Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Sunday rejected any military parallels with the US wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan, dismissing concerns that his country would face imminent collapse after American forces are withdrawn.
Mr Ghani said it was time Afghanistan won back its sovereignty after 20 years of American and international presence.
“In the past two years, Afghan defence and security forces have been carrying out over 90 per cent of the operations," he told CNN.
"The risks were taken 20 years ago by the US and international forces."
US President Joe Biden said last week that all 2,500 American troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan by September 11 this year.
The US-led invasion of Afghanistan started in October 2001 after Al Qaeda's September 11 attacks on the America.
The invasion in pursuit of Al Qaeda's leadership toppled the hardline Taliban regime, who have waged an insurgency ever since.
Between 2003 and 2014, Nato led a UN-mandated mission that conducted security operations and helped to build up the Afghan security forces.
At the end of 2014, Afghan forces assumed full security responsibility, while Nato agreed to remain in a new, non-combat capacity to train and develop troops.
Mr Ghani said thousands of Afghan soldiers made the ultimate sacrifice in the fight against the Taliban.
“Now we have 40,000-strong forces and it’s high time we won back our sovereignty and start a new partnership with the Americans and international community," he said.
"We are shifting from a predominantly military partnership to a partnership based on humanitarian and economic co-operation."
Mr Ghani is an economist turned politician who was first elected in 2014 and was re-elected in 2019.
The US involvement in Afghanistan has drawn many comparisons with the Vietnam War.
The US sent troops into Vietnam in 1965 and withdrew 10 years later, after losing about 47,000 of its personnel.
A total of 2,312 US military personnel died in Afghanistan since the 2011 invasion, the Pentagon said.
At one point, the Nato mission in Afghanistan was one of the largest coalitions in history, with more than 130,000 troops from 50 Nato and partner nations.
“We aren’t Vietnam and I reject all these false analogies that Afghanistan is another Vietnam," Mr Ghani said.
"The US was not in Afghanistan for a big power competition. The region needs to wake up to this reality and Afghanistan will seek to be a permanently neutral country and won’t be a battleground for proxy wars."
What is the FNC?
The Federal National Council is one of five federal authorities established by the UAE constitution. It held its first session on December 2, 1972, a year to the day after Federation.
It has 40 members, eight of whom are women. The members represent the UAE population through each of the emirates. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have eight members each, Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah six, and Ajman, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain have four.
They bring Emirati issues to the council for debate and put those concerns to ministers summoned for questioning.
The FNC’s main functions include passing, amending or rejecting federal draft laws, discussing international treaties and agreements, and offering recommendations on general subjects raised during sessions.
Federal draft laws must first pass through the FNC for recommendations when members can amend the laws to suit the needs of citizens. The draft laws are then forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration and approval.
Since 2006, half of the members have been elected by UAE citizens to serve four-year terms and the other half are appointed by the Ruler’s Courts of the seven emirates.
In the 2015 elections, 78 of the 252 candidates were women. Women also represented 48 per cent of all voters and 67 per cent of the voters were under the age of 40.
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UAE SQUAD
Omar Abdulrahman (Al Hilal), Ali Khaseif, Ali Mabkhout, Salem Rashed, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Khalfan Mubarak, Zayed Al Ameri, Mohammed Al Attas (Al Jazira), Khalid Essa, Ahmed Barman, Ryan Yaslam, Bandar Al Ahbabi (Al Ain), Habib Fardan, Tariq Ahmed, Mohammed Al Akbari (Al Nasr), Ali Saleh, Ali Salmin (Al Wasl), Adel Al Hosani, Ali Hassan Saleh, Majed Suroor (Sharjah), Ahmed Khalil, Walid Abbas, Majed Hassan, Ismail Al Hammadi (Shabab Al Ahli), Hassan Al Muharrami, Fahad Al Dhahani (Bani Yas), Mohammed Al Shaker (Ajman)
21 Lessons for the 21st Century
Yuval Noah Harari, Jonathan Cape
Company%20profile
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FIXTURES
Thu Mar 15 – West Indies v Afghanistan, UAE v Scotland
Fri Mar 16 – Ireland v Zimbabwe
Sun Mar 18 – Ireland v Scotland
Mon Mar 19 – West Indies v Zimbabwe
Tue Mar 20 – UAE v Afghanistan
Wed Mar 21 – West Indies v Scotland
Thu Mar 22 – UAE v Zimbabwe
Fri Mar 23 – Ireland v Afghanistan
The top two teams qualify for the World Cup
Classification matches
The top-placed side out of Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong or Nepal will be granted one-day international status. UAE and Scotland have already won ODI status, having qualified for the Super Six.
Thu Mar 15 – Netherlands v Hong Kong, PNG v Nepal
Sat Mar 17 – 7th-8th place playoff, 9th-10th place playoff
Liz%20Truss
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