Islamabad, July 3 (IANS) Pakistan and Afghan Taliban held important talks during an informal dinner meeting on the sidelines of the Doha process for Afghanistan earlier this week.

While both sides have officially stated that the talks were “positive in nature”, inside sources revealed that many critical roadblocks still persist.

The meeting between Pakistan’s Special Envoy on Afghanistan, Ambassador Asif Durrani, and Afghan Taliban’s Chief Spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid was held at the residence of Pakistan’s Ambassador to Qatar.

The all-important UN-backed Doha process meeting was attended by several countries, including India.

During the Pak-Afghan meeting, many crucial and sensitive matters were discussed with both sides putting forward their demands and recommendations on the table.

As per reliable sources, Durrani highlighted the issue of the operational presence of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Afghanistan soil and told the Afghan Taliban to take action against the outfit.

Pakistan insisted that TTP militants are being trained, funded, facilitated, and supported on Afghan territory and are attempting to penetrate into Pakistan through many pockets of the porous Pak-Afghan border.

“Pakistan also briefed the Afghan Taliban on the scope of ‘Operation Azm-e-Istehkam’, asserting that there would be no talks with the TTP and the operation to take down TTP militants would not be compromised,” said a source on the condition of anonymity.

On the other hand, the Afghan Taliban raised serious concerns over the decision of the Pakistan government to repatriate 1.7 million illegal Afghans without consulting the Afghan Taliban and called for an immediate halt to the ongoing process.

The Afghan Taliban also reiterated its previous recommendations for peace talks between Pakistan and the TTP and expressed its readiness to facilitate them.

“Afghan Taliban’s demands were clearly negated by the Pakistan side,” the source stated.

Pakistan has already conducted air strikes on Afghan territory in the past and claimed to have destroyed TTP training centres operating freely on the Afghan side.

Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif also recently said that the option of conducting air strikes and military operations in Afghanistan to take down TTP militants remains an option and would be considered only if Afghan Taliban continues to ignore Islamabad’s demands of taking action against TTP on Afghan soil.

The Afghan Taliban also responded to the statement, threatening serious consequences to Pakistan if such an attempt was made.

Experts believe that while there was nothing achieved from the meeting in Doha, it can pave the way to more consultations and talks between the two sides which can be considered as a positive development.

“The meeting was part of renewed efforts by Pakistan to convince the Afghan Taliban to get rid of TTP and its affiliates. It would not be wrong to say that Pakistan’s hint of extending its military operation into Afghanistan has forced the Afghan Taliban side to table talks,” said senior political analyst Kamran Yousaf.

–IANS

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Colombo, July 3 (IANS) Labelling it as a “major scam”, the extended family of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) chief Velupillai Prabhakaran has urged all Tamils in India and around the world not to fall into the trap laid out by certain elements in the diaspora fraternity who have been collecting millions of dollars by saying that the slain Tamil leader is still alive.

Karthic Manoharan, the son of Prabhakaran’s elder brother Velupillai Manoharan, told IANS that a “mafia gang” which wants to use Prabhakaran as a “brand name” and collects funds from Tamils living around the world is operating at a major scale.

V. Prabhakaran was killed during the final stages of Sri Lanka’s 26-year-long bloody war against the LTTE, which was crushed by the Lankan security forces in May 2009.

“Give due respect to the dead. Not a penny given to the gang of fraudsters, who had been claiming that Prabhakran is alive, will go to the family or the poor and suffering Tamils in war-ravaged Sri Lanka, and instead end up in their pockets,” said Karthic, the 43-year-old nephew of the late LTTE supreme leader.

Branding the alleged fraudsters as “liars”, Karthic named some Indian Tamil leaders and Lankan-born Tamil Eelam campaigners for running a campaign to resurrect his dead uncle Prabhakaran and his only daughter Dwaraka Prabhakaran.

Manoharan’s family has maintained an extremely low profile since they left Sri Lanka in 1983. They finally broke their silence after some diaspora groups in Switzerland enacted a fake drama with an AI-manipulated video speech of Dwaraka Prabhakaran on ‘Maaveerar Naal’ or ‘Great Heroes Day’ on November 27, 2023.

“We need to put an end to this nonsense. My uncle with his entire family died during the last stages of the war. This had been confirmed and if any of them were alive, they would have contacted us as we all were quite close and he used to call us from Sri Lanka,” the nephew said.

He added that the final conversation his family had with Prabhakaran was in 2008, a year before the war came to an end.

“My uncle, in what turned out to be his last call, said that the situation was really bad in Sri Lanka,” Karthic said.

Prabhakaran’s parents were taken to India by Karthic’s father Manoharan in 1983 along with the rest of the family after the ethnic war broke out in Sri Lanka, with the military hunting for the LTTE leader.

The family lived in Tamil Nadu for 13 years till 1998 and then migrated to Denmark through a UN agency.

“My father was planning to start a business in India but then Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination happened and my uncle was the suspect. So, my dad was asked to leave India,” the Tamil rebel leader’s nephew told IANS.

The family later approached the UNHCR and moved to the Scandinavian country in 1996 which accepted their plea first.

However, Karthic said that because the family was related to the LTTE leader, they received “ill-treatment” from some diaspora groups in Denmark who had been amassing money in the name of the rebel movement.

“Having travelled from India, we were also branded as RAW agents,” said Karthic, who expressed gratitude to the Indian government for allowing the family to stay in the country for more than a decade.

Karthic initially believed that his grandparents were also killed during the last days of the war in May 2009. The family later came to know that they were alive and had been kept in an army camp until his grandfather’s death was announced in 2010. Prabhakaran’s mother also died later.

One of Karthic’s aunts (sister of Prabhakaran) still lives in India with her family while another resides in Canada.

However, he said, the extended family still cannot meet each other or travel due to many visa issues and fear of not being able to return.

–IANS

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Moscow, July 3 (IANS) The Russian Foreign Ministry has declared a diplomat working at the Romanian Embassy in Moscow persona non grata, according to a Ministry statement issued on Wednesday.

Romanian Ambassador to Russia Cristian Istrate was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday and “handed a note declaring a staff member of the Romanian Embassy persona non grata”, the statement said.

It added that the move was taken in response to Romania’s recent decision to declare a Russian embassy worker persona non grata, reported Xinhua news agency.

The Romanian Foreign Ministry declared a diplomat working at the Russian Embassy in Bucharest persona non grata on May 24 for “actions that contradict the provisions of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations”.

–IANS

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Washington, July 3 (IANS) Kamala Harris, the Indian American Vice President, is emerging as a leading choice for Democrats to take over from President Joe Biden should he step aside, bowing to growing calls from within the party following his disastrous performance in the first president debate of the 2024 cycle last week.

A new poll shows she is within striking distance of former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, in a head-to-head matchup.

Harris herself is being the loyal Vice-President of Biden, telling reporters that Biden is the party nominee and he will beat Trump again, after 2020.

That hasn’t stopped Democrats from across the party from announcing their support for Harris.

“I ran for President in 2020. I was the first Presidential candidate to endorse Joe Biden in 2020. I love America. I love our Party. I love Joe Biden,” former Congressman Tim Ryan has written in a signed piece in Newsweek magazine.

“The Democratic Nominee in 2024 should be Kamala Harris.”

Ryan ran in the 2020 primaries, which was eventually won by Biden who went on to win the race.

“Witnessing Joe Biden’s struggle was heartbreaking,” Ryan wrote, referring to the debate. “And we must forge a new path forward.”

A fierce debate has been underway in the Democratic party since the debate last Thursday over Biden’s candidacy. No one disputes that Biden had a terrible debate. His supporters have sought to portray it as “one bad night”, which does not define his candidacy.

But there are those, including Ryan, who are arguing that the debate showed Biden is not up to the job and he should make way for someone younger and able.

Even former President Barack Obama, a steadfast supporter of his former Vice-President, has privately expressed concerns about Biden’s chances after the debate, according to a report in The Washington Post.

Other Democrats on the list of possible replacements include California Governor Gavin Newsom, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker (whose family owns the Hyatt hotel chain), Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, and Maryland Governor Wes Moore.

Nothing can or will change until Biden himself chooses to step aside as he holds most of the party delegates who will meet in August to officially nominate him as the party candidate for the White House. These delegates are tied to him by party rules and they cannot switch their vote. Only Biden can change all this by stepping aside, but so far he and his campaign have appeared dug in and determined to ride out this storm.

Should he change his mind, Harris will be a serious contender for his mantle.

Of all the probables, she is the only one to have gone through the kind of vetting that candidates for the White House are subjected to. As Biden’s running mate, Harris went through the wringer in 2020. Her past, her career, personality traits, and her family were subjected to close scrutiny. As Biden’s Vice-President, she can justifiably claim the achievements of his administration, which are plenty, although not reflected in polls.

In a new poll published by CNN on Tuesday, Harris fell only 2 percentage points between Trump in a matchup – 45 per cent to 47 per cent – which is really within the statistical margin of error. She performs better against Trump than her boss Biden, who trails the Republican nominee 43 per cent to 49 per cent. If Harris does get the nomination, she will become the first Indian American to become the presidential nominee for a major party. There have been several who run for the nomination in both parties but no one has made it out of the primaries – Harris herself was a candidate for the nomination in 2020.

Among Republicans, Nikki Haley, the former Ambassador to the UN, was a contender for the nomination in 2024, ending her race just some months ago. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal ran for the Republican nomination in 2016, but did not survive the primaries.

–IANS

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London, July 3 (IANS) Elected to Parliament in 2015 for the first time at the age of 52, Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, widely projected to become the next UK Prime Minister after Thursday’s General Elections, has promised to offer the change the country needs.

“Labour will deliver change for Wales and across the United Kingdom. But change will only happen if you vote for it. Vote Labour tomorrow,” he posted on X, a few hours before Britain headed to polls.

Starmer, who takes pride in calling himself a “lifelong” Arsenal fan, has represented people on death row as a human rights lawyer. The Labour Party describes the former Chief Director of Public Prosecutions as a man who has spent his entire career securing justice for those who need it.

Son of a toolmaker, Starmer faced challenging times right from his childhood that was spent in Surrey’s Oxted. His mother, a nurse who worked for the National Health Service (NHS), battled a rare, severe illness for all her life.

“Despite the challenges this presented for Keir, he was hugely influenced by his mother’s courage and determination to live her life despite her illness. It also gave him a deep gratitude for the NHS,” the party says about its leader.

At 18, Starmer began studying law at Leeds University. After becoming a barrister in 1987, he spent a lot of his time providing free legal advice defending ordinary people against the powerful. “He worked on some high-profile cases, taking on fights against the odds with Shell and McDonalds, as well as working with the National Union of Mineworkers to prevent the Tories’ pit closures,” states the Labour Party.

After years of service as Director of Public Prosecutions, which saw him fighting cases for victims of sexual and domestic violence and taking MPs to task for misuse of expenses, Starmer was knighted in 2014 for his services to criminal justice. After entering politics and the British Parliament in 2015, Starmer was elected as leader of the Labour Party in April 2020. Four years later, he is now promising a better future for Britain.

“Our public services are on their knees, hard-working people are not making ends meet, victims of crime are being let down, and that deep British belief, that the next generation will be better off, is at risk,” believes the Labour Party leader.

Starmer and his party want to build a Britain that is forging ahead and not falling behind – one where the economy is secure, and rewards hard work.

“Country before party. Economic stability. NHS waiting times cut. Safer streets. Criminal gangs smashed. 6500 more teachers. Great British Energy. That’s what my Labour government will deliver. Vote for it on Thursday,” says Starmer.

Despite the busy schedule, the leader of the Labour Party has managed to keep his passion for football alive and still plays every Sunday with friends.

“He describes himself as a ‘box-to-box midfield general’, although his teammates may have different views,” states the party.

–IANS

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