security threats,” the U.S. Embassy in Kabul sent out an alert overnight advising U.S. citizens not to travel to the airport, and said that those presently at three airport gates “should leave immediately.”  Read

Allies Put a Brave Face on Biden’s Refusal to Extend Aug. 31 Deadline For Kabul Evacuation

After President Biden rejected G7 allies’ request for an extension to the evacuation mission in Kabul beyond August 31, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tried to put a brave face on the situation, saying the group of leading industrialized powers will use its economic leverage to pressure the Taliban into allowing those Afghans who want to leave to do so freely, even after the troops have gone.  Read

UN Rights Council Response to Afghan Crisis: No Investigative Body; Taliban Not Named in Resolution

The U.N. Human Rights Council, having taken a full week to convene a “special session on the serious human rights concerns and situation in Afghanistan,” on Tuesday adopted a resolution that failed to establish an independent investigative body, and does not refer to the Taliban by name.  Read

Watchdog Urges Biden to Extend Refugee Priority Status to Afghans Fleeing Religious Persecution

An independent statutory religious freedom watchdog called on the Biden administration Monday to broaden the priority designation for Afghan refugee admissions to explicitly cover religious minorities “at extreme risk of persecution by the Taliban.”  Read

Intelligence Report on Virus Origin Due to Be Submitted to Biden on Tuesday

Tuesday marks the deadline for the U.S. intelligence community to deliver to President Biden an eagerly-awaited report on its investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 outbreak, including an examination of the possibility that the virus could have leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan.  Read

Taliban Rejects Any Extension to Aug. 31 Deadline; Pentagon Says It’s Still Aiming to Meet It

Ahead of Tuesday’s G7 leaders’ virtual summit focused on Afghanistan, a question taking center stage relates to what happens after President Biden’s looming August 31 target date for the troops to be out.  Read

US-Wanted Leader of Notorious Terrorist Group Is Back in Kabul

The Taliban’s signed commitment with the U.S. “not to cooperate with groups or individuals threatening the security of the United States and its allies” is being put to the test with the return to Kabul of senior members of a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization whose track record includes the deadliest attack sustained by the CIA in 26 years.  Read

Taliban Charm Offensive Continues: ‘I Don’t Think People Believe We Are Terrorists’

 Amid the chaos and uncertainty in Kabul,a smooth-talking Taliban representative has emerged, telling al-Jazeera in South African-accented English, “I don’t think people believe we are terrorists.”  Read

Biden Ties Possibility of Sanctions to Taliban’s ‘Conduct’

President Biden said on Sunday he would support sanctions against the Taliban – which Britain is said to be pushing for – but then added that it “depends on the conduct.”  Read

Taliban Poised to Inherit Seats on UN Bodies Dealing With Women’s Rights, Cultural Heritage, Narcotics?

The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan raises the prospect that an entity notorious for violating women’s rights and human rights in general, for targeting heritage and culture which it views as un-Islamic, and for deriving revenue from the opium trade, will inherit seats on U.N. bodies dealing with those very issues.  Read

‘A Catastrophic Failure of Western Policy’: UK Lawmakers Slam Biden’s Afghan Decision

Senior lawmakers in Britain, one of America’s closest allies, this week lashed President Biden’s decision to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan and the manner in which it was done, decrying the impact on the Afghan people and the signals sent to adversaries of the West.  Read

State Dept Insists US Coordinated Afghan Withdrawal With NATO Allies

The State Department on Wednesday insisted that the U.S. closely coordinated its troop withdrawal from Afghanistan with its NATO allies, rejecting criticism from some British lawmakers who suggested otherwise.  Read

Defense Secretary: US Military Not Currently Able to Go Beyond Kabul Airport to Rescue People

The U.S. military does not currently have the capability of extending its presence beyond the perimeters of the Kabul international airport, Defense Secretary Gen. Lloyd Austin said Wednesday when asked about people wanting to leave, being prevented from reaching the facility.  Read

Don’t Call it Shari’a, CAIR Official Says of the Taliban’s Ideology

The Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan has thrust the issue of “shari’a” back into the public discourse, and a senior official in the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said Tuesday the concept was being misunderstood and incorrectly portrayed.  Read

Anti-Taliban Politician Says He’s Now the Acting President of Afghanistan: ‘The War is Not Over’

As the Taliban seeks to consolidate its hold on Afghanistan, signs of a nascent resistance are starting to appear, centered around men with close links to the fundamentalist militia’s historical foe, the Northern Alliance.  Read

State Dep’t Said It Wouldn’t Recognize an Afghan Government Taking Over ‘By Force’; But Now It Might…

For months the State Department has been saying that the United States – and many other countries – will not recognize a government in Afghanistan that takes power “by force.”  But now ...  Read

Chinese State Media Outlet Says US Will ‘Abandon’ Taiwan, Too, ‘Once a War Breaks Out’

A Chinese state mouthpiece reacted to the fall of Kabul to the Taliban Monday by saying the crisis has dealt a severe blow to U.S. “hegemony,” and suggesting allies like Taiwan should be careful about placing their trust in the U.S.  Read

Kabul Falls to the Taliban

Nineteen years, nine months and three days after its “Islamic emirate” was toppled by U.S.-led forces, the fundamentalist, misogynistic, al-Qaeda-allied Taliban swept back into Afghanistan’s capital on Sunday, the culmination of a four-month charge facilitated by President Biden’s decision to abandon a “conditions-based” withdrawal of U.S. and coalition forces. Read

US Troop Numbers in Kabul Will Approach 6,000 in Two Days

The number of U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan will climb to “nearly 6,000” within the next two days, as the Pentagon scrambles to respond to the fast-changing situation that saw the Taliban take control of Kabul on Sunday.  Read

Trump: A Troop Withdrawal Under My Presidency Would Have Been ‘Conditions-Based’

Former President Trump took a shot at his successor Thursday over the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, saying that if he was still president the withdrawal of troops would have been “conditions-based.” Read

CBP Encountered 703 Russians Illegally in U.S. in July

The number of “encounters” with illegal aliens at the southwest border originating from countries other than Mexico and the “northern triangle” climbed to 59,006 in July – a 24.9 percent increase from the previous month and 328.6 percent increase from the (pre-COVID) July two years ago. Read

Afghanistan Crisis: US Returning 3,000 Combat Troops to Kabul, 1,000 to Qatar, 3,500-4,000 to Kuwait

 In what the Pentagon will not describe as a combat mission, roughly 3,000 Marines and soldiers will deploy to Kabul’s international airport in the next 24-48 hours with a “narrowly-focused” mission of safeguarding the withdrawal of all but a “core” of U.S. diplomatic personnel in the coming weeks.  Read

WH Expects ‘Diverse Group’ of Democracies to Take Part in Biden’s Summit

 Plans for President Biden’s “summit for democracy” are moving ahead, but the administration has yet to reveal which countries are likely to be invited, a politically-charged issue, given the fact some longstanding partners claim to be democracies despite widely-criticized authoritarian tendencies.  Read

Sen. Ted Cruz Blocks Dozens of Nominees Over Nord Stream Sanctions Dispute

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in the early hours of Wednesday morning blocked the confirmation of dozens of State Department nominees ahead of the Senate’s summer break, to protest the administration’s position on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.  Read

Amid Taliban Advance, Biden Says, ‘I Do Not Regret My Decision’ to Withdraw Troops

President Biden said on Tuesday he does not regret his decision to order the full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan despite the steady takeover of cities by the Taliban. When asked if there was a change of plan, he replied “no.”  Read

China Slams Small European Nation Over Its Deepening Ties With Taiwan

China responded angrily Tuesday to Lithuania’s plans to open a “Taiwanese Representative Office,” recalling its ambassador from Vilnius and demanding that Lithuania withdraw its envoy for according even that limited level of recognition to the self-governing island democracy.  Read

Mixed Messages: France Congratulates Iran’s New President While US Demands Accountability for Iran Attacking Ship

Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the U.N. Security Council on Monday that the international community must hold the Iranian regime accountable for the recent deadly drone strike on a commercial ship, because “failing to do so will only fuel their sense of impunity.”  Read

US Sends Envoy to ‘Press the Taliban to Stop Their Military Offensive’

The State Department has dispatched Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad to Doha, the capital of Qatar, for meetings designed to respond to “the rapidly deteriorating situation in Afghanistan.”  Read

Beijing 2022 Moves Into Spotlight, With Calls for Boycott, After Curtain Falls on Tokyo Olympics

With the curtain falling on the pandemic-marred Tokyo Olympics on Sunday, the spotlight moves to the Winter Olympics in Beijing, just 180 days away, amid increasing calls to boycott an event hosted by a regime that stands accused of genocide.  Read

As Provincial Capitals Fall, Taliban Views UN's Sluggish Response As Proof of International Support

As provincial capitals in the north and south of Afghanistan continue to fall to the Taliban, the group pointed to the U.N. Security Council’s sluggish response to the fighting as a sign that it is also winning support in the international community. Read

After Biden’s Global Vaccine Sharing Statement, China Announces a Bigger Number – But They Aren’t Donations

 Two days after President Biden announced that the U.S. has delivered more than 110 million doses of donated COVID-19 vaccines to countries around the world – more than all other countries that have donated vaccines combined -- Chinese President Xi Jinping announced Thursday that China aims to “provide” two billion doses by the end this year.  Read

At Iranian Inauguration, EU Delegate Seated Near Terrorist Leaders

The European Union has defended its decision to send a senior diplomat to Thursday’s inauguration of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, but it faced new embarrassment when the E.U. official was seated at the ceremony near leaders of the regime’s leading terrorist proxies.  Read

‘Incomprehensible’: Critics Slam EU Decision to Send Senior Diplomat to Raisi Inauguration

The European Union’s decision to send a top diplomat to Thursday’s inauguration of Iran’s U.S.-sanctioned new president is drawing sharp criticism from human rights advocates, Iranian dissidents, and European lawmakers, given his deeply controversial history.  Read

‘Intellectual Dishonesty’: Reporter Challenges Administration for Saying Taliban Wants Peace

 For weeks, the State Department has been repeating the claim that the Taliban cares about international legitimacy and shares other parties’ interests in a “durable” peace. But amid charges that the terrorist group may be committing war crimes as it seizes territory, a reporter at the department’s daily briefing on Wednesday said the assertions were “getting to the point of intellectual dishonesty.” Read

Amid Dispute Over Nord Stream, State Dept Official Bemoans Delays in Confirming Nominees

The State Department is being “hamstrung” by delays in confirming the administration’s nominees for a range of important diplomatic posts, a senior official told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday.  Read

US Has Donated the Most Free Vaccines by Far; China Has Sold More Than It's Donated

The United States has donated more COVID-19 vaccine doses to nations in need  than all other donor countries combined, President Biden said on Tuesday, citing United Nations data.  Read

House GOP Report: After Lab Leak, Wuhan Military Games May Have Spread Virus Globally

Officials in Beijing have long pointed to reports of COVID-19 cases detected outside of China before the known Wuhan outbreak to back their claim that the pandemic did not originate in that Chinese city. But Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee released information on Monday squarely challenging that reasoning.  Read

Surge: Number of Migrants Stopped at the US-Mexico Border in July the Highest in 20 Years

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents recorded around 210,000 “encounters” with migrants along the southwest border in July, the highest monthly figure in two decades, a senior Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official said in a court filing on Monday.  Read

US, UK Blame Iran For Deadly Drone Attack on Israel-Linked Ship; Mull ‘Appropriate Response’

The United States is consulting with partner governments over a suitable response to a deadly drone attack on an Israel-linked ship in the Arabian Sea after accusing the Iranian regime of responsibility, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday.  Read

As Taliban Advances, Pakistan Bristles at Accusations of Collusion

As the Taliban targets three Afghan provincial capitals in fierce fighting, a former Canadian ambassador to Afghanistan sparked a diplomatic spat with Pakistan Sunday by accusing it of aiding aggression against its neighbor and calling for sanctions against Islamabad.  Read