KABUL: The southern Kandahar, Uruzgan, and Helmand provinces will get new pistachio fields as efforts are underway to create an alternative for the Afghan farmers who are currently busy planting narcotics. According to the local officials in southern Kandahar province, around 450 pistachio fields will be established in the three provinces with the support of the Mercy Corps International. A ...

KABUL: President Ashraf Ghani on Wednesday offered to the Taliban ‘a comprehensive plan for peace’ which could lead to a reconciliation aimed at ending 16 years of war. The president unveiled a clear proposition for unconditional talks with the Taliban as a political group, at the start of the international conference, where representatives from over 20 countries and international organizations ...

KABUL: Former president Hamid Karzai has declared his support for the Afghan government’s plan of reconciliation with the Taliban, calling the plan as practical. On Wednesday, the national unity government asserted it desire to strike a “truthful and sustainable peace deal” with the Taliban who are ready for reconciliation. A statement from the ex-president’s office said Karzai commended the unity government’s ...

KABUL: A high-level NATO delegation visited Afghanistan from February 23 to 24 and reaffirmed their commitment to lasting peace in the war-torn country, the Resolute Support (RS) mission said on Saturday. Headed by Gen. General Curtis Scaparrotti, the supreme allied commander for Europe, the delegation included permanent representatives to NATO from German), Italy, Turkey and the United States. Gen. Scaparrotti met General John Nicholson, ...

KABUL: At least 23 people were killed and more than a dozen wounded in multiple suicide bombings and attacks in Afghanistan on Saturday, officials said, the latest in a series of assaults in the war-torn country. In the biggest attack, Taliban militants stormed an army base in the western province of Farah overnight, killing at least 18 soldiers. “Last night, ...

KABUL: Afghanistan hosted leaders from Turkmenistan, Pakistan and India on Friday for the ground-breaking ceremony of the Afghan section of a much-delayed multi-billion dollar pipeline project to transit natural gas from energy rich Turkmenistan to South Asia through Afghanistan. The work on the Afghan section was started after the construction of the Turkmenistan section was completed which was started in ...

PESHAWAR: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi will arrive in western Herat province tomorrow (Friday) to attend the groundbreaking ceremonies for the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan–Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project. Abbasi will also hold a bilateral meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani after the groundbreaking ceremony in Herat City, a spokesman for Abbasi said on Thursday. Invited by the presidents of Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, ...

PESHAWAR: Pakistan and Russia will hold high-level talks in Moscow this week on a negotiated political settlement in Afghanistan, an Islamabad-based newspaper reported on Monday. Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif will pay a working visit to Moscow at the invitation of his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on February 20, according to Daily Times. Russian Foreign Ministry official Maria Zakharovawas quoted as saying: “We maintain ...

KABUL: President Ashraf Ghani has said the “unpredictable” victory in the Jihad against the former Soviet Union forces would remain a historic pride for the nation. The president, who addressed a gathering at the Presidential Palace in connection with the 29th anniversary of the Soviet forces’ withdrawal from Afghanistan, said the people of Afghanistan took the Jihad against Soviet forces to victory when nobody ...

KABUL: Afghanistan has refuted claims that China wants to establish a military base in the northeast province of Badakhshan in a bid to extend its presence in Afghanistan. “Such military cooperation by the foreign countries will not take place without the approval of the national security council and the president of Afghanistan,” presidential office said Saturday. It added that China ...