U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake On Thursday, March 10, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert O. Blake Jr. testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Subcommittee on Europe and Eurasia, on U.S. policy and engagement in Central Asia. The hearing was chaired by […]
The Great People’s Day, conceived by a handful of Azerbaijani opposition figures as a country-wide day of symbolic protests and local rallies, was held as scheduled on 11 March, and was for the most part a non-event. Arrests took place as soon as protesters assembled in various locations, although reportedly one group managed to march […]
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ pointed critique of NATO’s run toward the exits in Afghanistan was a much needed corrective to all the lead laden diplomatic talk in Brussels, Washington D.C. and Kabul. (You can find a complete transcript of his remarks here.) The war is a strategic draw nearly 10 years out; leaving now, […]
NATO and Afghan forces killed President Hamid Karzai’s cousin, one Yar Mohammed Karzai, 60 years old, during a night raid against suspected Taliban commanders. NATO and Afghan forces searched the village of Karz, the ancestral home of the Karzai clan and detained Farid Karzai, Yar Mohammed’s son’ under suspicions that he was a Taliban commander. […]
Charlie Rose put together an excellent conversation panel on General David Petraeus’ upcoming testimony to Congress. It features Retired General Jack Keane, columnist David Ignatius and James Shinn, a former policy maker, now academic at Princeton. The talk is lively, important, and perhaps most importantly, well worth your time. Please find the entire conversation here.
The United Nations annual summary of the state of civilian casualties was published earlier today, Wednesday March 9th. The data are appalling: 2777 civilians were killed in 2010-that’s a 15% increase in civilian casualties relative to the year previous. Most of the civilian deaths have come on the heels of brutal and sustained fighting in […]
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has been in Afghanistan this week to assess how the expected July 2011 draw down will take place. There aren’t many surprises in store; the number of boots withdrawn is likely to be small-a token gesture, to begin the process of handing Afghanistan’s security to its own homegrown armed forces. […]
Kazakhs walk past an election poster for President Nursultan Nazarbaev in Almaty last week. RFE/RL Kazakhstan is gearing up for a snap presidential vote on April 3, announced only one month ago and scheduled almost two years ahead of the originally planned 2012 election. There has been speculation whether president Nursuntan Nazarbayev’s decision to hold […]
Tension is rising in Azerbaijan in the run-up to the 11 March “Great People’s Day.” The event was launched on facebook and has spread to other media, although specifics are somewhat vague, which seems to be a deliberate tactic. People are being urged to stage symbolic or actual protests “in a civil way without provocations” […]
President Hamid Karzai’ has rebuffed General Petraeus’ face to face personal apology for the misidentification of nine boys for wanted insurgents, and the subsequent slaughter that followed. President Karzai declared that “the people of Afghanistan are tired of these incidents and excuses, and condemnations cannot relieve their pain….I am asking you on behalf of the people […]
The news of nine boys killed by NATO helicopters has not travelled far or fast. The top story about that horrific turn in Afghanistan has been that General Petraeus has apologized to the Afghan people for the gruesome deaths. It seems the death of nine boys is hardly newsworthy enough to carry in the evening […]
TAPI Signatories in Ashgabat The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline or TAPI is a 1,680 km (1,050 m) natural gas line originating in the Daulatabad gas fields in southeastern Turkmenistan. It crosses Afghanistan and continues on through Pakistan ending in Fazilka, a northwestern Indian city close to the India-Pakistan border. TAPI is one of the largest pipelines in […]
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