{"id":1492461,"date":"2024-09-27T00:55:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-27T04:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1492461"},"modified":"2024-09-27T00:55:00","modified_gmt":"2024-09-27T04:55:00","slug":"afghanistans-neighbors-seek-stability-not-another-civil-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/afghanistans-neighbors-seek-stability-not-another-civil-war\/1492461\/","title":{"rendered":"Afghanistan’s Neighbors Seek Stability, Not Another Civil War"},"content":{"rendered":"

Afghanistan’s Neighbors Seek Stability, Not Another Civil War<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by James Durso via OilPrice.com,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Ahmad Massoud, leader of the National Resistance Front, aims to defeat the Taliban.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Afghanistan’s neighbors want to avoid civil war and its economic consequences.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Afghanistan and Central Asian nations are collaborating on trade, infrastructure, and water management projects, but regional tensions are rising due to Afghanistan’s controversial water diversion projects.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Ahmad Massoud,<\/a>\u00a0the leader of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, recently declared he will defeat the Taliban\u00a0\u201cno matter the odds.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

For Massoud to mount a military threat to the Taliban, he would need the cooperation of the Central Asian republics, Iran or Pakistan (among others) to do the job. However, Afghanistan\u2019s neighbors have no interest in another civil war in Afghanistan, as the violence and refugees would spill over their borders and cause economic dislocation and unrest all the way to Europe.<\/p>\n

After two decades of U.S.-sponsored mayhem in the Hindu Kush, all the region wants is to recoup the missed opportunities of the \u201clost decades\u201d of 2001-2021.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

None of Afghanistan\u2019s neighbors prefer the Taliban to any other group, and they object to the regime\u2019s unrepresentative government and policies toward women. That said, their leaders must solve today\u2019s problems despite their distaste for the Taliban\u2019s retrograde ways.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0republics\u2019 approach<\/a> to Kabul has long been \u201cneighbors forever\u201d \u2014 or, for the pessimists, \u201ccaptives of geography.\u201d Kazakhstan\u00a0removed the Taliban from its terrorist list<\/a>\u00a0in December 2023; Uzbekistan\u00a0never declared<\/a>\u00a0the Taliban an extremist group, and in 2018 it publicly encouraged the Taliban to start negotiations with the Islamic Republic. Turkmenistan was mum on the topic of the Taliban in line with its policy of?permanent neutrality<\/a>. In September 2024, the chief of Tajikistan\u2019s security service\u00a0visited Kabul<\/a>\u00a0for talks that were described as \u201cproductive,\u201d and the same month the Kyrgyz Republic\u00a0removed the Taliban<\/a>\u00a0from its list of terrorist organizations.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Afghanistan and its Central Asian neighbors are\u00a0collaborating<\/a>\u00a0to ease trade and transport; renovate Afghanistan\u2019s roads and railroads; help Afghanistan improve irrigation projects; ship natural gas from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India; build a railroad from Uzbekistan to Pakistan\u2019s seaports; and build a multi-modal transport corridor from Kazakhstan to Pakistan, terminating in the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n

Economic growth depends on an adequate supply of water; Afghanistan\u2019s Hindu Kush mountains\u00a0form the headwaters<\/a>\u00a0of the region\u2019s basins.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In March 2022, the Taliban launched construction of the 285-km\u00a0Qosh Tepa canal<\/a>, which will divert 10 billion cubic meters of water annually from the Amu Darya River, relied on by water-starved Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. They will suffer a 15 percent cut in the current supply. The project will cost\u00a0$684 million<\/a>, but it will irrigate 2100 square miles and create 250,000 jobs. Kabul feels it is critical to ensure food security for the emirate.<\/p>\n

Tashkent and Ashgabat are unhappy with the project, but the Uzbeks offered\u00a0technical assistance<\/a>\u00a0to Afghanistan to ensure the construction is \u201cin accordance with international norms.\u201d Now is a good time to consider inviting Afghanistan to join Central Asia\u2019s regional water management organization, the\u00a0Interstate Commission for Water Coordination of Central Asia<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Afghanistan also has unresolved water issues with\u00a0Iran<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Pakistan;<\/a>\u00a0those projects would be endangered, or further delayed, by a civil war.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to the\u00a0United Nations<\/a>, there are now 7.6 million Afghans in Iran and Pakistan, most of them refugees. In 2023,\u00a0Pakistan expelled<\/a>\u00a0over 540,000 Afghan refugees, and the next phase of the plan may see 800,000 more Afghans deported. Increased violence will likely reverse these flows and burden Iran and Pakistan, who cannot afford to support the refugees they have now.<\/p>\n

China recently\u00a0warned Pakistan<\/a>\u00a0it must get control of the violence that is endangering the $62 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor . More violence north of the Durand Line will further delay the corridor, which may be seen as a strategic \u201cwin\u201d in Washington but will hurt Central and South Asia.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In April 2022, the Taliban\u00a0banned poppy cultivation<\/a>\u00a0and methamphetamine production. This benefits Iran, which has the\u00a0highest rate<\/a>\u00a0of opium abusers in the world, according to the World Health Organization. According to the\u00a0United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime<\/a>, \u201cMore than 3,700 national law enforcement officials have been killed and over 12,000 have been maimed in counter-narcotics operations over the last three decades.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s good news, but if Afghanistan must fund a war against groups like the National Resistance Front (and its foreign confederates), the ban on drugs may go by the wayside.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In fact, if the Taliban suspect a foreign hand in an attack, will it encourage al-Qaeda and the Islamic State to strike foreign targets? Sure, that will violate the\u00a0Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan,<\/a>\u00a0where the Taliban agreed \u201cAfghan soil will not be used against the security of the United States and its allies,\u201d but the Taliban will note the Americans pledged, \u201cThe United States and its allies will refrain from the threat or the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Afghanistan or intervening in its domestic affairs.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Is the Taliban isolated?<\/strong> No, Seventeen countries, including every country that borders Afghanistan plus the European Union, maintain a\u00a0diplomatic presence<\/a>\u00a0in Kabul.\u00a0Aaron Zelin<\/a>\u00a0reports \u201cbetween August 2021 and February 22, 2024 the Taliban has publicly announced 1,382 diplomatic meetings with at least eighty countries.\u201d China and the United Arab Emirates have\u00a0accepted the credentials<\/a>\u00a0from Taliban ambassador to their capitals.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pragmatism may be winning, regardless what governments or their citizens think of Taliban policies.<\/strong><\/p>\n

After\u00a0Shohna ba Shohna<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(Shoulder to Shoulder) proved weak, it is time for the locals to lead, though Washington and Brussels can help by facilitating diplomatic and economic support of beneficial projects. The Americans, in particular, will need a broad aperture to understand the needs and opportunities of the region instead of obsessing about what might have been.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The defeat of the U.S. and NATO may have seen the end of the era of empires in Central Asia and Afghanistan, after the Russian Empire (1713-1917), the British interventions (1839-1919), the Soviet empire (1917-1991), and the American empire (2001-2021).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some questionable characters will make a few bucks along the way, but that\u2019s the price of repairing the damage caused by the crusade to reform Afghan culture as part of Washington\u2019s post 9\/11 war on terror, the\u00a0\u201cfirst grand global experiment of the twenty first century.\u201d<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nThu, 09\/26\/2024 – 20:55<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/military\/afghanistans-neighbors-seek-stability-not-another-civil-war<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Afghanistan’s Neighbors Seek Stability, Not Another Civil War Authored by James Durso via OilPrice.com, Ahmad Massoud, leader of the National Resistance Front, aims to defeat…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1492462,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1492461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbimBl-6gfX","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/09\/2024-09-25_hkkwndyb10-qN058h.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1492461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1492461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1492461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1492462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1492461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1492461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1492461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}