US wants to see Afghanistan at war: Writer

Dan Glazebrook, a journalist and political writer from London, says the Afghan nation is becoming aware that the United States is not a friend and seeks to keep Afghanistan "at war with itself." Hamid Karzai, the former president of Afghanistan, during his farewell speech in 2014 “warned about dealing with the US and the West,” and he underlined that “the US does not want to see peace in Afghanistan” because peace and security are against the American agenda, Glazebrook told Press TV on Tuesday. presstv

Russian fighter jet intercepts US strategic bomber: Ministry

Russia says one of its warplanes has intercepted an American bomber near the Russian airspace.
"The crew of the Russian Su-27, in approaching the aerial object at a safe distance, identified it as a US B-52 strategic bomber and escorted it," said the Russian Defense Ministry in a statement on Tuesday.
It went on to say that the snatch had occurred over the natural waters of the Baltic Sea as the bomber had been flying along the Russian border on Tuesday at 0700 GMT, adding that the fighter jet, which was part of the Russian Navy's Baltic Fleet air defense patrol, had headed back to its airfield nest following the operation.
According to the statement, Russia’s air defense had dispatched the warplane on Tuesday morning after the detection of the huge bomber. The Su-27 then shadowed the American aircraft until it left the airspace, the ministry's statement added.

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Iran vows full support for Afghanistan’s anti-terror fight

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani has censured the recent bloody terrorist attack in the Afghan capital of Kabul, pledging full support for Afghanistan’s fight against terrorism.
In separate messages to the Afghan Speaker of Wolesi Jirga (House of the People), Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi, and the Speaker of Mesherano Jirga (House of Elders), Fazel Hadi Muslimyar, on Friday, Larijani expressed his sympathy with the country’s government, nation and the bereaved families of the victims of the Wednesday terror attack.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran stands by the government and nation of the friendly and neighboring country of Afghanistan in the fight against terrorism and the establishment of peace and security in this country and will spare no efforts in this regard,” the top Iranian parliamentarian said.

He added that terrorism and extremism pose a threat to the international community.
At least 90 people were killed and 400 others injured after an explosives-laden sewage tanker detonated in Kabul's diplomatic quarter on Wednesday.
The attack, the deadliest in Kabul since 2001, hit the city’s most secure district, which is home to the presidential palace and foreign embassies.
The Daesh Takfiri terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack.
However, the Afghan intelligence said on Thursday the bombing was plotted and carried out by the Haqqani network, which is a militant group allied with the Taliban. The officials said that the attack was aimed at the Embassy of Germany.
However, the Taliban, which is currently in the midst of its annual “spring offensive,” has denied any involvement in the bombing.

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Trump has wreaked havoc with shocking speed: Susan Rice

Former White House National Security Adviser Susan Rice says President Donald Trump’s foreign policy moves during his first four months in office have been nothing than “a whole lot of winning" for America’s arch-rivals, Russia and China.
Rice, who was former President Barack Obama's adviser, wrote about Trump in a New York Times op-ed on Friday, denouncing the president for what she described as his isolationist foreign policy.
“With shocking speed, he has wreaked havoc: hobbling our core alliances, jettisoning American values and abdicating United States leadership of the world,” she wrote.
“That’s a whole lot of winning — for Russia and China,” Rice added.
Rice noted Trump's foreign policy moves, including his latest decision to withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate change agreement as well as his withdrawal from the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) only 3 days after he took the oath of office.

She said withdrawing from TPP, opened the door for China to assert its own views on trade in the region. She said that Trump  left “key allies empty-handed, fearful of the strategic benefit that will inevitably accrue to China.”
The Trans-Pacific Partnership, reached in October 2015 after five years of negotiations, was a massive regional trade deal backed by Australia and other regional neighbors, and was headed by the US.
Rice also knocked Trump for his latest decision on pulling out the US from the Paris climate agreement, which according to her has put the country “at odds with virtually the entire world.”

“Europe and China stand together on the Paris accord, while the United States is isolated.”
Obama, whose administration helped negotiate the Paris accord, has harshly criticized Trump's decision with his Secretary of State John Kerry describing the move "self-destructive" to the US interests.
Rice further criticized Trump’s “reckless refusal to reaffirm our commitment to the defense of our allies under Article 5” during his trip to Europe last week. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization’ Article 5 stipulates that other NATO allies must come to the aid of an ally under attack if it is invoked.
Trump said the only time that Article 5 has been invoked was after the September 11, 2001 attacks, when the alliance answered Washington’s call for joining a war in Afghanistan, which lasted for almost 16 years.

Rice said by such decisions; the US has “voluntarily” given up its global leadership post because it has isolated itself from the international arena.”
Trump’s move is a “coup de grâce for America’s postwar global leadership for the foreseeable future,” she said. “We will see the cost when next we need the world to rally to our side."
Rice also warned "It won’t be long before a fresh crisis arises."

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