Latest news with #USWithdrawal
Japan Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Japan Times
Trump vowed to save Afghans, but UAE had already sent some evacuees back, cable shows
Days before U.S. President Donald Trump said he would help Afghan evacuees who fled their country and were stuck in the United Arab Emirates, the Emirati government had already begun returning them to Afghanistan and informed Washington that it was doing so, according to an internal State Department cable on Sunday. The UAE, a close security partner of the United States, agreed in 2021 to temporarily house several thousand Afghans evacuated from Kabul as the Taliban ousted the U.S.-backed government during the final stages of the U.S.-led withdrawal. Throughout the years, about 17,000 Afghan evacuees have been processed through the Abu Dhabi facility, known as Emirates Humanitarian City. However, more than 30 remaining Afghans have been stuck, with their fate in limbo. News outlet "Just the News" reported on Sunday that UAE officials were preparing to hand over some Afghan refugees to the Taliban. "I will try to save them, starting right now," Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Sunday that linked to an article on the Afghans held in limbo there. However, it may already be too late for some. In a July 10 meeting with U.S. officials in Abu Dhabi, Salem al-Zaabi, UAE Special Advisor to the Foreign Minister, told the Americans that two families had been "successfully and safely" sent back to Afghanistan in early July, the cable, which had the same date as the meeting, said. Al-Zaabi told the Americans that while the UAE understood the current policy from Washington, it was going to move to "close this chapter for good" and therefore would move to return the remaining 25 individuals by Sunday, July 20, according to the cable. He added that the Emirati government would seek assurances from the Taliban that their safety is guaranteed. It was not immediately clear if the remaining individuals had been sent back or the circumstances of the two families returned to Afghanistan. Afghan burqa-clad women sit along a street in Kandahar on Monday. | AFP-JIJI The cable and the return of the two Afghan families back to Afghanistan have not been previously reported. Trump, based on his Truth Social post, appeared to be out of the loop on the UAE's plans. The State Department, the White House and the UAE government did not have immediate comment for this story. Al-Zaabi told the U.S. officials that the two families were returned to Afghanistan in early July "at their request, since they were tired of waiting," the cable said. But two sources familiar with the matter disputed that account, saying that the UAE government and Taliban's ambassador to the UAE were making Afghan families at the Emirates Humanitarian City choose between signing a "voluntary" deportation letter to Afghanistan or being arrested to be forcefully deported to the country on Monday. The cable also said Al-Zaabi asked the U.S. to coordinate "perception management" to ensure Washington and Abu Dhabi were aligned on their messaging on the topic as the UAE did not want criticism from the nongovernmental organizations "due to the inability of the United States to resettle the population in the United States or elsewhere." The fate of the more than 30 Afghan evacuees and how the administration handles their cases is crucial for the future of another 1,500 Afghan men, women and children who have been stuck in a similar facility in Camp As Sayliyah in Qatar. Former President Joe Biden's administration, since its chaotic U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, has brought nearly 200,000 Afghans to the United States. Trump, a Republican who promised a far-reaching immigration crackdown, suspended refugee resettlement after he took office in January. In April, the Trump administration terminated temporary deportation protections for thousands of Afghans in the U.S. Democrats have urged Trump to restore temporary protected status for Afghans, saying women and children could face particular harm under the Taliban-led government. Since seizing power, Afghanistan's Taliban administration has rolled back hard-fought rights won by Afghan women and girls during two decades of rule by American-backed governments. They have imposed limits on schooling, work and general independence in daily life. Refugees include family members of Afghan-American U.S. military personnel, children cleared to reunite with their parents, relatives of Afghans already admitted and tens of thousands of Afghans who worked for the U.S. government during the 20-year war. Advocacy group #AfghanEvac urged Trump to follow up on his post with action. "That means working to immediately secure protections and departures for the Afghans at the Emirates Humanitarian City in UAE and Camp As Sayliyah in Qatar and ensuring they are not deported back into the hands of the Taliban," the group said in a statement.
LBCI
2 days ago
- Politics
- LBCI
Trump vowed to save Afghans, but UAE had already sent some back; cable shows
Days before President Donald Trump said he would help Afghan evacuees who fled their country and were stuck in the United Arab Emirates, the Emirati government had already begun returning them to Afghanistan and informed Washington that it was doing so, according to an internal State Department cable seen by Reuters on Sunday. The UAE, a close security partner of the United States, agreed in 2021 to temporarily house several thousand Afghans evacuated from Kabul as the Taliban ousted the U.S.-backed government during the final stages of the U.S.-led withdrawal. Reuters
RNZ News
3 days ago
- Politics
- RNZ News
Trump says he will help Afghans stuck in the UAE
By Doina Chiacu , Reuters US President Donald Trump. Photo: Getty Images/CNN Newsource US President Donald Trump has said he would help Afghans detained in the United Arab Emirates for years after fleeing their country when the United States pulled out and the Taliban took power. Trump, a Republican who promised a far-reaching immigration crackdown, suspended refugee resettlement after he took office in January. In April, the Trump administration terminated temporary deportation protections for thousands of Afghans in the US. "I will try to save them, starting right now," Trump said in a post on Truth Social that linked to an article on the Afghans held in limbo there. Trump cited news website "Just the News" as saying that UAE officials were preparing to hand over some Afghan refugees to the Taliban. Reuters has not confirmed the report. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The UAE, a close security partner of the United States, agreed in 2021 to temporarily house several thousand Afghans evacuated from Kabul as the Taliban ousted the US-backed government during the final stages of the US-led withdrawal. Nearly 200,000 Afghans were brought to the US by former President Joe Biden's administration since the chaotic US troop withdrawal from Kabul. Canada agreed in 2022 to resettle about 1000 of the Afghans still held in the UAE after a US request. It is unclear how many remain in the Gulf country. Some countries have forced Afghan refugees to return to Afghanistan. Nearly 2 million Afghans were returned from Iran and Pakistan in the past seven months, the United Nations said last week. Germany on Friday deported 81 Afghan men to Afghanistan amid a tightening of refugee admissions. Some other European countries are pushing to tighten asylum rules in the bloc. In the United States, Democrats have urged Trump to restore temporary protected status for Afghans, saying women and children could face particular harm under the Taliban-led government in place since 2021. Refugees include family members of Afghan-American US military personnel, children cleared to reunite with their parents, relatives of Afghans already admitted and tens of thousands of Afghans who worked for the US government during the 20-year war. Shawn VanDiver, president of the #AfghanEvac advocacy group, urged Trump to follow up on his post with action. "President Trump has the authority to do the right thing. He should instruct DHS (Department of Homeland Security) and the Department of State to expedite processing, push for third-country partnerships, and ensure that we never again leave our wartime allies behind," he said in a statement. -Reuters
Russia Today
6 days ago
- Politics
- Russia Today
It's time, Ukraine: Kiev braces for a final reckoning
In our previous pieces, we examined Donald Trump's half-hearted attempts to cast himself as a deus ex machina, descending to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Peace did not follow. Trump, boxed in by political inertia, continued Biden's policy of disengagement while trying to dump the Ukrainian problem on Western Europe – just as we predicted back in January. Its leaders weren't prepared. While Macron and Starmer formed coalitions of the willing and delivered lofty speeches, Germany quietly picked up the tab. Berlin, under its new chancellor, has shown more flexibility, but the broader Western European strategy remains unchanged: keep Washington bankrolling Ukraine at all costs. That plan is now crumbling. Trump is slipping away, and without a dramatic turn of events, no new major aid packages should be expected from the US. This is not hard to understand. Other global crises are emerging, and the depleted American arsenal cannot serve everyone at once. In both Ukraine and across Western Europe, people are adjusting to what once seemed unthinkable: a slow but steady US withdrawal. These European leaders must now decide whether to carry the burden alone or accept a settlement on Moscow's terms – conceding Ukraine from their sphere of influence. But neither Kiev nor its immediate sponsors is ready for serious negotiations. Why would they be? Ukraine believes it can hold without American backing. Russian oil revenues have dipped, the ruble is under pressure, and Moscow has taken hits in the Middle East and Caucasus. Perhaps, they reason, Putin will come begging in another year or two. Let's fight, then. Amid this political theater, the war itself has faded into the background. For many observers, the front lines seem frozen in time – village names flicker in and out of headlines, lines shift, but the broader picture holds. It's a difficult situation for military analysts. They are forced to generate drama from attritional warfare. One day, headlines declare the Lugansk Peoples Republic fully liberated (a few villages remain contested). The next, we hear of Russian forces entering the Dnepropetrovsk region (true in a narrow sense – they crossed a small corner in a broader encirclement maneuver around Pokrovsk). None of this, however, alters the core dynamic. Both sides are largely following the same strategies as a year ago. For Russia, the aim remains clear: exhaust Ukrainian forces until they can no longer defend. The goal isn't to seize a specific line, but to break the enemy's army. Russia has pursued this with steady, grinding pressure. Last winter, Moscow shifted from large mechanized thrusts to small, flexible assault groups. Instead of smashing through defenses, these units infiltrate after prolonged bombardment from artillery, drones, and air power. The results aren't flashy, but the goal is cumulative. The summer campaign began in May; we'll see its full effect by late summer or even winter. This mirrors the pattern of 2024, when Russian forces made their biggest gains in October and November, capturing several cities in Donetsk with minimal resistance – Novogrodovka, Ugledar, Selidovo, Kurakhovo. The key question now is scale: can Russia turn these tactical wins into a full collapse of Ukrainian lines? The answer depends in part on the weakened state of Ukraine's forces. By spring, Kiev had fewer armored vehicles, fewer Western shipments, and fewer elite units. The best troops were spent in the failed Kursk push and are now stuck holding Sumy. But the gravest issue is manpower. The supply of volunteers has dried up. Ukraine's army now relies on forced conscription – the so-called 'busified.' And the results are telling. In just the first half of this year, Ukraine recorded over 107,000 criminal cases for desertion – 20% more than in all of 2024, and nearly half of the total since the war began. That's only the official count; the real number is undoubtedly higher. Desertion is now the Ukrainian army's leading cause of losses. Draft officers are hated, and civilians fear being dragged into vans and thrown to the front. Power outages have lessened, and life behind the lines is almost normal. But the threat of forced mobilization looms. In a telling detail, real soldiers now mark their cars with 'not TCR' to avoid attacks from angry civilians. So how does Ukraine still hold the line? The answer is drones. As we've reported before, the drone war is reshaping military doctrine. Both sides now operate in a battlefield dominated by constant aerial surveillance – Mavic or Matrice drones scouting every move, FPV drones striking within minutes. In such conditions, defense holds the upper hand. Any movement in the 'zero zone' or rear is dangerous. No one has yet found a reliable way to break through such defenses quickly. It's a slow war of attrition. While Russia refines its assault tactics, Ukraine has focused on entrenching its drone defenses. Its latest move is the introduction of 'kill zones' – defensive belts 10 to 15km deep, controlled primarily by UAVs, not artillery. The idea is to neutralize Russia's air and artillery superiority, turning Ukrainian defenses into no-go areas. This strategy requires fewer troops. All Ukraine needs is a small, motivated core and a huge stock of drones – and in this area, they've seen success. Defense Express reports Ukraine's domestic drone output has increased tenfold over the past year and may hit 2.4 million units in 2025. But there's a catch. For all their talk of modern warfare, Kiev still craves spectacle. What we call 'military actionism' has become a political necessity. To maintain Western support and boost public morale, Ukrainian leaders pursue headline-grabbing offensives. Last year's incursion into the Kursk region is a prime example – an operation that ultimately drained resources from the Donbass and weakened Ukraine's main front. If Kiev avoids such distractions this year and focuses on defense, it will strengthen its position. But that's a big 'if.' As of mid-July, the 2025 summer campaign is in full swing. Ukraine withstood the initial May assaults, but the front is still moving. Russian strikes on rear infrastructure have intensified. The rate of Ukrainian attrition is now estimated to be three times higher than a year ago. In the coming months, we'll see which model prevails: Russia's methodical offensive, or Ukraine's drone-based defense. If the front stalls, Kiev lives to fight another year. But if Russian forces punch through, 2025 may mark the end of Ukraine as we know article was first published by Russia in Global Affairs, translated and edited by the RT team
News24
17-06-2025
- Politics
- News24
US pulls out of two more bases in Syria, worrying Kurdish forces
US forces have exited multiple northeastern Syria bases, leading to gaps in combating Islamic State threats. Syria sees an increasing ISIS presence, with activities near closed US bases and attacks on SDF forces. SDF expresses insufficient troop presence to contain ISIS, emphasising efforts to maintain pressure on the group. US forces have pulled out of two more bases in northeastern Syria, visiting Reuters reporters found, accelerating a troop drawdown that the commander of US-backed Syrian Kurdish forces said was allowing a resurgence of Islamic State. Reuters reporters who visited the two bases in the past week found them mostly deserted, both guarded by small contingents of the Syrian Democratic Forces - the Kurdish-led military group that Washington has backed in the fight against Islamic State for a decade. Cameras used on bases occupied by the US-led military coalition had been taken down, and razor wire on the outer perimeters had begun to sag. A Kurdish politician who lives on one base said there were no longer US troops there. SDF guards at the second base said troops had left recently but declined to say when. The Pentagon declined to comment. It is the first confirmation by reporters on the ground that the US has withdrawn from Al-Wazir and Tel Baydar bases in Hasaka province. This brings the number of bases in Syria US troops have left to at least four since President Donald Trump took office. Trump's administration said this month it will scale down its military presence in Syria to one base from eight in parts of northeastern Syria that the SDF controls. The New York Times reported in April that troops might be reduced from 2 000 to 500 in the drawdown. The SDF did not respond to questions about the current number of troops and open US bases in northeastern Syria. But SDF commander Mazloum Abdi, who spoke to Reuters at another US base, Al Shadadi, said the presence of a few hundred troops on one base would be "not enough" to contain the threat of Islamic State. He said: The threat of Islamic State has significantly increased recently. But this is the US military's plan. We've known about it for a long time ... and we're working with them to make sure there are no gaps, and we can maintain pressure on Islamic State. Abdi spoke to Reuters on Friday, hours after Israel launched its air war on Iran. He declined to comment on how the new Israel-Iran war would affect Syria, saying simply that he hoped it would not spill over there and that he felt safe on a US base. Hours after the interview, three Iranian-made missiles targeted the Al Shadadi base and were shot down by US defence systems, two SDF security sources said. ISIS active in Syrian cities Islamic State, also known as ISIS and Daesh, ruled vast swathes of Iraq and Syria from 2014 to 2017 during Syria's civil war, imposing a vision of Islamic rule under which it beheaded locals in city squares, sex-trafficked members of the Yazidi minority and executed foreign journalists and aid workers. The group, from its strongholds in Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq, also launched deadly attacks in European and Middle Eastern countries. A US-led military Coalition of more than 80 countries waged a yearslong campaign to defeat the group and end its territorial control, supporting Iraqi forces and the SDF. READ | Syria investigates 'extremely disturbing instances' of minority revenge killings But Islamic State has been reinvigorated since the ouster of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in December at the hands of separate Islamist rebels. Abdi said ISIS cells had become active in several Syrian cities, including Damascus, and that a group of foreign jihadists who once battled the Syrian regime had joined its ranks. He did not elaborate. He said ISIS had seized weapons and ammunition from Syrian regime depots in the chaos after Assad's fall. Several Kurdish officials told Reuters that Islamic State had already begun moving more openly around US bases which had recently been shuttered, including near the cities of Deir Ezzor and Raqqa, once strongholds for the extremist group. In areas the SDF controls east of the Euphrates River, ISIS has waged a series of attacks and killed at least 10 SDF fighters and security forces, Abdi said. Attacks included a roadside bomb targeting a convoy of oil tankers on a road near the US base where he gave the interview.
