U.S. Envoy Reaches Out to Iran in Afghan Visit

Mujahid Kakar, seated at right, watching his interview in Kabul with Richard C. Holbrooke.

By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.

Published: February 15, 2009

KABUL, Afghanistan — President Obama’s top envoy to Afghanistan declared Sunday that Iran should play a vital role helping stabilize the war-torn country. It was the latest statement by Obama officials signaling a clear shift away from the Bush administration’s policy of avoiding direct engagement with Tehran.

The Obama administration has been very critical of Iran’s suspected pursuit of a nuclear weapon and support for terrorist groups. But the comments here on Sunday by the envoy, Richard C. Holbrooke, appeared to suggest that the new administration might also seek to use discussions with Iran about Afghanistan as one way to establish a broader dialogue.

“It is absolutely clear that Iran plays an important role in Afghanistan,” Mr. Holbrooke said during an interview on Sunday with Tolo TV, a private Afghan television network. “They have a legitimate role to play in this region, as do all of Afghanistan’s neighbors.”

He also passed up an opportunity to criticize Tehran about allegations — some made by NATO officials — that it has provided help to Taliban guerrillas in Afghanistan.

“I heard those reports,” Mr. Holbrooke said. “I talked to the military command about them. I did not have enough time really to get into the details yet, but I will get into it on future trips.”

Mr. Obama has said that he will reach out to Iran for direct talks, and last week the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said that Iran was ready. The two nations have not spoken directly since the Islamic Revolution in Iran 30 years ago.

Afghanistan shares its entire western border with Iran, and a major portion of the massive Afghan opium crop is smuggled through Iran.

Mr. Holbrooke flew to India on Sunday night after making his first visits to Pakistan and Afghanistan as Mr. Obama’s special envoy to the two countries, part of the administration’s review of American policy in the region from the ground up. As security in Iraq has improved, Pakistan and Afghanistan have emerged as perhaps the most difficult foreign policy challenges facing Mr. Obama, who is already weighing whether to double the American troop deployment in Afghanistan to about 60,000.

While the situation in Pakistan remains grim, Mr. Holbrooke also said he was shocked by the problems he saw in the country, which he last visited a year ago.

He said he was especially concerned that the Swat Valley, a onetime ski resort about 100 miles from Islamabad, had been seized by Taliban guerrillas, who blow up schools, assassinate police officers and beat — or behead — those who do not adhere to their strict version of Islam.

On Sunday, the Taliban announced a 10-day cease-fire with Pakistani forces in Swat for talks with the government.

“We are very concerned about Pakistan and stability,” Mr. Holbrooke said during the interview with Tolo TV. “I was stunned by the change in Pakistan since I was last there, and about the psychological effect that the fall of much of Swat had caused for the people of Islamabad, Peshawar and even Lahore.”

Earlier on Sunday, Mr. Holbrooke and the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, appeared at a hastily arranged photo opportunity in Kabul to announce that Afghan officials would participate in a strategic review of American policy in Afghanistan. They also emphasized their commitment to hold Afghan elections in August and applauded an agreement between the American and Afghan militaries aimed at decreasing the civilian toll from American and NATO airstrikes and ground missions.

Mr. Karzai, once a favorite of the American government, has said in recent days that Mr. Obama has not spoken to him since the inauguration, a disclosure widely seen to reflect the Afghan leader’s diminished stature in Washington. Last week Mr. Obama said the Afghan government “seems very detached from what’s going on in the surrounding community.”

In Kabul, Mr. Holbrooke sought to play down the tension between Mr. Karzai and the Obama administration. “Friends often disagree,” he said during the interview on Sunday. “I don’t see the issue.”

Yet before he was named the Obama administration’s envoy, even Mr. Holbrooke criticized the Karzai government as weak.

“That was some other person using my name,” he said jokingly. “Of course I don’t repudiate anything I wrote as a private citizen. Those were my personal views at that time. I am now representing the United States.”

Roast Beef Productions, Red Start Media and Kaboora Productions are proud to announce the selection by the Sundance Film Festival Committee of their documentary AFGHAN STAR in the World Documentary category of the2008 Sundance Film Festival.

AFGHAN STAR (Director Havana Marking) tells the story of a local Afghan Pop Idol TV series in which people from across the country compete for a cash prize and record deal. 2000 people audition, including three brave women. The viewers vote for their favorite singers by mobile phone and for many this is their first encounter with democracy. This timely film follows the dramatic stories of four young contestants as they compete but it takes a terrifying turn as one young woman dances on stage, threatening her own safety and the future of the show itself. In Afghanistan you risk your life to sing.

Afghanistan’s landmark drama series, Raz hae een Khana, "The secrets of this house”, has taken the Special Award at the Seoul Drama Awards.

Screened on TOLO TV, the nation’s most popular TV station, and produced by Kaboora Production, Raz hae een Khana is the first drama series ever entirely written, acted, filmed, produced and broadcast by Afghans, for Afghans in Afghanistan. It was selected for a Special Prize amongst 152 entries from 33 countries around the world.

Media freedom under threat in Afghanistan

Kabul, 23^rd April 2008

Media freedom, enshrined within the Afghan Constitution, is today facing a crisis.  The Government’s continued manipulation of media for political gain, shrouded under the banner of Islam, has escalated with recent moves by the Ministry of Information and Culture to ban the broadcast of popular Indian produced family dramas.

The Ministry of Information and Culture has bypassed appropriate legal channels and issued an edict to broadcasters to cease broadcasting Indian produced drama .This action fails to engage the appropriate legal process of addressing the media complaints commission, who are empowered to consider and refer relevant cases to the courts.

The banned serials, already broadcast for two and a half years, have been universally popular across the traditionally conservative Afghan society.  Whilst other stations have bowed to this pressure, there is a consensus among the independent stations that this order is illegal.  In the interests of supporting a free media, TOLO TV will continue to broadcast its programs.

“TOLO TV is Afghan owned and operated and has always broadcast within the boundaries of our media laws and respected the values of our Islamic society. 

“The series currently under focus are all family oriented and conservative; their universal popularity with our audiences should provide any commonsense test of such.  The Ministry’s sudden interest in them, after years of broadcast, is more in line with hobbling the development of free media and debate in Afghanistan.  The fact that there are elections in 2009 should be lost on no one when assessing what is motivating the Ministry’s actions.

“TOLO TV has achieved its position of market leader through its focus on providing quality, appropriate entertainment as well as rigorous and fair news and current affairs.  We have developed programs that promote ethnic tolerance, education, equality, democracy and health.  Our news and current affairs teams have been rigorous in dealing with the scourges of our society, including corruption, extremism, the narcotic trade and human rights abuses.

“The Ministry’s continued and legally baseless efforts to hinder rather than support free media is a critical issue for broadcasters, the people of Afghanistan and those in the international community who believe in free media as a path to redevelopment of this nation” said Jahid Mohseni, COO of TOLO TV.

A free and fair media is critical for Afghanistan as the country moves towards its national elections scheduled for 2009.  TOLO TV, together with the Afghan National Journalists Union, is calling on all Afghans and members of the international community to ensure that Afghanistan’s media industry is allowed to operate within the boundaries of its common law and constitution, and not subjected to the political control of the current Ministry.