MENA WATCH: Taliban Reportedly Deliver American Military Hardware To Iran
Wednesday, 01 Sep 2021 ISRAEL HAYOM – Reports and images on social media received from Iran indicate that tanks and military vehicles which belonged to the Afghan army were seen in Tehran and other parts of Iran.
Photos have emerged showing armored Humvees being transported from the eastern parts of the country toward Tehran, on the Semnan-Garmsar road.
MENA WATCH : Windpark Taunuskamm -Einflussnahme der Grünen auf den Windradprozess?
- Von Ewald Hetrodt FAZ – 3.09.2021 In der Auseinandersetzung um einen auf dem Taunuskamm geplanten Windpark könnten sich Umweltministerin Priska Hinz und Wirtschaftsminister Tarek Al-Wazir strafbar gemacht haben. Das geht aus einer Stellungnahme des Juristen Alfred Dierlamm hervor.
MENA WATCH : Qatar in talks with Taliban, Turkey to reopen Kabul airport
Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said there is “no clear indication” of when flights will resume at Hamid Karzai International Airport.Al-Monitor StaffSeptember 2, 2021
Qatar is working with the Taliban and Turkey to restore operations at the Kabul airport “as soon as possible,” Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said on Thursday, adding that there is “no clear indication” of when flights will resume.
“We are engaging with them and also working with Turkey, if they can provide any technical assistance on that front. Hopefully in the next few days there will be some good news,” Sheikh Mohammed said at a joint news conference in Doha with UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.
“There is no clear indication when [the airport] is going to be fully operational yet. … We remain hopeful that we will be able to operate it as soon as possible,” Qatar’s top diplomat said.
On Wednesday, a Qatar Airways flight carrying technical experts arrived at the Kabul airport, which the United Nations has warned must be operational to ensure humanitarian aid can reach Afghanistan’s impoverished population.
Commercial flights at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul were cancelled in the wake of the Taliban takeover last month. The military side of the airport was used by the United States and its partners until Aug. 31 to evacuate more than 123,000 civilians.
Qatar, which is home to the largest US airbase in the Middle East, served as the US military’s transit hub for tens of thousands of evacuees from Afghanistan. The Gulf Arab country, which hosted US-Taliban talks, has taken on a key role in determining Afghanistan’s future under the insurgent group. With the withdrawal complete, the United States has relocated its diplomatic mission in Afghanistan to Doha.
The Taliban has also requested Turkey’s technical assistance to reopen the airport in Afghanistan’s capital city. Turkey, which is NATO’s only Muslim-majority member, pulled its troops from the country ahead of the end-of-month deadline. Turkish officials say Ankara is still weighing the Taliban proposal, with security concerns being a major factor.
On Sunday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said repairs to runways, towers and terminals on the civilian side of the airport are needed before flights can resume.
MENA WATCH INTEL British foreign secretary admits errors in intelligence assessments of Afghanistan
THE CONSENSUS VIEW OF British intelligence in the weeks leading to the fall of Kabul to the Taliban was that the Afghan government would be challenged, but that the rebels were unlikely to take over the country in 2021. This was revealed on Wednesday in the House of Commons by Britain’s Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab. Speaking at an emergency meeting of the House of Commons’ Foreign Affairs Select Committee, Raab fielded criticism that he had reacted slowly to the crisis in Afghanistan. The foreign secretary told his critics that his department’s decisions had relied on assessments by the Joint Intelligence Committee, an interagency body that coordinates Britain’s intelligence agencies in issuing reports about pressing security matters. He told Parliament that the assessments he had been given pointed out that the pro-Western government of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani would be threatened by the Taliban following the withdrawal of Western troops. But they concluded that the government would remain in control of Kabul through 2021, said Raab. The rapid fall of the Afghan capital to the Taliban caught the British intelligence establishment —and, consequently, the government as a whole— by surprise, said Raab, adding that the sheer “scale and speed of the fall of Kabul” was unexpected. The foreign secretary blamed “optimism bias” for the reports, but added that similar optimistic views were “widely shared” across the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. All parties involved would have to learn lessons from Afghanistan about the accuracy of intelligence reports, Raab concluded. But the foreign secretary was less clear about why his office did not heed the warnings of the principal risk assessment of his own department, which was issued on July 22, approximately a month before the fall of Kabul. The assessment warned starkly that the return of the Taliban to power could be rapid, as “peace talks are stalled and [United States and] NATO withdrawal is resulting in Taliban advances”. This, said the assessment, could lead to the “fall of cities, collapse of security forces, [and] Taliban return to power”. The document also discussed the possibility that the British “embassy may need to close if security deteriorates” in the Afghan capital. ► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 3 September 2021 |
MENA WATCH NEWS : Turkish President Erdoğan: ‘We Have No Hesitation At All In Getting The Second Shipment’ Of S-400s; Central Asian Countries ‘May Want To Join Together As Partners In The Positive Steps That The Taliban Will Take’
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On August 29, 2021, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke to Turkish journalists about the second shipment to Turkey of the Russian S-400 air defense system, Turkey’s relations with the Taliban and a possible Turkey-Taliban agreement on the joint management of Hamid Karzai International Airport, and a forthcoming new law to prevent what he calls “lying terrorism” by the opposition parties in Turkey. Erdoğan spoke to the journalists on a flight returning from a diplomatic trip to the Balkans in which he visited Bosnia Herzegovina and North Macedonia. This report will review some of his statements. “We Have No Hesitation At All In Getting The Second Shipment” Of S-400sFollowing a June 11, 2021 meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and President Erdoğan on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Brussels, President Erdoğan said that he had told Biden: “As Turkey, do not expect us to change course, either on the F-35 or on the S-400, because we did our part for the F-35.” Following the same line, Erdoğan recently announced that Turkey would be getting a second shipment of S-400s from Russia, a decision that has been criticized by some in the opposition press. In the August 29 meeting with journalists on his plane, he said of the S-400: “On the subject of Russia, we have no hesitation at all in getting the second shipment [of S-400s]. We have many steps [taken] with Russia, be it on the matter of the S-400 or concerning the defense industry.” “If [The Taliban] Take Care Of The Security, Then If Many People Are Killed There, How Are We Going To Explain This To The World?”President Erdoğan also spoke to journalists about relations between his government and the Taliban as the group establishes its governance of Afghanistan. Among other Turkish military personnel in Afghanistan, there had been 600 Turkish soldiers stationed at the airport in Kabul. Following Biden and Erdoğan’s June meeting, the two leaders agreed on Turkey’s role in securing the airport following the withdrawal of American military forces from Afghanistan. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said after the meeting: “The clear commitment from the leaders was established that Turkey would play a lead role in securing Hamid Karzai International Airport and we are now working through how to execute to get to that.” An article in the Turkish press reported that “those with news of the meeting” were saying that Erdoğan agreed to secure the airport in exchange for, among other things, U.S. recognition of Turkey’s positions in Libya and Nagorno Karabagh, and U.S.-Turkey cooperation in Idlib. The prospect of Turkish troops remaining in Afghanistan after an American withdrawal provoked a brotherly yet uncompromising response from the Taliban, who have insisted that all foreign troops leave Afghanistan in accordance with the agreement signed in Doha in February 2020 and threatened military action against Turkish forces. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also said: “We want to see Turkey as Turkey, not as a part of NATO. Turkey is treating us like it treats the Syrian opposition. Whereas, at the least we want a relationship like [that of Turkey’s relationship with] Libya. We want to meet with President Tayyip Erdoğan. Erdoğan is a very distinguished leader for us and for the world of Islam. We want to share the realities of Afghanistan with him.” In the past week, there have been claims in the Turkish press that Turkey and the Taliban are close to an agreement over the joint management of the airport. However on August 29, it was reported that the Taliban had said that “it is still early” for such an agreement. On August 31, spokesman Mujahid said to Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu Ajansı: “We want Turkey’s support to continue. To have good relations with Turkey is one of our goals. The people and government of Turkey are our friends. There are many reasons for this friendship to continue.” It is in this context that President Erdoğan said to journalists on August 29: “What does the Taliban say about the airport issue? [they say]: ‘We’ll handle the security and you handle the operation [of the airport].’ How can we let you handle the security? If you take care of the security, then if many people are killed there, how are we going to explain this to the world? This is not an easy task. We talked about such things, and then just the next day close to 200 people died.” He was likely referring to the August 27 twin suicide bombing at the airport that killed over 100 people, including 13 U.S. service members. |
MENA WATCH: Bennett to take action on China investments after Biden meeting – source
Among the possibilities Bennett has considered is moving the committee overseeing major foreign investments from the Finance Ministry to the National Security Council.By LAHAV HARKOV, SEPTEMBER 2, 2021 JERUSALEM POST
MENA WATCH KABUL Cᴀʟɪʙʀᴇ Oʙsᴄᴜʀᴀ
3.9.2021 Afghanistan : IS pic from the cell responsible for firing 6x 107mm rockets in #Kabul a few days ago. Fighter seen is carrying a shiny Bulgarian MG-1M machine gun. Seems that the (most likely Type 63-2 HE) rockets have been resprayed and are using atypical fuzes. (V-429 pattern?)
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MENA WATCH NEWS : THE ENEMY OF THE TALIBAN !
3.9-2021 -The recent wave of proposals to team up with the #Taliban has been remarkable to see — sometimes your enemy’s enemy is still your enemy. The naiveté from otherwise intelligent people is remarkable.
Marc Polymeropoulos
I’m exhausted arguing with those that think there is a Taliban 2.0. I hope that my old colleagues in the IC/US mil are not considering a liaison partnership with the Taliban on CT, in some bizarre “enemy of my enemy is my friend” US-Taliban/AQ/Haqqani alliance against ISIS.
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MENA WATCH OPINION: Are white feminists evil?- Dictatorial feminism.
Anti-racist writers don’t understand the true power of modern feminism
BY KAT ROSENFIELD – Kat Rosenfield is a culture writer, novelist – September 3, 2021
MENA WATCH REPORT : Israel Defense Forces
2.9.2021 – IDF Chief of the General Staff LTG Aviv Kohavi and
Commander General Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. spoke tonight about the transfer of Israel to CENTCOM AOR. Here’s to furthering regional stability and strengthening future cooperation
Aligning the @IDF
into the military family reflects how much security cooperation has evolved in the last 50 years. We look forward to integrating the
@IDF into our exercises and security relationships.
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