Asif Durrani

Last Wednesday, President Trump’s Tweeter message sprang a surprise for everyone when he said that all U.S. forces?in Afghanistan should return home before the end of the year. American defense establishment displayed its annoyance by refusing to comment on president’s announcement and tersely asked the newsmen to refer such queries to the White House. Gen. […]

Should there be a glimmer of hope with Afghan leader Abdullah-Abdullah’s visit to Islamabad which he undertook last week after 12 years? As a Chairman of High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR) he holds the most unenviable job of conducting peace talks from the government side with an interlocutor which has the upper hand and, […]

UAE’s decision to recognize Israel although surprising was on expected lines as it had developed relationship with Israel for the past many years. Israeli presence in Abu Dhabi was allowed when Abu Dhabi became the headquarter of International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in 2010. UAE’s announcement, which the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu called as “Abraham […]

After much wrangling, President Ashraf Ghani’s announcement on 9th August that the Loy Jirga (Grand Assembly) has approved the release of remaining 400 Taliban prisoners has finally paved the way for initiation of intra-Afghan dialogue which remained stalled for over five months. President Ghani’s announcement could be a precursor towards a possible solution despite confronting […]

Colonialism may have ended but its remnants are still there. Colonial mindset has somehow influenced those states which are big and consider themselves as inheritors of the colonial legacy. India seems to one of those states whose independence although owed it to a heroic struggle by the Muslim and Hindu leadership got entangled into the […]

One wonders how India would be celebrating the first anniversary of its re-occupation of Jammu and Kashmir—a state it had forcibly grabbed from the Kashmiri people seven decades ago through deceit. On 5th August last year, India revoked Article 370 and 35-A of the Indian constitution, which allowed special status to the Jammu and Kashmir […]

Being a neighbour of India is certainly a challenge not an opportunity. Unfortunately, none of India’s neighbours are happy; invariably they face problems along their borders in which, as it turns out, India has either grabbed their territory or stakes claims on their territory. From the very beginning India started behaving as a colonial power […]

The India-China standoff continues amidst reports that India has banned 59 Chinese Apps as a retaliation to the Chinese action at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Galwan Valley of Ladakh region, a tri-junction where China, India and Pakistan face each other with a history of bloody wars—Pakistan-India wars of 1948, 1965, 1971, 1999, […]

India-China military standoff must ring the alarm bells for the strategic thinkers in both the countries and Pakistan that lingering disputes are bound to bounce back unless serious efforts are made to address them and leave no room for miscalculation which may prove costly. Right now, its fisticuffs or baton charges against each other in […]

The power sharing agreement signed on 17th May between President Ashraf Ghani and former Chief Executive Abdullah-Abdullah should be taken as a good omen and a step in the right direction aimed at achieving peace and stability in Afghanistan. Taliban have reportedly criticized the deal as a repeat of past exercise when in 2014 elections […]