International

WASHINGTON: The US military is drafting plans to withdraw a few thousand troops from Afghanistan, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday, adding that the reduction will not affect major missions. The drafting follows instructions from US President Donald Trump to send him options for pulling out from a war, the longest in American history. The Post reported that the Pentagon …

KABUL: Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah said on Wednesday that the Taliban’s refusal to involve the government in peace talks means the end to a conflict that has lasted 17 years can only remain a dream. Abdullah’s remarks came a day after the Taliban called off a fourth round of talks with US officials in Qatar, due to start this …

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump used a prime-time address to the nation on Tuesday to insist on $5.7 billion for a steel wall along the Mexican border that he said would stop the shedding of “American blood” by illegal immigrants. The nine-minute speech from the storied Oval Office in the White House contained no concessions to Democrats refusing to fund construction …

Chinese President Xi Jinping offered North Korean leader Kim Jong Un firm backing in deadlocked nuclear talks with the United States, insisting the two sides should meet “halfway”, state media said on Thursday. Kim visited Beijing by train this week for two days of talks that reasserted China’s role in the process, and were seen as a strategy session ahead of …

BERLIN: Deadly winter weather blasted Europe for yet another day on Tuesday, trapping hundreds of people in Alpine regions, whipping up high winds that caused flight delays and cancellations and raising the risks of more deadly avalanches in the mountains. At least 12 people have been killed in weather-related accidents in Europe over the last week, most of them from …

AMMAN: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged Middle East allies on Tuesday to confront “significant threats” posed by Iran and jihadists as he visited a region shaken by Washington’s surprise decision to withdraw from Syria. The top US diplomat, in Jordan on the first leg of his longest trip since taking the post last year, said that the US …

ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday condemned comments by a key US envoy over the future of a US-allied Syrian Kurdish militia as a “grave mistake”, as tensions flared over Washington’s planned withdrawal from war-torn Syria. Erdogan’s comments came shortly after US National Security Adviser John Bolton held talks in the Turkish capital with Erdogan’s adviser Ibrahim Kalin, …

BEIRUT: Diehard militants defending their last bastions in eastern Syria used the cover of bad weather to launch a vain but deadly counterattack against Kurdish-led fighters. The so-called Islamic State group was unable to hold on to the positions they attacked but the assault killed 23 members of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and also left nine militants dead. …

THE HAGUE: The EU hit Iran’s intelligence services with sanctions on Tuesday after accusing Tehran of being behind plots to assassinate regime opponents on Dutch, Danish, and French soil. The move by the 28-nation bloc was anno­unced as the Dutch government said it believed Iran was behind the murders of two dissidents in 2015 and 2017. “Very encouraging that [the] …

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump is likely to tell Americans in a prime-time speech on Tuesday (Wednesday morning in Pakistan) that the US-Mexico border is in “crisis” and Congress must approve construction of a wall to end a government shutdown. After weeks of lashing out at Democratic opponents, mostly via Twitter and impromptu press conferences, Trump will deploy the presidency’s biggest …