Nick Paton Walsh, Masoud Popalzai.

CNN — 

Afghans who were promised a home in the United States after their country fell to the Taliban say they have waited so long for the US to process their applications that they are now being sent back to the enemy they fled.

A number of Afghans who worked with the US and were told they were eligible for resettlement there have been forcibly deported back to Afghanistan from Pakistan, where they fled to await processing following the Taliban takeover in 2021, CNN can reveal.

One man waiting for a US visa described being dropped at the Afghan border by Pakistani police this summer. “They did not hand us over to the (Taliban) Afghan border forces,” he said. “They just released us on the border and told us to go back to Afghanistan. It was me, my four kids and my wife deported together.” He is now living in hiding in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Another deported Afghan, also speaking from hiding in Kabul, said: “So this is very, very dangerous, and it is very tough… How many people have been killed, had been tortured, have been disappeared?” The man, a former employee of a US contractor, said the Taliban “will punish me, they will put me in jail. Maybe they will kill me? I’m sure they will.” He added: “Still, we believe that the USA will help us. We believe we didn’t lose our hope still.”

Both individuals spoke to CNN anonymously for their safety, and provided documentation showing a US visa case number being processed, and evidence of their presence in Pakistan.

Many Afghans fled the Taliban after the August 15, 2021 fall of Kabul to the hard-line group. More than 124,000 Afghans were airlifted out of the country in a huge US-led operation.

Yet, thousands also fled across the border to Pakistan, often with incomplete paperwork, following US guidance that they should wait in a third country for their visa applications to the US to be processed.

Nearly 90,000 Afghans have since been resettled in the US, according to State Department figures, but many others have been caught in the backlog of so-called Afghan Priority 2 (P-2) or Special Immigrant Visas (SIV) applications waiting to be processed.

Human rights groups say the most acute situation is faced by those in Pakistan, from where hundreds of Afghans have been deported in a crackdown against migrants following recent political instability.

At least two Afghans awaiting P-2 visas have been swept up in this crackdown, CNN has learned, and complain of Pakistani police persecution. Several others still residing in Pakistan told CNN about what they said was harassment by Pakistani police and the threat of deportation if they did not pay fines or bribes.

Pakistan’s Foreign and Interior Ministries have not responded to CNN’s request for comment on the claims.

At least 530 Afghans have been deported from Pakistan so far this year, according to Haseeb Aafaq, a spokesman for volunteer group the Afghanistan Immigrants Refugees Council. Aafaq said the figure came from his studies of local records but added it might be a low estimate as many Afghans were deported without documentation.

Aafaq added that the Pakistani authorities made no exceptions for pending US visa cases. “There is no differentiation. The authorities here do not even think about where you are from. If you are Afghan, you must be deported if your visa is not valid, whether you are SIV or P-2 or sponsorship cases.” He said many of those deported are P-2 cases, but he could not provide a precise number as many Afghans keep their P-2 status confidential out of fear for their safety.

Two young Afghan men have taken their own lives in Islamabad since June, both awaiting US P-2 visas, according to activists. Aafaq said one of them, aged 25, who died last week, had suffered “mental pressure and economic pressure and an unclear future.”

Aafaq said the US failure to open a Resettlement Support Center (RSC) in Pakistan meant the processing of cases there had partially stalled. “The RSC has not been activated yet, while in other countries, like Turkey or Tajikistan, people have gone to the US,” he said.

Afghans waiting in Pakistan have reported harassment by Pakistani police, including arrest and demands for money. One, who worked with the US military and asked not to be named for his safety, told CNN: “They were asking for a visa. There were a lot of policemen, they came into the house without clear information. And they took me out of (my) home and they just put (me) in the van. My kids, they were very much harassed. They were crying, they were asking for help.”

He also described how he once saved his American colleagues during a protest, and had commendation letters denoting his service. “I’m disappointed because (of) the way that I served the Americans in Afghanistan. I was expecting them to welcome me there sooner. It seems like I have no future at all.”

The US State Department told CNN in a statement that the Biden administration “continues to demonstrate its commitment to the brave Afghans” who worked with the US. It added that its “processing capacity in Pakistan remains limited, but (staff) are actively working to expand it.” The statement urged “Afghanistan’s neighbors” to “keep their borders open” and “uphold their obligations” when it comes to asylum seekers. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment.

Another Afghan, whom CNN is not naming for his safety, served the US in Afghanistan and is now in Pakistan with his wife and children. He described their wait for US help as a “bad dream.” His wife sobbed: “Going back to Afghanistan is a big risk and here we are dying, every moment. Staying in Pakistan is a gradual death.”

Dr Ramzy Baroud

In a recent speech, China’s highest-ranking diplomat Wang Yi spoke of a “united Asia” and its need to develop a “strategic autonomy”.

In principle, Wang was not wrong; after all, a stable and prosperous Asia would benefit the region’s peoples and deny Western meddlers the chance to exploit historical fault lines and sow the seeds of political division.

Wang’s language, although from the outside may seem simple and straightforward, is quite loaded with meaning. “No matter how blonde you dye your hair, how sharp you shape your nose, you can never become a European or American, you can never become a Westerner,” Wang said, as cited by Chinese state media.

In fact, common culture, beliefs and origins have historically served as starting points for regional cohesion, unity and collective identity.

Wang and China’s challenge is being able to promote regionalism at the expense of national identities.

Writing for Russia Today, political analyst Timur Fomenko articulates the challenge: “In the eyes of US allies… an Asia without America is an Asia dominated by China.”

This is a real concern that cannot be glossed over simply because the world is rapidly shifting from one historical stage of power distribution to another. In fact, it is precisely because of this shift that China’s old and new Asian rivals would find Pan-Asianism somewhat worrying.

That said, Asia has no other option but to locate its collective common ground around equitable conditions since the alternative will always be a Western neo-colonial drive for domination.

This is a question that cannot be addressed only by politicians. It is a social and intellectual conversation of the first order and must engage all sections of societies in China, Japan, the two Koreas and beyond.

This supra-national conversation must be had if the transition to a new world is to run smoothly.

The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war is a testament to how chaotic historical transitions can fuel future conflicts. It is almost certain that, even when the current war ends, fresh disputes in Eastern Europe will emerge.

But China and Asia have much better chances of resolving historical dichotomies by finding commonalities. This claim is supported by the fact that, while Europe is dwindling in terms of economic might and political influence, Asia is growing.

Indeed, historically, prosperity has played a major role in the formation of regional and, more recently, national identities.

For example, while political expediency convinced many of the supposedly inherent conflicts between Arabs, Muslims and the Middle East, on the one hand, and the “West” on the other, such notion is misleading and historically inaccurate.

It might be shocking for some to learn that several great Roman emperors were Arabs or, at least, from the modern-day Middle East.

But this historical fact should not be shocking at all.

From the Libyan Septimius Severus (193-211 AD) to Philip the Arab (244-249 AD), to others, the existence of these emperors was not exactly inconsistent with the historical trajectory of that period.

They were direct expressions of the oscillation of the centres of wealth and military power during certain periods of the Roman Empire.

It may seem a bit of a surprise to us now because, since the collapse of the Roman Empire at the end of the fifth century, the geopolitics of the world has shifted, necessitating a modification in collective national and regional identities.

Most of the maps delineating the rise and fall of the Roman Empire were, up to a certain point, almost entirely Mediterranean-based, uniting today’s Middle East and North Africa with much of southern Europe.

Ultimately, the centre of the Roman powers, especially towards the end of the fourth century, moved elsewhere to include swathes of today’s Western Europe. And, in doing so, the Roman Empire began acquiring its stereotypical look and feel, that of being a Eurocentric experience.

But, for hundreds of years, most civilisations in the Mediterranean region and Asia Minor, at one point or another, were unified as a single political, social and economic whole. They borrowed each other’s systems of beliefs, social mores, cultural habits, superstitions and a sense of belonging.

To this day, one still detects this connected past in historically rooted communities in Spain, Italy, Greece, southern France and the whole of the Middle East and North Africa.

This has changed due to the constant shifts in power centres over the years.

Strange how our sense of collective identities conveniently shifts around politics over time. Geopolitically, southern Europe now feels like an entirely different space than the Middle East.

Even the term “Middle East” was itself a convenient and recent occurrence. It belongs to the British who, at the zenith of their power sometime in the 19th century, sliced up the world in ways that would ensure a once isolated, faraway northern island became the centre of the world.

In the past, however, there was no such thing as the Middle East, Near East and Far East. Considering Britain’s relatively limited influence today, these terms should be reassessed.

In modern times, as in the past, common identities are ordered around common interests and new power paradigms.

The fact that Wang is stressing the urgency of a common Asian identity is itself a sign of a changing world.

And this changing world is offering new opportunities, not only for new alliances but new collective identities as well.

(Source: MEMO)

Sarah Zaman

A senior White House national security official has said the United States does not want to coerce Pakistan into choosing between Washington and Beijing.

Eileen Laubacher, senior director for South Asia on the U.S. National Security Council, told VOA that Washington wants its partners to be able to choose their relationships freely. The council advises the U.S. president on national security and foreign policy.

“It’s important to reiterate that the United States wants our partners to be able to make their own choices, free of external coercion,” Laubacher said in written comments following her maiden visit to Pakistan this month.

During the July 19-21 visit, Laubacher met with senior Pakistani government and military officials.

“Every country needs productive, supportive, equitable relationships with a variety of partners, and Pakistan is no different,” she said.

The growing rivalry between Washington and Beijing has created a challenge for Islamabad as the United States deepens defense and security ties with Pakistan’s archival India in a bid to counter China’s growing influence.

“Our bilateral relationships with both Pakistan and India do not come at the expense of the other,” the White House official said, repeating a stance frequently expressed by the State Department.

As Islamabad watches India-U.S. ties grow, it hopes to repair its own tenuous relations with Washington, damaged by the 20-year U.S.-led war in Afghanistan that saw the return of the Taliban to power in Kabul.

While Pakistan denies the accusation that it covertly supported the then-insurgent group despite being a U.S. ally in the war, both Washington and Islamabad share concerns over Afghanistan again becoming a terrorist haven under the Taliban.

Laubacher’s visit came amid a flurry of recent high-profile contacts between the two sides, including a telephone call between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, and a meeting between the U.S. CENTCOM chief Gen. Michael E. Kurilla and Pakistani army chief Gen. Asim Munir in Islamabad.

Responding to whether the U.S. is helping Pakistan target anti-Pakistan terrorists inside Afghanistan, Laubacher said, “We have a close working relationship with Pakistan on security matters.”

Pakistan faces almost daily attacks from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, an ideological offshoot of the Afghan Taliban that Islamabad alleges is operating from Afghanistan. The Afghan Taliban deny harboring the TTP.

The U.S. national security official said Washington was providing millions of dollars in life-saving equipment for Pakistani law-enforcement officers upon Pakistan’s request.

This month the U.S. ambassador in Pakistan inaugurated a $17.2 million police training center in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that borders Afghanistan and is most affected by terror attacks.

The White House, however, has yet to resume military aid to Pakistan, which then-President Trump froze in 2018 after accusing Pakistan of being untrustworthy in a tweet.

Laubacher did not say if the Biden White House is looking to resume that assistance soon.

“We continue to consider defense transfers and security assistance to Pakistan—as we do with all recipients—on a case-by-case basis, where it serves the interests of both countries.”

Last September, the White House approved a $450 million deal to provide repair and maintenance services for Pakistan’s F-16 fighter jet fleet.

Pakistan has been plagued with political instability since Imran Khan was ousted as prime minister in April of last year. Although Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has pledged to pave the way for general elections, uncertainty looms about when and if polls will happen this year.

Responding to a question on how the White House can ensure Pakistan holds timely elections, Laubacher said the U.S. supports free, fair, and credible elections around the world.

“We encourage the government of Pakistan to adhere to Pakistan’s constitution and laws, including with regard to holding general elections,” she said.

(Source: VOA News)

Brad Lendon, CNN

China and Russia are both sending high level delegations to North Korea this week in a rare flurry of diplomatic activity for the secluded nation as it prepares to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War.

North Korea sealed its borders during the coronavirus pandemic, deepening the isolation of a country that is already one of the most cut off places in the world – now its closest allies are set to visit for a moment of historic import.

Chinese Communist Party official Li Hongzhong, who is part of the party’s central policymaking committee and holds a leadership position in the top body of its rubber stamp Parliament, will lead a delegation to Pyongyang this week, according to a statement from Hu Zhaoming, spokesperson of the International Liaison Department of the Central Committee.

The visit is believed to be the highest-level delegation from China since the coronavirus pandemic.

Li will attend ceremonies marking the 70th anniversary of the armistice agreement that ended the Korean War and his visit comes after an invitation from North Korea, the statement said.

“The visit will be significant for what it says about Beijing’s support of North Korea as well as Pyongyang’s willingness to relax pandemic-era border restrictions,” said Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.

A Russian delegation led by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu will also visit North Korea from July 25-27 for the 70th anniversary, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

“This visit will help strengthen Russian-North Korean military ties and will be an important stage in the development of cooperation between the two countries,” the Defense Ministry said.

North Korean state newspaper KCNA also reported the upcoming “celebratory visit” for the anniversary on July 27, which North Korea calls “Victory Day.”

Both Russia and China are Pyongyang’s longtime allies.

In the fall of 1950, China sent a quarter million troops into the Korean Peninsula, supporting its North Korean ally and pushing back the combined forces of South Korea, the United States and other countries under the United Nations Command.

More than 180,000 Chinese troops died in the Korean War, or what Beijing calls the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.

The Soviet Union also supported North Korea during the war and over the decades Moscow has been a staunch ally for North Korea, especially as the two share a joint animosity towards the West.

But Easley noted that South Korea is garnering a much larger show of international support for its armistice anniversary commemorations, with representatives from 22 countries expected to attend.

US nuclear powered attack submarine Annapolis has made a port call at Jeju Naval base on July 24, 2023, according to South Korean Navyís spokesperson Jang Do-young.South Korean Defence Ministry

New missile tests, sub visit

The Chinese visit, and the ceremonies marking the 70th anniversary of the 1953 armistice that ended fighting on the Korean Peninsula, comes amid simmering tensions between North Korea and South Korea and its US ally.

Pyongyang has frequently tested missiles banned under United Nations Security Council resolutions, and on several occasions the US and South Korea have deployed military assets like nuclear-capable submarines and bombers.

North Korea continued its torrid pace of missile testing late Monday, when it fired two short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) from the Pyongyang area into the waters off the east coast of the peninsula, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

The missiles were launched around 11:55 p.m. local time, flying for about five minutes or 400 kilometers (248 miles) before falling into the water, according to the JCS.

The US Navy attack submarine USS Annapolis makes a port call at Jeju, South Korea, Naval Base on July 24, 2023.South Korean Defence Ministry

Earlier Monday, US Navy attack submarine USS Annapolis made a port call at Jeju Naval Base on the island off South Korea’s southern coast, according to South Korean Navy spokesperson Jang Do-young.

The sub was stopping at the island to replenish military supplies while on an operations mission, Jang said.

The Annapolis’ visit follows the much more provocative arrival of nuclear-capable ballistic missile submarine USS Kentucky at the southern South Korean port of Busan last week.

North Korea said the visit of the “boomer,” an Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine which can carry up to 20 missiles and 80 nuclear warheads, to Busan crossed a “red line” and said such provocations could produce a drastic response by Pyongyang.

“I remind the US military of the fact that the ever-increasing visibility of the deployment of the strategic nuclear submarine and other strategic assets may fall under the conditions of the use of nuclear weapons specified in the DPRK law on the nuclear force policy,” a statement from North Korean Defense Minister Kang Sun Nam posted by state media said.

North Korea silent on US soldier

Relations have been further complicated by the decision of a US soldier to cross the border between North and South Korea last week in the demilitarized zone separating the two nations.

Pvt Travis King, who was facing disciplinary action and was meant to go back to the US the day before he bolted, is believed to be the first US soldier to cross into North Korea since 1982.

On Monday, the deputy commander of the United Nations Command (UNC), Gen. Andrew Harrison, said a “conversation has commenced” with North Korea over King.

Two US officials told CNN that North Korea had acknowledged receiving contact from the UNC, a multinational military force that includes the United States which fought on the side of South Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War.

But Pyongyang does not seem to be responding to Washington directly.

The US State Department has not received a response to its messages on King, State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said on Monday. He also said it was his understanding that the US military had not received a response.

On the UNC side, Miller said it was his understanding “that there have been no new communications since last week, communications that happened in the early days,” but that the North Korean government had acknowledged receipt of the message.

“I’m not aware of any new communications, other than those that happened in the very early hours, early days after he went across the border,” Miller said at a State Department briefing Monday.

King has not been publicly seen or heard from since he crossed into North Korea last Tuesday, and North Korea has also not said anything about the status or condition of the missing soldier.

His reasons for crossing the border into one of the world’s most authoritarian places – and a country which the US does not have diplomatic relations with – have so far remained a mystery.

Easley, the Ewha Womans University professor, said any quick response from Pyongyang on the status of King was unlikely, especially in light of the armistice commemorations.

“North Korea is unlikely to engage on Travis King’s case until his interrogation and quarantine are complete, and after the Kim regime celebrates its so-called Victory Day,” Easley said.