... Arabia and then later Iran, through three stages of Jihadism.
This analysis is taken from an interview with Dr. Kepel.
Stages of Jihadism
The first stage of Jihadism, present from 1979 to 1997, was centered around both a jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan and the possibility for Sunni groups to contain Iranian influence at the time. It was effective against Russia in Afghanistan, but this phase was not very successful elsewhere and failed in Algeria, Chechnya, and Egypt. Phase one was characterized ...
The Working Group on the Future of U.S.-Russia Relations’ Report
Central Asia stands out as a comparatively “nontoxic” region where there are limited, but not insignificant, opportunities for U.S.-Russia collaboration both bilaterally and within multilateral frameworks: in the space industry, civil security, job-creation mechanisms and rural human capital, and knowledge sharing for instance. Any proposal of U.S.-Russia cooperation in a concrete domain will have to be made in a tri- or-multipartite...
... expanding cooperation between the two organizations, including with respect to the future of Shanghai Cooperation Organization, possible multilateral nuclear arms control mechanisms in Asia, and likely scenarios for the development of the situation in Afghanistan.
The United States offers other forces to take responsibility for the situation in Afghanistan
U.S. senators Republican Rand Paul and Democrat Tom Udall proposed to Congress the draft
American Forces Going Home After Noble Service Act (AFGHAN, 2019)
. In fact, this step allowed lawmakers to start the process of securing a legal base ...
... Head of National Counter-Terrorism Authority of Pakistan
RIAC Expert Tatyana Kanunnikova talks with Kh Khalid Farooq, expert in terrorism and former Head of National Counter-Terrorism Authority of Pakistan (
NACTA
), about improving the situation in Afghanistan, negotiations with Taliban, and the areas for Russia and Pakistan can cooperate in.
On Feb 5–6, the Taliban political envoys met with Afghan political leaders in Moscow to discuss the peace process. The event was organized by the Afghan ...
... itself is as difficult a process as the search for a compromise between the outside and domestic Afghan players
The past two weeks have seen developments that will determine the further course of the Afghan conflict. There was fierce fighting between Afghanistan’s armed units and the Taliban, particularly for the town of Ghazni southwest of Kabul. The approaching Eid al-Adha (Kurban Bairam) Festival spurred renewed attempts to achieve a truce, but to no avail. In the meantime, Pakistan got a new ...
... play a role here.
The idea to build a gas pipeline across South Asia is nothing new. There is already the off-and-on Peace pipeline from Iran to Pakistan and further to India (known as IP Gas), as well as the TAPI gas pipeline (involving Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India). It should be noted that Iran and Turkmenistan, the gas producers for both projects, have already conducted the requisite work, and the relevant pipelines have already been laid. The problem is buyers and transit countries ...
...
Responding to the identified in Qingdao growing threat of foreign militants entering the SCO territory to carry out terrorist and extremist activities, the summit participants once again confirmed their unfailing support for regulating the situation in Afghanistan exclusively by peaceful means and by the Afghan people themselves, and called for a strengthening of the mechanisms of dialogue and cooperation in order to ensure the launch of such a process. The appeal is very timely, as several regional ...
... and a number of particular EU and Persian Gulf countries to participate.
As ISIS is being weakened in Syria, the threat of its strengthening has grown in other conflict regions of the world. ISIS cells firmly consolidated in Libya, Yemen, Sinai and Afghanistan as early as in 2014-2015. That experience now serves as the starting point for further development and implementation of cell structure within the organization. Al-Qaeda, another terrorist group, forced back by the IS, has improved in its ...
... 30 years.
How would you characterise the Russia-Pakistan relationship?
Pakistan is an important player, we want to be involved, have a relationship with them. But they are not in the same category as China or India.
Is Russia supporting Taliban in Afghanistan?
We are playing a very complicated game – sometimes we support somebody, sometimes we help somebody else. Taliban is also different. When we saw the US going in with ground troops we were aghast. That was a disaster. Now it’s different ...
