Headlines:
Biden Announces Withdrawal from Afghanistan by 9/11
Iran, Pakistan, Nigeria
US Warns China against Aggressive Moves in Contested South China Sea
India, Pakistan Foreign Ministers in UAE
Uncertainty Surrounds US Pullout from Afghanistan

Biden Announces Withdrawal from Afghanistan by 9/11

This week US President Joe Biden announced that he will not reverse his predecessor’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan but will delay it until 11 September 2021, which marks 20 years after the 9/11 attacks that were the excuse for the invasion of Afghanistan. Officially, the US claims to have only 2,500 troops in Afghanistan and will now begin to withdraw on 1 May, rather than ending the withdrawal by 1 May as committed by President Trump in a peace agreement between his administration and the Afghan Taliban. Following Biden’s announcement, NATO Chief Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels said the alliance was also withdrawing its 7,000 troops from Afghanistan. “It is time to end America’s longest war,” Biden said. However, in reality, America is not withdrawing from Afghanistan but only changing its style of occupation from direct military involvement to indirect military involvement as it practiced in Syria.

America entered both Afghanistan and Iraq in great confidence following the events of 9/11. Only a decade earlier, the Soviet bloc had collapsed leaving the United States as the world’s sole superpower. America sought to seal its superiority by physically entering and occupying Muslim lands, building strong military bases here, as the geostrategic position of Muslim lands confers great advantage on whomever can possess it. America successfully invaded both countries but was overwhelmed in each by the forces of jihad. America’s confidence was deeply shaken, and the US undertook a review of its capabilities and approach resulting in a new style of occupation, as seen in the US involvement in Syria. Here, the Americans were able to control the country without landing substantial numbers of ground troops but by using only air power, intelligence, special operations and the ground forces of others, e.g. Turkey and Iran. It is now this style that America seeks to apply in Afghanistan.

In an article in the New York Times headlined “How the U.S. Plans to Fight From Afar After Troops Exit Afghanistan” Biden is quoted as saying, “We will reorganize our counterterrorism capabilities and the substantial assets in the region to prevent re-emergence of terrorist threat to our homeland.” The article also quotes one long-time security analyst as saying, “We are actively engaged in counterterrorism where every effort is made to minimize the ‘troops’ — the boots on the ground — and replace them with an invisible force that can achieve just as much.” The article further explains that Turkey will continue to have ground forces in Afghanistan, and that America will seek to establish support bases in neighbouring Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Moreover, America will continue to depend on Pakistan to support American objectives in Afghanistan, as it has throughout its long occupation of that country. Biden said in his speech, “And we’ll ask other countries – other countries in the region – to do more to support Afghanistan, especially Pakistan…”

America has rediscovered the hard lessons learnt by European powers in the previous century, that it is not possible to directly occupy Muslim lands. If America continues to have control of our lands, then it is only because of the cooperation of its agents amongst the Muslim rulers, who support American interests, rulers like Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and Imran Khan of Pakistan. But with Allah’s permission, the Muslim Ummah shall soon overthrow these leaders and pledge their obedience instead to a sincere, capable, ideological leadership that shall establish the righteous Islamic Khilafah (Caliphate) State on the method of the Prophet (saw) that shall liberate occupied territories, unify Muslim lands, restore the Islamic way of life and carry the message of Islam to the entire world.

Iran, Pakistan, Nigeria

The Nantaz uranium enrichment site has been the target of yet more sabotage that has damaged thousands of centrifuges in the underground facility through a large explosion that destroyed the independent internal power system that supplied the centrifuges. However, this time, the US says that it is not involved. “The U.S. was not involved in any manner,” the White House spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, said Monday. “We have nothing to add on speculation about the causes or the impacts.” Domestic media within the illegal Jewish entity is attributing the attack to the work of its intelligence agency, Mossad. Iran continues to face humiliating attacks from the Jewish entity, not only on its nuclear programme but also on its shipping, while its responses or counterattacks have been non-existence or very weak, simply because Iran is desirous of maintaining its covert relationship with the United States. The illegal Jewish entity is the feeble spoilt child whose tantrums America encourages so that it might through such behaviour somehow develop strength, though the entity still remains weak. Publicly Iran has always attacked the US. But in private, the Iranian regime has regularly aligned itself with US strategic objectives, thinking that this is the path to strengthen itself. On the contrary, attempting to cooperate with the superpower is a path full of dangers.

The correct path for any state to advance itself is to challenge the interests of the superpower. But the weak leadership of Iran will never allow itself to do so; they reserve their anger for their public speeches only.

The Pakistani government, faced with widespread street protests by the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, has announced to ban the movement. The TLP was calling only for the government to comply with its own previous agreement with the TLP to take steps to expel the French ambassador over the French government’s support for the republishing of sacrilegious material against the Messenger (saw). The Pakistani government prefers to take a strong stance against the TLP instead of against the French government. Our rulers cannot conceive of opposing Western countries even when being humiliated by them.

In an attempt to shore up foreign currency reserves, the Nigerian Central Bank this week announced restrictions on the import of wheat and sugar, insisting on the need for increasing local production of these basic commodities. Nigeria is Africa’s biggest economy and a substantial exporter of oil; but Nigeria’s economic power is under exploitation by the West instead of serving the Nigerian people, just as is the case with most of the rest of the world. This week one Nigerian agency controversially claimed that it was impossible to know how much oil was being exported as the companies extracting offshore oil all belong to foreigners. The executive secretary of the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative said this week, “We don’t have the capacity to go deep shores to know how much we’re producing, as it is currently, it is very difficult for any Nigerian to determine how much we are making. This is one of the issues that NEITI is addressing. Because if you do not know how much you are producing how would you know how much you are expected to earn?” He further said, “The companies that go deep shore and are interested in offshore exploration are not indigenous companies in Nigerian and they cannot protect the country’s interests as well, but we have to give credit to those companies; they are doing an excellent job here, and without them, the oil industry does not exist.” But instead of concentrating on building domestic capacity, the Nigerian government wishes to encourage even more foreign intervention. According to a Reuters report this week, “Nigeria has sweetened the terms of a sweeping oil reform bill in a bid to attract much-needed investment to its oil industry, four people closely involved with the legislation said and a letter from oil companies, seen by Reuters, showed.” After World War II, the West converted its formal nation-state imperialism into a global imperial model enabling free access of all Western states to non-Western resources. But with Allah’s permission, the Muslim Ummah shall soon re-establish the Islamic Khilafah State that shall, almost from its inception, join the ranks of the great powers on account of its vast size, population, resources, geostrategic location, and ideology, demonstrating a sound, practical and just alternate to the Western imperialist model, and restoring general peace, harmony and prosperity to the entire planet, as existed before the rise of the imperialist, Capitalist, disbelieving West.

US Warns China against Aggressive Moves in Contested South China Sea

Last week, he United States warned China against what the Philippines and Taiwan see as increasingly aggressive moves, reminding Beijing of Washington’s obligations to its partners. “An armed attack against the Philippines’ armed forces, public vessels or aircraft in the Pacific, including in the South China Sea, will trigger our obligations under the US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters. “We share the concerns of our Philippine allies regarding the continued reported massing of PRC maritime militia near the Whitsun Reef,” Price said, referring to the People’s Republic of China. More than 200 Chinese boats were first spotted on March 7 at Whitsun Reef, around 320 kilometers (200 miles) west of Palawan Island in the contested South China Sea, although many have since scattered across the Spratly Islands. China, which claims almost the entirety of the resource-rich sea, has refused weeks of appeals by the Philippines to withdraw the vessels, which Manila says unlawfully entered its exclusive economic zone. Price voiced “concern” about the Chinese moves, saying: “The United States maintains the capacity to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security or the social or economic system of the people on Taiwan.” He was using language from the Taiwan Relations Act, under which the United States is obliged to provide the island with the means to defend itself against Beijing. President Joe Biden has vowed a robust defense of allies and, in a rare point of continuity with his predecessor Donald Trump, has supported strong pushback against Chinese assertiveness. [Source: France24]

America is applying pressure on China on all fronts. America is using India on China’s western borders to create problems for Beijing, and is using Japan, Philippines and Taiwan to prevent China from expanding in the Asian Pacific and Atlantic Ocean.

India, Pakistan Foreign Ministers in UAE

Both Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers will be in Abu Dhabi on Sunday at the invitation of the UAE government. Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi is already in the UAE, while Indian Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar is expected to arrive on Sunday. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, will hold talks with his counterparts from India and Pakistan. “At the invitation of his counterpart, EAM Dr S Jaishankar will be visiting Abu Dhabi on 18th April 2021. His discussions will focus on economic cooperation and community welfare,” Arindam Bagchi, Spokesperson, Indian Ministry of External Affairs, tweeted on Saturday. This development comes after Yousef Al Otaiba, the UAE Ambassador to the US, confirmed last Wednesday that the UAE is mediating between India and Pakistan to forge a functional relationship between the two neighbours and rivals. India and Pakistan enjoy warm ties with the UAE built over decades of economic and people-to-people contacts. Otaiba said that while India and Pakistan might not become “best friends”, the UAE wanted the bilateral relationship between the two neighbours to be one where they speak to each other. “We don’t think they are going to become… ‘Most Favoured Nations’ with each other, but I think it is important for them to have a healthy, functional relationship, which is exactly our objective,” Al Otaiba said. [Source: Khaleej Times]

The UAE is facilitating rapprochement between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. This is part of America’s plan to force Pakistan to abandon geo-politics in favour of geo-economics.

Uncertainty Surrounds US Pullout from Afghanistan

Days after U.S. President Joe Biden announced his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan and end the United States’ longest-running war, military planners, despite having had months to deliberate, are still working on how to make that happen. The Defense Department on Friday declined to share details about the impending pullout of some 2,500 to 3,500 troops from Afghanistan, saying that preliminary plans are being updated and that the final so-called tasking orders will come “very, very soon.” Officials also left open the possibility that more troops could be sent in, on a temporary basis, to help ensure a safe and orderly withdrawal.  “We’ll know more as we get closer, but that would not be out of the realm of the possible,” press secretary John Kirby told reporters Friday, in his first briefing at the Pentagon since the announcement. “I can’t speak today with exactly what that would look like,” Kirby added. “It’s logical to assume that you may need some logistics help, maybe some engineering help. You may have to add some force protection capabilities.” Biden announced Wednesday that the U.S. will begin its drawdown from Afghanistan on May 1 — the date by which the withdrawal was to be completed under the terms of a deal signed last year between the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump and the Taliban. Under the new time frame, all U.S. troops, as well as some 7,000 NATO forces, will leave the country by September 11, the 20th anniversary of the deadly terror attacks on New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon, which were planned on Afghan soil.  In a statement Wednesday, the Taliban demanded the departure of all foreign forces on the date specified in last year’s Doha Agreement. Spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid further threatened to retaliate, saying on Twitter, “If the agreement is breached and foreign forces fail to exit our country on the specified date, problems will certainly be compounded and those (who) failed to comply with the agreement will be held liable.” The Pentagon on Friday acknowledged the danger and responded with a warning of its own. [Source: voanews]

After twenty years of occupation, America defeated by poorly equipped Taliban fighters is set to leave the country. America has billions of dollars and has very little to show for its occupation of Afghanistan. America has failed to use Afghanistan as a launch pad to curtail the growing influence of Russia and China. Domestically, the US was unable to rollback Al Qaeda and now has agreed for the Taliban to come back to power after displacing them in 2001.