Former president Hamid Karzai full speeches at Rabbani 5th anniversary.

Former president Hamid Karzai full speeches at Rabbani 5th ... - More

این مراسم که در خیمه لویه جرگه در کابل با حضور صدها تن از سیاست‌مداران، مقام‌ های دولتی و هواداران برهان‌الدین ربانی برگزار شده بود، در آن حامد کرزی نیز شرکت داشت. برخی از شرکت‌کنندگان زمانی که حامد کرزی برای سخنرانی در پشت میز خطابه قرار گرفت، به او شعار مرگ فرستادند. اما حامد کرزی در برابر این شعار به نرمی جواب داد و سردادن این شعارها را نتیجه دخالت خارجی‌ ها توصیف کرد. آقای کرزی در عکس العمل به شرکت‌کنندگانی که علیه وی شعار مرگ می‌ فرستادند، از آنان خواست تا آرام بگیرند. او همچنین تاکید کرد که در افغانستان آزادی بیان وجود دارد و هر کی می ‌تواند چیزی بگوید. وی گفت: «من را امریکایی‌ ها بسیار مرگ گفته ‌اند و هر روز امریکایی‌ ها علیه تبلیغات و شعار مرگ بر کرزی می ‌فرستند.»

 حامد کرزی پس از آن مورد نفرت شماری از اتباع افغانستان قرار گرفت که او اخیرا در یک گفتگویی از گروه طالبان حمایت کرده گفته بود که هر گاه اگر یک منطقهٔ از افغانستان بدست این گروه سقوط می ‌کند، دولت حق ندارد تا این منطقه را دوباره از تحت کنترول طالبان خارج کند. به گفته آقای کرزی، زیرا طالبان نیز به مردم افغانستان تعلق دارند. هرچند آقای کرزی در یک گفتگوی دیگر پس از آن گفته ‌های قبلی خود را رد کرد، اما این مساله باعث انزجار مردم شده است. حامد کرزی در مراسم گرامی ‌داشت از سالروز ترور برهان‌ الدین ربانی به امضای موافقت ‌نامه صلح میان اشرف‌ غنی و گلبدین حکمتیار نیز اشاره کرد و گفت پیش از این هرگاه وی حکمتیار را «برادر» خطاب می‌ کرد، مردم ناراحت می ‌شدند. به گفته او، روزی هم خواهد رسید تا با تحریک طالبان نیز مذاکره شود. حامد کرزی خطاب به شرکت‌ کنندگان این مراسم گفت: «آینده‌نگر باشید و کشور را به سوی صلح ببرید. کشور ما مورد تخت و تاز شدید و مداخلات خارجی است و نتیجه‌اش را همین ‌جا می ‌بینیم.» حامد کرزی پس از این که از سوی یکی از شرکت‌کنندگان مراسم گرامی ‌داشت از ترور ربانی مورد انتقاد شدید قرار گرفت، شخصاً نزد او رفت و تا پشت میز خطابه با خود آورد و سپس وی را در آغوش گرفت. sputnik

شعار «مرگ بر حامد کرزی» در مراسم تجلیل از سالروز ترور ربانی

Ex - President Hamid Karzai at Anniversary of Rabbani - YouTub

BLACK AND WHITE: Ex-President Karzai On His Presidential Jo - More

An Afghan warlord comes out of the shadows to make peace. But few trust him. - Pamela Constable

KABUL — It was both a historic moment and a bizarre spectacle. There was the fugitive Afghan militia leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, with a black turban and a beard much whiter than anyone remembered, speaking Thursday via video link from a secret location and then signing a peace agreement as the camera zoomed in on his hands.

There was President Ashraf Ghani, dressed in traditional robes and a yellow turban, beaming as he watched the images on a giant screen in his palace and then ceremoniallysigned his copy of the accord, which he said would go “fully in force” immediately. “This day starts the subsiding of war in Afghanistan and the beginning of rebuilding it,” he said, speaking in Dari.

Making his first public appearance in years, Hekmatyar, who is in his late 60s, was soft-spoken and statesmanlike but vague on details. He said he hoped the agreement would “bring an end to the crisis in this country” and that “no single bullet will be fired, no drop of blood shed” in the transition of power. “I ask all opponents of this government to join this process and pursue their goals through peaceful ways,” he said. 

Hekmatyar, who has been in hiding for years, did not mention whether and when he would return to Afghanistan, which would require his removal from international terrorist blacklists. But his public appearance seemed to put to rest rumors about whether he actually supported the deal, and his conciliatory rhetoric appeared likely to bolster Ghani’s credibility as a peacemaker as he heads to a crucial conference of foreign donors in Brussels on Tuesday. Ghani and his aides have been negotiating for months with Hekmatyar’s representatives, hoping to persuade Talibaninsurgent leaders to lay down their weapons.

“The current generation of Afghans did not start this war. It is up to our older generation to finish it,” Ghani said at the ceremony, using the term “excellency” to address Hekmatyar and some of the assembled former fighters, who are now influential elders or officials. “This is a grand jihad that Afghanistan desperately needs.”

“This is not a peace deal. It is just completing the circle of criminals in our government,” said Obaid Kabir, a rights activist. “Now the other warlords are pretending to favor the deal, but they have an old history of dogfights, and they will start them again.”

But Hezb-i-Islami, like most of the other Islamist parties that once fought one another, has many officials in theGhani government and representatives in parliament. Supporters say these militia groups have changed with the times, prospered under civilian rule and now have a stake in peace instead of conflict.

“Gulbuddin is a charismatic leader who knows how to swim in Afghan politics,” said Farooq Wardak, a senior Hezb-i-Islami leader and former education minister. “If he comes back, many Taliban supporters will join him, and the other mujahideen parties will have to accommodate him. They have made a lot of money, and they want to protect their property now. They don’t want to see Kabul destroyed again.” - Read More, Washingtonpost

An Afghan warlord comes out of the shadows to make peace. But few trust him.

Afghanistan’s shaky national unity government approaches its second anniversary

World Leaders Gather to Mourn Shimon Peres, and Possibly His Dream

JERUSALEM — From across the ocean and across the Green Line, they came on Friday to the mountaintop sanctuary of Mount Herzl to bid farewell to Shimon Peres, marking what one called the “end of the era of giants.” But the question of the moment was whether it was a funeral for a man or for his dream.

Twenty-three years after Mr. Peres helped negotiate the Oslo Accordsheralding peace between Israelis and Palestinians, President Obamaand other leaders from around the world paid homage to his tenacious search for reconciliation. And yet the memorial service made clear how elusive that idea has actually become in this part of the world.

In his eulogy, Mr. Netanyahu welcomed by name many of the foreign figures in attendance without mentioning Mr. Abbas. It was left to Mr. Obama to acknowledge the Palestinian leader, saying that his “presence here is a gesture and a reminder of the unfinished business of peace.”

Mr. Obama, who has been pressing the two sides to rejuvenate a peace process, made a similar point less directly. “Shimon never saw his dream of peace fulfilled,” he said. And so, he added, “Now this work is in the hands of Israel’s next generation, in the hands of Israel’s next generation and its friends.”

The funeral drew delegations from 75 countries and such figures as former President Bill Clinton, President François Hollande of France, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico and King Felipe VI of Spain.

About 4,000 mourners gathered underneath a tent on a warm, cloudless day at the national cemetery overlooking Jerusalem. Security was tight.

Mr. Peres, who died this week at 93, embodied the history of the Israeli state. A protégé of David Ben-Gurion, the founding prime minister, he had a role in most of Israel’s major events from its independence in 1948. He served as prime minister, foreign minister, defense minister and president.

A longtime security hawk, he helped build the nation’s military and was instrumental in developing its nuclear program. Critics, especially Palestinians, castigate him for promoting the construction of settlements in territories seized in the Arab-Israeli war of 1967 and for launching military operations that led to civilian deaths.

He was remembered on Friday mainly for his pursuit of peace, which resulted in the Nobel Peace Prize he shared in 1994 with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Yasir Arafat, the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Mr. Obama, who flew overnight to attend the funeral and finished writing his eulogy only as Air Force One landed, offered an especially personal tribute to Mr. Peres. This was only the second time in nearly eight years in office that he had traveled overseas for the funeral of a foreign leader, after Nelson Mandela, and indeed, he compared Mr. Peres to the South African leader.

As for Mr. Peres, for a man who made a legacy of bridging divides, there was one final act of reconciliation: He was buried between two onetime rivals, Mr. Rabin and another former prime minister, Yitzhak Shamir. - Read More, nytimes

World Leaders Gather to Mourn Shimon Peres, and Possibly His Dream

At Shimon Peres Funeral, a Lineup of U.S. and Israeli Leaders Who Tangled

FULL: Donald Trump vs Hillary Clinton - First Presidential Debate 2016 - Hofstra University NY

FULL: Donald Trump vs Hillary Clinton - First Presidential Debate 2016 - Hofstra University NY - More

America's Devil's Game with Extremist Islam

A Timeline of US-Cold War Politics and the Rise of Militant Islamism

It is often difficult to trace the history of the United States' involvement with—and responsibility for—the evolution of radical Islamism around the world; many of the CIA's activities in support of Islamist groups were often covert, and a great deal of misinformation exists. Robert Dreyfuss' new book, Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam, is an attempt at a comprehensive overview of this story, recounting how the CIA, guided by the belief that radical Islamist forces could act as a bulwark against communism, helped fuel the rise of political Islam and militant fundamentalism in the Middle East and Central Asia. Below is a timeline of major events in the U.S. government's 70-year flirtation with and support for the militant forces that would, in the late 1990s and on September 11, 2001, come back to haunt the United States.

1972 – The CIA founds the Asia Foundation to fund leaders of the Afghan Islamist movement at Kabul University. Beneficiaries include Rabbani Sayyaf and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, two Afghans who would cultivate ties with Osama bin Laden. The two run a secret group that infiltrates the Afghan armed forces and will later lead jihad forces against the Soviet Union in the 1980s.

Jul. 17, 1973 – Afghanistan's Soviet-friendly prime minister, Sardar Daoud, overthrows the Afghan royalty, establishes a democratic republic, and becomes President. The United States quickly begins funding Afghan dissidents and supporting the radical Islamic Party against Daoud.

Sept. 1973 - The CIA partners with Iranian and Pakistani intelligence—the latter of which is loosely associated with fundamentalist Islamic Afghan groups—to run raids in Afghanistan and stage a failed coup against President Sardar Daoud. The effort is repeated in December of 1973 and June 1974. 

1975 - A State Department analysis identifies members of the Muslim Brotherhood as leaders of an insurgency against Afghan President Sardar Daoud. After the rebellion failed, Brotherhood leaders, including Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Sayyaf, flee to Pakistan and find support from ISI, the Pakistani Intelligence Service. - Read More

America's Devil's Game with Extremist Islam | Mother Jones

Devil's Game Robert Dreyfuss talked about his book Devil’s Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam, published by Metropolitan… read more 

Devil's Game | Video | C-SPAN.org - Read More

"Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundame - danielpipes

Maryam Monsef was hailed as Canada's first Afghan-born member of Parliament. Then news broke that she was born in Iran

When Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau added Maryam Monsef to his Cabinet last year, his government touted her as the country’s first Afghan-born member of Parliament. President Obama also singled out her story when he addressed the Canadian House of Commons in June.

Monsef herself made her Afghan roots a key part of her narrative when she ran for a seat in Parliament in 2015. She was born in Herat, Afghanistan, she said, and came to Canada as a refugee at age 11 with her widowed mother and two younger sisters

But last week, it emerged that the lawmaker was actually born in Iran, raising questions about the validity of Monsef’s Canadian citizenship and ability to hold office. She is the minister of democratic institutions.

The Globe and Mail newspaper published a story Thursday saying that Monsef was born in Mashhad, an Iranian city with a large Afghan population about 124 miles from the Afghanistan border, and spent most of her early childhood there. 
In a statement, Monsef said that she was shocked at the revelation, and that her mother, Soriya Basir, only told her that she was born in Iran after the newspaper contacted Monsef for the story.

“Because I know my story has resonated with many Canadians, I wanted to take the time today to clear any misconceptions this may have unintentionally caused,” Monsef said in the statement.

“My sisters and I asked my mother why she never told us we were born in Iran. She told us she did not think it mattered. We were Afghan citizens, as we were born to Afghan parents, and under Iranian law, we would not be considered Iranian citizens despite being born in that country.”

An estimated 3 million Afghans live as refugees in Iran, although approximately only 1 million are documented. The first waves of Afghans crossed into Iran during the Soviet occupation of their country in the 1980s, which unleashed an insurrection by Afghan rebels, financed by the United States and other Western powers to undermine the Soviet Union. 

A biographical timeline provided by Monsef’s office noted that a child born in Iran only gains citizenship if the father is Iranian. 

If Basir told Canadian immigration officials that Monsef was born in Afghanistan, it could be grounds to revoke the minister’s citizenship, said Ontario Conservative Member of Parliament Tony Clement, who is running for the leadership of the Official Opposition Conservative Party of Canada.

“The question is, should a Cabinet minister or an MP get more favorable treatment than the average citizen? Or should we revise the Citizenship Act?” said Toronto immigration lawyer Guidy Mamann. “Because when it applies to the average Joe who’s made innocent mistakes on a citizenship application, it hurts them considerably and it ultimately results in them losing their citizenship.” 

The original asylum claim hasn’t been made public, and it is not clear what country Basir listed as her daughter’s birthplace. Monsef’s Canadian passport says that she was born in Herat, Afghanistan. 

Jean-Bruno Villeneuve, Monsef’s press secretary, said she would be correcting that information. He said that Monsef has been “very forthcoming” about her personal story based on the recent revelations from her mother. Villeneuve said Monsef was traveling and unavailable to comment.

There is disagreement about whether Monsef’s Canadian citizenship could be in jeopardy, even if it turns out that her mother misrepresented her birthplace on the asylum claim. “Whether or not she was born in Iran is irrelevant,” Peter Showler, former chair of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board, told Macleans magazine. “The only country for which she had citizenship was Afghanistan, and that is the country from which she feared persecution.”- Read More, Latimes

Maryam Monsef was hailed as Canada's first Afghan-born member of Parliament. Then news broke that she was born in Iran

Maryam Monsef confirms she was born in Iran, not Afghanistan - C - More

Who Got What They Wanted From The First Clinton-Trump Debate?

You could see the contrast in the eyes of the respective candidates' spokespersons, surrogates and family members after the first presidential debate of 2016 had wrapped.

As always, earnest efforts were made on both sides to claim victory — even insist on it — after the nationally televised clash between Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump.

What was less clear was whether the voters got what they wanted from the debate. Did they learn what they lacked about the candidates? Did the undecided gain some guidance in their decision? - Read More, NPR

Who Got What They Wanted From The First Clinton-Trump Debate?

Clinton And Trump Clash In Tense First Presidential Debate

Fact Check: Trump And Clinton Debate For The First Time

Afghanistan takes a step toward peace with notorious ex-warlord - latimes

Negotiators in Afghanistan on Thursday signed a draft of a long-awaited peace agreement that would bring a notorious former warlord into the government fold while forgiving allegations that he was responsible for serious war crimes.

The deal commits Gulbuddin Hekmatyar – a chameleon-like militia commander, former CIA asset, prime minister and ally of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden who has been involved in fighting in Afghanistan for four decades – to renounce violence, cut ties to extremist groups and respect the Afghan Constitution.

The accord is also believed to grant amnesty to Hekmatyar and leaders of his Hezb-i-Islami militant organization for  suspected crimes during the Afghan civil war of the 1990s. Hekmatyar’s forces are blamed for indiscriminate rocket attacks against Kabul that killed hundreds of civilians, as well as the forced disappearances of political opponents.

It provides for the release of Hezb-i-Islami members being held in Afghan jails, and the removal of Hekmatyar’s name and those of senior Hezb-i-Islami leaders from U.S. and United Nations terrorism blacklists.

The draft was signed by representatives of the Afghan government’s High Peace Council, charged with negotiating truces with insurgents, and Hekmatyar’s representatives. It now must be approved by Hekmatyar, who is living in an undisclosed location away from Kabul, and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

The United States, which added Hekmatyar to the State Department global terrorist list in 2003 over his support for Al Qaeda, has said it would consider lifting sanctions on Hekmatyar if he fulfilled the terms of a peace deal.

Human rights groups described amnesty for Hekmatyar as the latest blow to efforts to seek accountability for war crimes in Afghanistan. 

“Hekmatyar is not alone in enjoying impunity. None of the Afghan warlords from the 1990s has been held accountable,” Patricia Gossman, senior Afghanistan researcher for Human Rights Watch, wrote in a commentary.

“That, and the failed disarmament of abusive militias, have crippled reforms needed to build effective government institutions crucial for a lasting peace.”

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul said it welcomed the agreement “as a step in bringing the conflict in Afghanistan to a peaceful end.”

Ahead of a major conference of donors in Brussels in early October, the United States, European Union and other allies are looking for signs of progress in Afghanistan and have quieted their calls for accountability, analysts said.

“Many other former jihadis that have committed similar atrocities now occupy key positions within the state and have long been indispensable,” Sharan said. “Transitional justice for Afghans has long been dead.” - Read More

Afghanistan takes a step toward peace with notorious ex-warlord 

رئیس‌جمهور غنی: برنامۀ میثاق شهروندی، میثاق بین نسل هاست

برنامۀ میثاق شهروندی امروز با حضور و سخنرانی محمداشرف غنی رئیس‌جمهوری اسلامی افغانستان، در ارگ افتتاح شد.

رئیس‌جمهور کشور، افتتاح برنامۀ میثاق شهروندی را به همه مردم افغانستان تبریک گفته افزود، حکومت به ارادۀ مردم بنا شده‌است، و تلاش می‌نماید تا آرزوی‌های برحق مردم را عملی سازد.

رئیس‌جمهور خاطر نشان کرد که سال قبل حکومت پیشنهادات مردم را شنید، و براساس خواست‌ها، پیشنهادها و نیازمندی‌های مردم و تعهد حکومت، امروز برنامۀ میثاق شهروندی جایگزین برنامۀ همبستگی ملی گردیده، و ارتباط میان شهرها و دهات را بیشتر تأمین می‌کند.

رئیس‌جمهور تصریح کرد که تمام افغان‌ها دارای حقوق و وجایب مساوی می‌باشند، و هیچ افغان بر افغان دیگر برتری ندارد. او افزود که برنامۀ میثاق شهروندی همه افغان‌ها را به یک نظر می‌بیند، و همه را در یک چارچوب مشترک بسیج خواهد کرد.
رئیس‌جمهور غنی بر نقش قانون اساسی کشور در راستای تعادل و رعایت حقوق شهروندان اشاره کرده، گفت که برنامۀ میثاق شهروندی شهرها و دهات را در برمی‌گیرد، و نوع توجه ما نیز برای تطبیق این برنامه مساوی می‌باشد.

رئیس‌جمهور زدودن فقر را وظیفۀ ملی و شرعی دانست و بر مبارزه و از میان برداشتن این پدیده تأکید کرد. او از مهاجرین و بیجاشده‌گان یاد کرده گفت: برنامۀ میثاق شهروندی باید وسیلۀ جذب آنان گردد، و روند زندگی شانرا بهبود بخشد.

رئیس‌جمهورمحمد اشرف غنی، نشست قریب‌الوقوع بروکسل را برای افغانستان فرصت تجدید تعهدات اقتصادی جامعه جهانی بیان کرده، گفت که اکنون افغانستان در محراق توجه جامعه جهانی قرار گرفته است، و دشمنان ما هر روز بیشتر به انزوا کشانده می‌شوند.

در این مراسم رابیرت جی‌سام رئیس عمومی بانک جهانی، برنامۀ میثاق شهروندی را گام ارزنده دانست و افتتاح آنرا به همه مردم افغانستان تبریک گفت. او از ادامه همکاری‌های بانک جهانی در بخش‌های مختلف با حکومت افغانستان اطمینان داد.

رئیس عمومی بانک جهانی گفت که برنامه میثاق شهروندی کمک می‌کند، تا مردم افغانستان به خدمات اساسی دست یافته، دهاقین به منابع آبی دسترسی بیشتر پیدا کنند، زنان، معلوین، مهاجرین و افراد نیازمند از برنامه‌های آن بهره‌مند گردند. -Read More
رئیس‌جمهور غنی: برنامۀ میثاق شهروندی، میثاق بین نسل هاست 

جمهوررئیس غني: د ولسي تړون پروګرام د نسلونو ترمنځ تړون دی 

On International Day, UN renews call for global elimination of nuclear weapons

26 September 2016 – The world faces growing nuclear dangers and tensions, yet progress in multilateral nuclear disarmament has come to a “standstill,” United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon declared today, reiterating a call for complete global nuclear disarmament as the international community marks the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.

“Let us pledge to work for the total elimination of nuclear weapons with urgency and a sense of collective purpose. Our very survival depends upon it,” Mr. Ban said in a message to mark the Day, observed annually on 26 September.

Noting that nuclear disarmament is one of the founding principles of the UN, the Secretary-General said that it was also the objective of the first General Assembly resolution.

“Disarmament is in our DNA,” he stated, adding that he has been proud to advance the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons, such as by launching, in 2008, a Five Point Proposal on Nuclear Disarmament to spur Member States to greater action. 

A landmark international treaty opened for signature in 1968, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons entered into force in 1970, and was extended indefinitely on 11 May 1995. Its objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament. It represents the only binding commitment in a multilateral treaty to the goal of disarmament by the nuclear-weapon States.

“There are many paths to a world free of nuclear weapons. What matters is that all States act now, without delay, to fulfil their disarmament and non-proliferation commitments,” the Secretary-General emphasized.

The Treaty will enter into force 180 days after the date of deposit of the instruments of ratification by all States listed in its Annex 2. Of the 44 States listed in Annex 2, 41 have signed and 36 have both signed and ratified the Treaty, including several nuclear weapons States.

Of the 44 States included in Annex 2, all have signed with the exceptions of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, India and Pakistan. Five of the 44 Annex 2 States have signed but not ratified the Treaty: China, Egypt, Iran, Israel and the United States.

The International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons was established by the UN General Assembly in 2013 in a resolution calling for the “urgent commencement of negotiations in the Conference on Disarmament of a comprehensive convention on nuclear weapons to prohibit their possession, development, production, acquisition, testing, stockpiling, transfer and use or threat of use, and to provide for their destruction.”- Read More
On International Day, UN renews call for global elimination of nuclear weapons

Security Council adopts resolution on nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament

Sources: Bush 41 says he will vote for Clinton

(CNN) - Former President George H.W. Bush said Monday that he will vote for Hillary Clinton in November, according to sources close to the 41st President -- an extraordinary rebuke of his own party's nominee.

The sources said this was not the first time Bush had disclosed his intention to vote for Clinton.

The Republican former president's embrace of the Democratic nominee represents a dramatic new chapter in the complicated three-decade-old relationship between the two most prominent families in American politics.

It's a stunning political move -- one that comes just 49 days from the election, and less than a week before Clinton and Donald Trump square off in their first debate. - Read More

George HW Bush will vote for Hillary Clinton, sources say ... 

George H.W. Bush to vote for Hillary Clinton - POLITICO

Jordan’s king warns UN Assembly that both Islamophobia and Islam ‘outlaws’ threaten world

20 September 2016 – King Abdullah II of Jordan today decried both Western Islamophobia and the terrorist “outlaws” who sully the name of Islam, warning the United Nation General Assembly that both threaten the future of society.

When others exclude Muslims from fulfilling their role, by prejudice or ignorance of what Islam is – or on the other hand, when the ‘outlaws’ of Islam, the khawarej, attempt to mislead some Muslims, by deforming our religion through false teaching - our societies' future is put at risk,” he told the Assembly’s annual general debate on its opening day.

“When the outlaws of Islam, the khawarej, murder; when they plunder; when they exploit children and reject the equality of women before God – they abuse Islam. When thekhawarej persecute minorities; when they deny freedom of religion – they abuse Islam. Islam teaches that all humanity is equal in dignity. There is no distinction among different nations or regions or races,” he stated.

The king called for non-traditional means to confront this non-traditional – a new mindset, new partnerships, and reformed methodologies, stressing that for Muslims it is a fight for the future with all elements having a role, not only mosques and religious centres, but media, schools, and community leaders.

The international community also faces a fight for the future, highlighting the need to open up new channels between continents and nations reforming the way we communicate and share information.- More, UN
Jordan’s king warns UN Assembly that both Islamophobia and Islam ‘outlaws’ threaten world

Saudi Arabia at General Assembly calls for urgent UN reforms to confront world crises

US President Obama urges world to eschew division and pursue global integration at UN Assembly

20 September 2016 – In his final address to the United Nations General Assembly as United States President, Barack Obama today delivered a ringing appeal for global integration in the face of religious fundamentalism, the politics of ethnicity, aggressive nationalism and crude populism, even as he called for a course correction.

“At this moment, we all face a choice. We can choose to press forward with a better model of cooperation and integration. Or we can retreat into a world sharply divided, and ultimately in conflict, along age-old lines of nation and tribe and race and religion,” he said, declaring that the spirit behind the founding of the UN itself shows what is best in humanity.

“As imperfect as they are, the principles of open markets and accountable governance, ofdemocracy and human rights and international law that we have forged, remain the firmest foundation for human progress in this century,” he told world leaders on the first day of the Assembly’s annual general debate, his eighth.

“The integration of our global economy has made life better for billions of men, women and children. Over the last 25 years, the number of people living in extreme poverty has been cut from nearly 40 per cent of humanity to under 10 per cent. That's unprecedented. And it's not an abstraction. It means children have enough to eat; mothers don’t die in childbirth.”

But in order to move forward it has to be acknowledged that the existing path requires a course correction. “A world in which one per cent of humanity controls as much wealth as the other 99 per cent will never be stable,” Mr. Obama stressed, calling for a global economy that works for all people.

“The choices of individual human beings created a United Nations, so that a war like [the Second World War] that would never happen again. Each of us as leaders, each nation, can choose to reject those who appeal to our worst impulses and embrace those who appeal to our best. For we have shown that we can choose a better history,” Mr. Obama concluded. - Read More

US President Obama urges world to eschew division and pursue global integration at UN Assembly

Competition between countries posing serious threats to peace, Prime Minister of Pakistan tells UN

Dialogue and cooperation most viable path to peace, Afghan Vice-President tells UN Assembly - More

15 Years Into Afghan War, Americans Would Rather Not Talk About It - The Interpreter

The United States will soon mark 15 full years of war in Afghanistan, but you wouldn’t know it from the political discourse.

Democrats and Republicans seem to have something of a rare, if unspoken, truce on the subject. Even amid deepening partisan polarization, with the most frivolous issues seized for political gain, no one seems eager to discuss a war that is still costing American lives and hundreds of billions of dollars.

This year’s presidential campaign, in which mass deportations and the NATO alliance are on the table, has hardly touched it. When Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump squared off at a recent televised forum on national security issues, they were surrounded by an audience of veterans, many of whom had fought in Afghanistan, but the war barely came up.

And though the election has grown most heated over terrorism and immigration, the candidates showed rare restraint on Monday, when the police arrested an Afghan-born American citizen, Ahmad Khan Rahami, on suspicion of planting bombs in Manhattan and New Jersey.

Mr. Trump’s response was typically harsh and Mrs. Clinton’s typically detailed, but neither had much to say about Afghanistan. That is a conspicuous and newfound prudence for both candidates, who have been eager to discuss Syria and Iraq immediately after terrorist attacks linked to those countries.

Whether or not investigators find connections between these bombings and American action in Afghanistan, it is increasingly apparent that America’s public and policy makers alike would rather not address their faraway, largely failed war.

Neither party has an incentive to call attention to this bipartisan failure. Neither has a better policy to offer. And neither sees any political gain in raising it. Voters, entering their fourth consecutive presidential election with the United States at war, seem happy to pretend that the Afghan war, which has killed more than 2,300 American service members, doesn’t exist.

For decades, leaders portrayed Afghanistan as a beautiful but lawless land to which the United States would bring order and American values, somewhat similar to the old Western frontier. Their adventure began in 1979, when the Soviet Union invaded and the United States armed Afghan rebels. President Ronald Reagan called this “a compelling moral responsibility of all free people” and a battle for “the human spirit.” Rebel leaders were romanticized and taken on tours of American churches, according to “The Looming Tower,” a book by the journalist Lawrence Wright.

Those rebels turned against one another in a long civil war that gave rise to the Taliban. Americans were then sold on invading Afghanistan in 2001, to bring the Sept. 11 attackers and their accomplices to justice. The Taliban government quickly fell, raising a question that became obvious only after it was raised: Now what? What should take the Taliban’s place, and how to make it stick despite the group’s continued support?

Iraq quickly distracted attention and resources from the Afghanistan question until 2008, when Barack Obama was elected president while promising to end the former and win the latter. Afghanistan became the good war. Americans were sold on promoting democracy and, later, on saving the women — an ambition captured by a 2010 Time magazine cover showing an Afghan woman who had been mutilated by Taliban officers.

But practice did not match the ideals. Seeking allies where it could, the United States often directly empowered warlords whose corruption, drug trafficking and violence seemed little better than the Taliban’s. Drones proliferated overhead and airstrikes killed civilians on the ground, provoking anguished debate at home. Pakistan, at once Washington’s closest and least reliable ally in the war, played both sides. - More, NYT

15 Years Into Afghan War, Americans Would Rather Not Talk About It

Obama, in Farewell to U.N., Paints Stark Choices for Unsettled World