INTERNATIONAL – Page 20 – OVERSEAS TRIBUNE

Taliban suicide bomber attacks NATO convoy in south Afghanistan

August 2, 2017August 2, 2017 News Desk

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN: Convoy of foreign forces in the Daman area of Kandahar,” provincial police spokesman Zia Durrani told AFP. NATO confirmed in a statement that a convoy was attacked and did “cause casualties” but did not immediately give further details. At least one witness reported seeing three bodies pulled from one of vehicles. Mohammad Azim, a shopkeeper, told AFP: “I saw a foreign forces vehicle on fire after the attack. A while later helicopters landed in the area, they took three bodies out of the vehicle and flew away. There were three armoured vehicles…

India should return to negotiating table without preconditions: Basit

August 2, 2017 News Desk

The outgoing High Commissioner for Pakistan in India Abdul Basit on Monday regretted the two neighbours could not start the comprehensive bilateral dialogue as agreed in December 2015 and urged India to return to the negotiating table without further ado and any preconditions. The envoy, in an Op-Ed page article published in the Times of India, reiterated that Pakistan and India cannot live in ‘perpetual hostility’. Basit said former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s decision to attend Narendra Modi’s inauguration showed Pakistan’s intent to initiate a new beginning with New Delhi. Also…

One-way street: CPEC more about expanding China’s growth than benefit for Pakistan

August 2, 2017August 2, 2017 News Desk

The China-Pakistan Friendship Highway runs over 1,300 kilometres from the far western Chinese city of Kashgar through the world’s highest mountain pass and across the border. For China, the two-lane thoroughfare symbolises a blossoming partnership, nourished with tens of billions of dollars of infrastructure investment. But for many Pakistani businessmen living and working on the Chinese side of the border, the road is a one-way street. “China says our friendship is as high as the Himalayas and as deep as the sea, but it has no heart,” said businessman Murad…

Blast at Shia mosque leaves 15 dead in western Afghan city

August 1, 2017August 1, 2017 News Desk

HERAT: An explosion in a Shia mosque in the western Afghan city of Herat on Tuesday killed at least 15 people and wounded many others, a police spokesman said. Abdulhai Walizada, a local police spokesman, said there appeared to be more than one attacker, with a suicide bomber who detonated explosives and another who threw grenades at worshippers. Source: Express Tribune

US exploring withdrawal option for Afghanistan

August 1, 2017 News Desk

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration, which until recently appeared committed to sending more troops to Afghanistan, is now said to be considering another extreme option: withdrawal. On Monday, even the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing Washington think tank which has provided several experts to the team reviewing the administration’s Afghan policy, commented on media reports that the United States was turning away from Afghanistan. “Keeping the US flag flying in an increasingly important and geopolitically challenging part of the world is in America’s interest. Now is not a time to turn our…

90,000 Iranians to perform Haj as Tehran ends boycott

August 1, 2017 News Desk

BEIRUT: Nearly 90,000 Iranians are expected to perform the Haj in Makkah this year after Tehran boycotted the pilgrimage last year amid tensions with Saudi Arabia. Around 800 pilgrims were due to leave Iran on three flights to nearby Medina, the director of the Haj at Iran’s Haj and Pilgrimage Organisation, Nasrollah Farahmand told state media. Approximately 86,500 Iranians are expected to attend the Haj in total this year and 800 coordinators have travelled to Saudi Arabia to help Iranians during the pilgrimage, he said. Iran boycotted the Haj last…

Interesting Development in ME: Al-Sadr meets Bin Salman

July 31, 2017July 31, 2017 News Desk

JEDDAH: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met on Sunday with Iraq’s influential Shiite leader Moqtada Al-Sadr, who is on a rare visit to the Kingdom. Crown Prince Mohammed received Al-Sadr at his office in Jeddah and the two “reviewed Saudi-Iraqi relations and a number of issues of mutual interest,” said the Saudi Press Agency (SPA). Al-Sadr was met at the King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah by Thamer Al-Sabhan, the kingdom’s former ambassador to Iraq and its first to be assigned to Baghdad after a 25-year break. Al-Sabhan was…