Afghanistan News September 13, 2005

September 13, 2005

Karzai defends Afghan poll stance as healing bid
Tue Sep 13, 6:35 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai has defended allowing candidates accused of human rights abuses to run in this Sunday's elections, saying it was in the interests of national reconciliation.
Karzai's comments in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation aired on Tuesday came as Kabul announced that the former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan had been freed from U.S. custody under an Afghan government reconciliation program.

In the interview, Karzai reiterated his government's view that there was a need to reconsider the approach to the war on terrorism by dealing with militant training areas, but stopped short of pointing the finger at neighboring Pakistan.

Karzai said Afghans could choose who they wanted to vote for in Sunday's national assembly and provincial council elections.

"If I consider somebody a criminal, I will not vote for him or her. The same can be done by every other Afghan. Therefore, we must use our judgment and vote for the right person."

Referring to the fact some of those standing include Taliban defectors and warlords accused of serious rights abuses, he said:

"It is not a compromise. It is healing a wound. It's bringing the nation back together. It's opening a new life, a new avenue to the Afghan nation to participate and to differentiate. Now we have that opportunity, freedom to choose, to differentiate."

Karzai said it would take more time to defeat militants who have waged a bloody insurgency in areas bordering Pakistan since U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban in late 2001.

"However, we and the international community and the coalition must sit down and reconsider and rethink that whether the approach to the defeat of terrorism that we have taken is the absolutely right one," he said.

"GO TO THE SOURCE"
"I believe we have to go to the sources of it. I believe we have to go where terrorists are trained."

Asked if he was referring to Pakistan, he replied: "I am not, I am not suggesting any country. I am just telling you that we should go and stop it where it arises."

On Monday, fed up with accusations that Pakistan allows Taliban fighters to cross into Afghanistan, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf offered during a visit to Washington to erect a border fence to prevent incursions from either side.

Karzai's efforts to persuade Taliban fighters to give up and return to society has lured only a trickle of defectors but four prominent former Taliban members are running in the election.

They include former foreign minister Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil and a former deputy minister responsible for the notorious religious police.

On Monday, a spokesman for the Taliban, which has denounced the election but pledged not to attack polling stations, welcomed the release of its former ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, and hoped more prisoners would be freed.

The U.N.-backed Electoral Complaints Commission has disqualified 45 candidates, most for links to armed groups, but none have been high-profile figures accused of major abuses.

Don't abandon Afghanistan after polls, Karzai tells world
HERAT, Afghanistan, Sept 13 (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai Tuesday urged the world not to turn its back on the troubled country after its landmark parliamentary polls this week.

The international community, which has poured billions of dollars into Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001, had a vital role to play in maintaining security and reconstruction, he said.

"Our wish and our request to the international community is that with the parliamentary elections, they do not immediately think that the mission in Afghanistan is over and Afghanistan can go ahead with its own resources and on its own," Karzai said.

Speaking to a gathering of more than 300 tribal elders, local dignitaries and Islamic clerics in Afghanistan's main western city, Herat, Karzai also called for more aid to rebuild its institutions.

"The international community should continue to give its assistance to us in reinforcing our national institutions, our national army, our national police and our judiciary."

"They should not lessen their assistance, they should increase it," he added.

Karzai urged everyone from former Taliban fighters who fled to Pakistan to overseas Afghans to return to their native soil and take part in the reconstruction effort.

Karzai visited a local industrial park in Herat and flying back to the capital Kabul.
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Afghans must help themselves, U.S. ambassador says
By Robert Birsel Mon Sep 12,11:05 AM ET
GARDEZ, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghans must use the representatives they elect next week to get involved in their development and not leave decisions to foreigners, the U.S. ambassador to the country said on Monday.

The United States is committed to helping Afghanistan, and it and other members of the international community will meet to decide the form of future aid, but in the end Afghans must help themselves, he said.

"Don't look only at the foreigner," Ambassador Ronald Neumann told reporters in the eastern town of Gardez, where he had come to inspect a U.S. aid project and meet the provincial governor.

"Your elected representatives will be your voice ... so the people of Gardez also have to be part of deciding what projects are more important. It should not be just the foreigner who decides."

Afghanistan holds national assembly and provincial elections on September 18, and will then have an elected president and parliament for the first time in its history.

The elections are the last step of the so-called Bonn agreement, drawn up by Afghan factions at a U.N.-organized meeting days after the Taliban were forced from power in late 2001, to plot a path to stable government.

The United Nations, Afghanistan's allies and aid donors are expected to meet in London in January to draft a new plan for the next five years.

"It's very clear the international community is still solidly here and the next piece we have to do is to try to, in a post-Bonn conference, define a little more sharply what the steps need to be," Neumann said.

"It would be useful to lay down an internationally agreed set of goals, benchmarks."

Ethnic Pashtun tribal elders with beards and turbans listened as Neumann spoke with reporters.

The United States has 20,000 troops in Afghanistan battling Taliban insurgents, their militant allies in the south and east.

NATO has 10,000 peacekeepers, most of them in Kabul, the north and west. The alliance is due to expand its role but it is not yet clear if NATO forces will take on more counter-insurgency responsibilities.

SECURITY, ECONOMIC HELP
Neumann said his country was committed to helping Afghanistan militarily and economically.

The United States has rebuilt the road from the capital, Kabul, to Gardez and will extend it to the town of Khost near the Pakistani border, Neumann said.

"But what I cannot tell you today is how fast I will have the money to do that," he said.

Like so much of Afghanistan, Gardez, which is dominated by an old fort on a hill, has suffered from decades of conflict and neglect but repairs are being made to the town's infrastructure.

Asked what more the United States might do to help reconstruction, Neumann said: "We will do more. I hope that you also will think what more you can do, as Afghans, for yourselves."

"What things can people build themselves -- we will help with seeds, with fertilizer with roads, with water -- but in the end Afghans will also have to help themselves."

Musharraf Wants Afghan Border Fence
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
UNITED NATIONS — Chafing under criticism that Pakistan is not doing enough to counter terrorism, President Pervez Musharraf offered Monday to construct a security fence to deter incursion of militants and drug merchants from Afghanistan.

Musharraf made the offer at a meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that was expanded to 75 minutes from the 30 minutes originally planned. It sets the stage for President Bush's meeting with the Pakistani leader on Tuesday.

"We don't ever want anybody to say Pakistan is not doing enough," Foreign Minister Khurshid M. Kasuri said. The minister said he was "fed up" over such allegations.

Declining to say whether Rice expressed support for the idea, Kasuri said "she heard us out" and was "very appreciative" of Pakistan's desire to help stop infiltration from both sides of the border with Afghanistan.

Later, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, "We think it is important that Pakistan and Afghanistan take up this idea."

"We would be pleased at some point to be part of the discussion if they think it is a good idea," McCormack said on behalf of Rice, who flew back to Washington to attend Bush's meeting Tuesday at the White House with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

Usama bin Laden, head of the Al Qaeda terror network who has eluded U.S. and other efforts to capture him, is believed to be hiding in the border area.

Kasuri said the fence would be designed to deter infiltration in both directions, but as envisioned by the Pakistan government there would be arrangements for controlled crossings.

"Pakistan has nothing to hide," he said. "And we are fed up with people who say Pakistan has to do more to counter terrorism."

On Friday, Musharraf told The Associated Press that his government has proposed building a barbed-wire fence along the border to help keep Islamic insurgents from crossing the area freely. The border itself is vast, running for more than 1,500 miles.

Kasuri did not specify the form a fence would take, such as barbed wire or solid material. The route the barrier would take has not been decided, he said. Kasuri said the aim would be to screen out warlords and narcotics trade as well as terrorists.

"We have a very strong interest in peace and stability in Asia," he said.

Rice made no statement after the meeting and there was no official U.S. reaction.

The assembly of more than 170 world leaders to mark the United Nations' 60th birthday gives Rice a unique opportunity to advance U.S. foreign policy goals on several difficult fronts.

Rice's lobbying, and Bush's appearance before the world body Wednesday, come at a moment when the United States is looking unusually vulnerable to foreign eyes following Hurricane Katrina's devastation and international opposition to the war it is fighting against insurgents in Iraq.

Rice's drive to pressure Iran to resume negotiations on its nuclear program is a key test. Any U.S. resolution in the U.N. Security Council to censure Iran or to impose sanctions runs the risk of being vetoed.

Pakistan appealed, meanwhile, for a peaceful resolution of the dispute. Kasuri said at his news conference Pakistan was a friend and neighbor of Iran.

Rice is appealing openly to China and Russia, which have veto power, to join in sending a "unified message" to Tehran.

Russia remains dubious about having the council take up the issue. On Friday, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Yakovenko called it a hasty step.

Rice is also trying to advance two Mideast goals: to pressure Syria to keep hands off Lebanon and to spur Israel and the Palestinians toward creation of a Palestinian state.

She plans to meet with Arab and European leaders on Syria as a U.N. inquiry explores whether Syria played a role in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafil Hariri (search) last February in Beirut. Syrian President Bashar Assad has canceled plans to attend U.N. sessions.

The goal of a Palestinian state already has the support of most U.N. members. Rice will meet with U.N., European and Russian officials who joined the United States in devising a blueprint or roadmap for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

On another front, U.N. reform, U.S. Ambassador John R. Bolton and Rice are seeking management changes and new approaches on terrorism and human rights. The outlook is uncertain.

McCormack said Monday there was no consensus on management reform, human rights and terrorism.

And yet, Rice told The New York Times, "I have never had a better relationship with anyone than (Secretary-General) Kofi Annan."

Last week, a U.N. inquiry committee reported that deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, while in power, had received $1.7 billion in kickbacks from a $64 billion U.N. program to feed Iraq's people and $11 billion from oil sales outside U.N. controls.

Rice met Monday with American Jewish leaders, Tanzanian Foreign Minister Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete and officials of 10 South Asian countries.

McCormack said Rice told Foreign Minister U Nyan Win of Burma, who attended the Asia meeting, that "it is important that Burma undertake both human rights and political reform. Burma is out of step."

She also participated in a ceremony marking the signing of a pact with Georgia that extends $293.5 million in U.S. development aid over the next five years to the former Soviet republic.

Rice said the money would be used to build roads, to rehabilitate a gas pipeline and to help launch small businesses.

Don't hobble NATO, US tells allies
Tue Sep 13, 4:30 AM ET
LONDON (AFP) - US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will urge allies not to hobble the use of NATO troops in places like Afghanistan and Kosovo by putting restrictions on them, senior US defense officials said.

Rumsfeld, who made a brief stop in London on his way to Berlin, planned to raise the concern at an informal meeting of NATO defense ministers in the German capital Tuesday and Wednesday.

The US defense chief also was expected to press several other related issues at the meeting, including funding and troop contributions for a new NATO Response Force designed for crisis intervention outside Europe.

"What we are trying to do at Berlin is to remind people that ... for ongoing operations to be effective, commanders have to have flexibility to use the forces necessary to meet the challenges that they meet," a senior defense official said.

A NATO-led force ran into trouble last year in Kosovo when some peacekeepers failed to respond to a serious outbreak of rioting because of restrictive rules of engagement set by their national governments.

With NATO expanding its peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan next year, the issue of what restrictions might be placed on their use has taken on greater prominence.

NATO forces are slated to move into the volatile southern and southeastern regions of Afghanistan by mid 2006, where the risk of attack from Taliban insurgents is high.

The United States has active counter-insurgency operations in the region. But the future relationship between the US force and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is still being worked out, officials said.

The senior defense official, who spoke to reporters on Rumsfeld's flight from Washington, said that US officials ideally would like NATO allies to abandon the practice of placing "national caveats," or restrictions on the use of their forces in NATO missions.

"I don't think we're going to get there right now," the official acknowledged, speaking on condition of anonymity.

But he said, "If we could get rid of as many as we can, and the most troublesome ones, that would be good progress."

He cited restrictions on the use of riot control agents and on the movement of forces from geographical area to another as the kinds of caveats the United States would like to see dropped.

On other issues, Rumsfeld is likely to push for funding NATO operations through a common fund to which all members would contribute, rather than have each country contributing forces to a NATO mission pay its own way.

The official said many new NATO members have been particularly willing to provide troops for NATO missions, but have difficulty paying for them.

"So there is a perverse disincentive whereby countries who might be politically willing to step up to the plate, and shoulder the responsibility, may have a problem in paying for it," he said.

"The countries who are willing to provide manpower and other capabilities should not be penalized," he said.

He said Rumsfeld would be calling on allies to provide troops for the next rotation of the NATO Response Force.

Rumsfeld is scheduled to hold bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the Berlin conference with his counterparts from Germany, Britain and Canada.

He also planned to meet with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov on Wednesday, when Russia and Ukraine join in the meeting.

On Ukraine, Rumsfeld was expected to stress the importance of helping Ukraine "move in the right direction." The government there is in the throes of a political upheaval over a corruption scandal.

US urges NATO allies to drop Afghan mission limits
By Will Dunham Tue Sep 13, 3:53 AM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will step up pressure on NATO allies on Tuesday to drop restrictions on what their troops can do in Afghanistan and other alliance missions, U.S. officials said.

Rumsfeld, on a brief stop in London before heading later in the day to an informal meeting of NATO defense ministers in Berlin, planned a renewed appeal to allies to drop so-called national caveats on what their troops can and cannot do, according to officials traveling with him.

"A commander on the ground has got to know that when he has a security problem or a stability issue to take care of, he needs to be able to use the forces under his or her command to actually go out there and carry out the mission," said a senior U.S. defense official, who asked not to be named.

The official said the United States also will emphasize at the NATO ministerial meeting the importance of creating common reserves of funds that can be used to finance operations to relieve the financial burden on countries playing direct roles in missions.

Rumsfeld will thank NATO allies for aid to help in Louisiana and Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina, the official said. Another message Rumsfeld will bring to Berlin is the importance of the 26-nation alliance maintaining a "productive relationship" with Ukraine, the official added.

Some nations participating in NATO's 10,000-strong International Security and Assistance Force, or ISAF, in Afghanistan have established different mandates for their troops, particularly concerning rules of engagement. Some nations, for example, provide only logistical support staff rather than combat troops.

The official did not single out any specific country for criticism.

"I'd like to say we'd get rid of all of them (national caveats)," the official told reporters aboard Rumsfeld's plane. "If we can get rid of as many as we can and the most troublesome ones, that would be good progress."

The official cited examples of restrictions on some nations' activities in Afghanistan, such as not being able to pursue enemy forces once they flee a particular province, or being restricted in riot-control activities.

The official said the United States was not putting on the back-burner its quest to have NATO eventually take command of the entire Afghan mission, but declined to discuss a possible timetable for such a move.

A U.S.-led coalition of roughly 20,000 troops bears the brunt of the fight with Taliban-led insurgents in Afghanistan while ISAF concentrates on peacekeeping.

Germany and France, two of ISAF's top contributors, have resisted the notion of merging the two forces under the NATO banner.

"Before you get to the long term, you've got to get through the short-term. And I don't know if there's a date that we'd put out as a target there," the official said of placing the entire Afghanistan mission under NATO control.

Huge field stumps for Afghan votes
By Kim Barker Tribune foreign correspondent
Habibullah Allahyar never fought in his country's wars. He is not famous. He did not run for president. He has worked in government jobs outside Afghanistan, but inside his country, he's little-known.

Yet Allahyar, in his early 40s, has bet everything that he can win a seat in parliamentary elections set for Sunday, a major step in setting up an Afghan democracy. He quit his job with the government to run. He said he has spent at least $10,000 so far--his savings and money from friends.

"I owe a lot of money to people," Allahyar said. "If I knew a campaign cost this much, I wouldn't have run. Believe me."

And all this money will likely mean nothing. To win a lower-house seat, Allahyar must convince thousands of voters in Kabul province that he is better than any of the other 389 candidates. He must sell himself as the best choice, the only choice.

His campaign shows how difficult it is for candidates to win voters in Afghanistan's single-vote system, used in only a few places in the world. Here, candidates run as independents, regardless of any party membership. Advocates say the system reduces the power of political parties, which many Afghans link to past wars. Detractors say it wastes votes and could lead to a fragmented parliament, not representative of the whole population and unable to agree on anything.

"I never saw anything more ludicrous," said Kit Spence, in charge of political party development here for the Washington-based National Democratic Institute, which is training candidates in Afghanistan.

390 on Kabul province ballot

Nowhere is the system more cumbersome than in Kabul province. Voters here will have to pick one person out of an intimidating seven-page ballot, with 390 names, numbers and pictures smaller than postage stamps. Each candidate also has a symbol, randomly drawn out of a box, to help illiterate voters find a particular person.

So many candidates are running that the symbols approach comedy: A pair of scissors, two sets of barbells, mushrooms, two ice-cream cones, three corncobs, two tomatoes, stairs, a turkey, two turkeys, one eye, a pair of eyes, a tire, two tires, three tires.

Candidates drive around the city, blasting music and slogans over bullhorns. Posters cover all available wall space and trees. Text messages on cell phones joke about all the candidates and warn people not to sleep in parks because they will wake up with posters on their faces.

In this crowded environment, it's tough for candidates such as Allahyar to distinguish themselves, especially because most never have run for office before. Many promise the same lofty intangibles: unity, peace, stability, security. Many have similar posters, featuring a non-smiling candidate looking noble in front of an Afghan flag or maybe a park. Many candidates campaign simply are using their symbols and numbers.

Some are not serious contenders. The candidate with a fork and spoon has advertised the wrong mobile phone number on his poster. Two Belt Buckles has no campaign headquarters. Two Rings inexplicably has been superimposed on the Chicago skyline.

Unknown candidates such as these men face a tough battle. Because nine of the 33 seats in Kabul province are reserved for women, the men will fight for the 24 remaining seats. Fifty female candidates are running in the province. And 27 male candidates are either well-known or moderately known, including former presidential candidates, one-time militia commanders and government ministers.

Allahyar is not one of them. He spent much of the 23 years of war outside Afghanistan, either in Iran, Turkey or Pakistan. He figures that could help him: If he was not here, he is not responsible for any wartime atrocities.

He campaigns harder than many. A van, equipped with bullhorns and Allahyar posters plastered over the sides and back, cruises through city markets, playing national songs. In his campaign headquarters, Allahyar rallies workers and sits with influential tribal leaders. He feeds people at campaign events. He talks about giving women free head scarves. He kisses babies.

No. 29 is how many camels?

His workers knock on doors and hand people cards telling voters that Allahyar is No. 29 on the ballot, and that his symbol is a camel. The workers say simply: "This is No. 29. Only one camel. Do not forget it."

Unfortunately, his place on the ballot is next to the candidate with three camels.

"There's a possibility some of three camels' people will vote for me," Allahyar told female campaign workers. "There's a possibility some of my people will vote for three camels. Do you know this? Are you telling people about this?"

The women nodded their heads, but Allahyar still wanted to send them out with copies of the sample ballot, to show female voters which box to mark. Many people in Afghanistan are illiterate; they are not even familiar with turning pages.

Allahyar, who quit as the head of the Foreign Affairs Ministry's cultural department to run, figures he must persuade at least 20,000 voters to support him, one by one. He doesn't really have a platform. Promising security and stability is not realistic, he said. So his main promise is to do what he can.

"The main purpose we have is to get people to recognize us," he said. "No one reads what our targets and goals are. No one pays attention to the newspaper, to the magazines. People vote for people who they know."

In early September he held a recitation of the Holy Koran at the Keep the Devil Away shrine in Kabul. He recited and prayed with elders. The van with Allahyar's pictures played Sufi music in the nearby street.

Ultimately, he fed only about 100 people, and half were children. He waited nervously for more potential voters. Guests tried to comfort him about the turnout and told him he would win. He did not seem sure.

"Mr. Allahyar, today there are three weddings and one funeral, and that's the reason there aren't many people at your recitation ceremony," supporter Sayedkhanaqa Mahbobyar told him. "That's your luck."

UNHCR to suspend voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees
People's Daily - Sep 12 7:42 PM
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, will temporarily suspend voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan from Sept. 14 to 20 due to the upcoming parliamentary elections in Afghanistan, said a press release issued by the agency.

However, UNHCR teams will continue to register Afghans willing to voluntarily repatriate during this break.

All Afghans who are registered during this period can voluntarily repatriate to Afghanistan when the UNHCR facilitated repatriation program resumes on Sept. 21, said the press release.

There are over 3 million Afghan refugees currently living in Pakistan although UNHCR has repatriated 2.5 million Afghan refugees in the past two years.
Source: Xinhua

Taliban envoy freed in Cuba: Afghan TV
Sydney Morning Herald - Sep 12 1:23 PM
The former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan has been released from a US military prison in Cuba under an Afghan government reconciliation program, Afghan state television said.

Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef became the Taliban's spokesman after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the US and held regular news conferences at his Islamabad embassy at which he tried to convince the world the Taliban's guest, Osama bin Laden, was not responsible.

"The Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, who had been in Guantanamo prison for some time, has been released with the help of the reconciliation program," state run Kabul National Television said.

News of his release came six days before parliamentary and provincial council elections that have been denounced by the Taliban insurgents, who are still fighting US troops in the south and eastern part of the country.

Zaeef had met the head of the reconciliation program, former president Sibghatullah Mojadidi, the television said. It gave no details and Mojadidi was not immediately available for comment.

AdvertisementUS-led forces overthrew the Taliban in late 2001 for refusing to hand over bin Laden. Zaeef was arrested in Pakistan in early 2002 and handed over to US authorities.

The government's efforts to persuade Taliban fighters to give up and return to society has lured only a trickle of defectors but four prominent former Taliban members are running in the election.

Among them is Zaeef's old boss, former foreign minister Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil who surrendered to US troops after the Taliban's ouster and was detained for about two years.

Afghan-Americans Praise Karzai for Contribution to Katrina Victims
News Report, Mizgon Zahir, Afghan Journal, Sep 12, 2005 Pacific News Service
FREMONT, CA – Strength in the wake of atrocity is certainly hard to imagine, but the proof of endurance lies in the recent symbolic effort of the Afghan government.

Days after the roar of Hurricane Katrina, President Hamid Karzai's administration pledged $100,000 to its victims. According to Pajhwok Afghan News, Mohammad Karim Rahimi, President Karzai's spokesman said "the gesture of the Afghan government was aimed at showing solidarity with those affected by the hurricane."

Feelings of solidarity and empathy were also felt throughout the Afghan community in Diaspora as preparation for food and clothing drives began at the Afghan Coalition community center in Fremont.

The hurricane was a potent reminder of the struggle for life and survival experienced by many Afghan-Americans. "We sympathize with the victims of hurricane Katrina," said Rona Popal, Executive Director of the Afghan Coalition. "We understand what it feels like to have to escape your home at the last minute and bring nothing with you but the clothes on your back. There are no pictures, no birth certificates, nothing but memories to carry. But we can assure those affected by Katrina that they will survive and become stronger. We did," she said.

Although Afghanistan is still impoverished, their government’s donation is brimming with the cultural understanding that the people of Afghanistan are the most hospitable in the world. "We take pride in being known as the people who would first feed our guests and then worry about our own health. Our hospitality doesn't end in our own home. It extends to the rest of the world," said Seema Farhad, a social worker in Fremont.

"Monetary things come and go, good deeds will always remain on the minds of people. There is an old Afghan saying, the hand that gives the rose will forever be embraced by its scent," said Dr. Suraya Nasseri.

The Afghan government's donation is a gentle statement to the rest of the world that providing help in times of need is a necessity not an option. "This is a nice way of removing the stigma of terrorist from Afghans and Muslims," said Habib Zelgai, Director of Lemar-TV. "We all experience hardship in our lives, it is wise to stand together and empathize. Yesterday it was the Afghans who needed assistance, today Americans. Disaster does not have a race, besides, this donation is a great political act to strengthen ties with the West," he said.

According to Pehjwok news, each year half of Afghanistan's foreign aid comes from the United States. A total of $4.5 billion has been pledged to the country.