...Arabic for
students...
on Monday directed Afghans to boycott upcoming parliamentary elections and demanded a complete withdrawal of foreign forces as the only solution to end the 17-year-old war as they ramped up attacks in strategic provinces.
The statement from the Taliban coincided with the visit of top US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who has been appointed to lead peace efforts with the Taliban.
Khalilzad met President Ashraf Ghani
...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. ..in Kabul to discuss ways to hold Afghan-led peace talks with the Taliban, whose 1996-2001 rule was ended by US-led troops.
"Peace is a holy process, and the US government and people are united with the Afghan government and people in this process," Khalilzad was quoted by Ghani’s office in a statement as saying.
Khalilzad, an Afghan-born former US ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq, joined the US State Department team in September.
He is scheduled to visit Pakistain, the United Arab Emirates, Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
and Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...this week as he seeks to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table. But the Taliban have repeatedly rejected offers to hold peace talks or support the polls.