Olympics, Haiti won't affect Afghan deployment: Senior general

Corporal Jean-Sebastien Giroux, a Flight Engineer for a CH-147 Chinook helicopter, provides security from the ramp during a flight mission. The Canadian Helicopter Force from the Joint Task Force Afghanistan Air Wing includes eight CH-146 Griffons where their primary role is to escort transport helicopter.Photograph by: Master Corporal Angela Abbey, CNDKANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — Although Canadian troops were "ferociously busy," the commander of the army has concluded that the current humanitarian operation in Haiti
and security demands for the upcoming Olympics will not affect scheduled deployments to Afghanistan.


"My guys have just gone through all the math (and) there is no impact on the current rotation lengths, tour gates for the deployed forces or those going into Afghanistan between now and the end of the mission," Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie said in a telephone interview Friday after returning to Ottawa, following a visit with nearly 4,000 Canadian troops at Fort Irwin, Calif., who are training to deploy to Afghanistan later this year.


Leslie's comments will put to rest speculation among the nearly 3,000 Canadian soldiers now in Afghanistan and those serving elsewhere about what effect the sudden dispatch of about 1,500 Canadian troops to Haiti this month to help earthquake survivors might have on a force that is being seriously stretched by the Afghan combat mission and a massive security operation for the Vancouver Olympics that involves another 4,000 Canadian troops.


Leslie confirmed that the Quebec-based 3rd Battalion, Royal 22nd Regiment, most of which is now in Haiti, was needed "back in Canada by the end of March, early April, so that they can start their training because they are on deck to go to Afghanistan in December" where they are to be the core element of a team of military trainers that mentors the Afghan army in Kandahar.


"If I have to replace 3 Van Doo with other folks, the government of Canada will let me know," Leslie said, adding that until now, the Canadian Forces have not received any new direction about this from the government.


While declining to say anything about what the army might be able to do to help in Haiti beyond early April, the general said there were "contingency plans for everything."


Despite the demands on the army, Leslie said morale remained so high that when he asked soldiers training in California this week whether any of them wanted to withdraw from their upcoming Afghan tour, the answer was unanimously "no."


Similarly, within hours of the Haiti mission being announced, the general said that so many soldiers wanted to go there that the army had to turn many of them down.


The decision to leave the Afghan plans as they were came after the army staff in Ottawa studied the troop requirements for Kandahar, Haiti and the Olympics and the complex business of synchronizing different levels of training for troops from across Canada going to Afghanistan with such crucial issues as the availability of ranges, ammunition and airlift.


Before the Haiti earthquake, Leslie informed troops slated to deploy to Afghanistan that their tours, which have mostly been either six or nine months in length, would all be extended by four or five weeks.


"The intent behind those tour extensions was to marry up the last of the fighting formations so that they terminate their combat activities as directed by Parliament at the end of June (2011)," the 'three-leaf' general said. "The last group going in will provide security elements to bring everything out of where it is now and centralize it with a remit to get it out by the end of December."


The chief of the army confirmed that the drawdown of forces in 2011 is to be protected by the Alberta-based 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. This was also the first Canadian unit to deploy to Afghanistan early in 2002. The battalion will begin its fourth Afghan tour when it deploys to Kandahar early in the summer of 2011.


"The 3 PPCLI folks' job will be 99 per cent security," Leslie said, "but let's not underestimate the dangers of the security force whose remit is to go out and provide escort for the multiple hundreds of vehicles and thousands of tons of equipment that has to go back to Kandahar and be packaged to be sent home."

Source:edmontonjournal.com

Japanese PM Asks for Iran's Help in Rebuilding Afghanistan

TEHRAN (FNA)- Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama lauded Iran's regional role and clout, and asked for Tehran's assistance with Tokyo's aid plans to Afghan reconstruction.





"Rendering help to Afghan reconstruction is Japan's strategy and Tokyo needs the Islamic Republic of Iran's help to play a constructive role in the region," Hatoyama said in a meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday with the visiting Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), Saeed Jalili.

He praised Iran-Japan age-old and intimate ties, and expressed the hope that the two countries' cooperation in different fields would further expand.

The Japanese premier viewed Jalili's upcoming visit to Kashiwazaki nuclear plant and the city of Hiroshima as important parts of his itinerary, saying that Japan enjoys an advanced technology in grounds of nuclear plants safety and has valuable experiences in the construction of such nuclear facilities.

Jalili, who is also Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, arrived in Tokyo on Sunday to meet with senior Japanese officials.

Jalili's 4-day visit to Japan came at an official invitation by the Tokyo officials.

During the meeting, Jalili reminded the different fields available for the two countries' mutual, regional and international cooperation, and said that joint efforts by the two countries for nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation as well as Iran-Tokyo cooperation within the framework of Tehran's package of nuclear and security proposals to the West could serve as the most important fields of interaction between the two sides.

He also underlined that military approaches will not necessarily resolve current problems in the region, and noted, "Deployment of new forces in Afghanistan means repeating the experience of past failures."

Source:english.farsnews.com/

Afghan business thrives on Iran's border

When Hajji Zekrullah Ahmadyar drives out of Herat, he witnesses an urban tableau that is in many ways atypical of modern Afghanistan.

Mr. Ahmadyar navigates over smooth asphalt as the car passes this city's broad, clean-swept avenues. He soon reaches some 70 factories fed by 24-hour power. When he arrives at his own mineral-water bottling company, he strolls to the new plant he is building. Business is good, he says, so he is expanding his operations.

In many places, paved roads, clean sidewalks, constant power, and relative security would be considered modest achievements. But in Afghanistan, they make Herat a model for what the country could someday become. The city is a window on how Afghan entrepreneurism can take hold when given the time and security to flourish – and what role Afghanistan's neighbors can play in helping to create these conditions.

Yet Herat's culture is still unique among Afghan cities. Its success is a blend of geography and good business sense, each intertwined with this city's vaunted history as the Silk Road's gateway to Central Asia.

Where once spices and camels found passage through this parched desert outpost, now cars and televisions from the Middle East are taxed in its customs houses, generating the wealth for what one expert calls the Dubai of Afghanistan.

"This is the culture of the people of Herat, and this is the positive influence of Iran," says Mohammed Rafiq Shahir, president of the Council of Professionals, a group of analysts and businesspeople here.

In contrast with Pakistani border areas, which have been overrun by the Taliban, Herat – just 75 miles from the Iranian border – has flourished with the help of Iran, one of the Karzai government's strongest supporters. In Herat, for example, Iran has linked the city to the Iranian power grid and built a highway to the border.

More important, the border areas have been largely peaceful, allowing Herat to concentrate on what it does best: business. Since 2001, Herat has attracted $350 million in private investment for industry – more than any other Afghan city, including Kabul, which is some 10 times larger. In total, 250 medium- and large-scale factories have been built in Herat, according to the Afghan Investment Support Agency. The northern city of Mazar-e Sharif comes second with 100 fewer.

It is a legacy of Herat's location. As a trading hub for more than a millennium, Herat has always had money. By some estimates, the money collected at customs houses in Herat is Afghanistan's largest source of revenue, bringing in $1 million a day in duties on goods imported from Iran and Turkmenistan.

Successive administrations – from the Communists to the Taliban to the Karzai government – have sought to take their share. But strong local warlords and diffuse national authority have kept much of it here.

In the shade of Khorasan Street, beneath tarps strung from second-floor windows to offer relief from the desert sun, Herati shopkeepers say they are eager for Afghan-made products. Among the multicolored boxes and bottles that look like a rainbow avalanche of soaps, shampoos, and cookie wrappers, merchants say many of the goods were made locally.

"Compared with the past, we have fewer things from Iran and we have more things from Afghanistan," says Abdul Qader, a shopkeeper.

It is a sign that Herat has used its business acumen to stand on its own, says Gov. Syed Hossein Anwari. "Different parts of Afghanistan have different talents," he says, adding that what sets Herat apart is its creativity. "If I explain the success of Herat to other governors, I tell them that it is the people," he says.

Neighbors have collected money among themselves to pay to have their streets paved, taking bids from Afghan and Iranian contractors. The city's streets are relatively free of garbage. It is the culture of independence and pride drawn from Herat's legacy as a leading city of Khorasan, the ancient Persian homeland whose remnants still resonate from the blue-tiled mosques and minarets of Herat, says the governor. To others, however, it is merely the fresh expectations that have come with a prosperity unique in Afghanistan.

"It is possible if we speak of the culture of Herat, we are speaking of a culture that demands more," says Mr. Shahir.

With such wealth at hand, Herat has become Afghanistan's finishing school for entrepreneurs. "As our elders always said, 'When a Herati is born, a businessman is born,' " says Ahmadyar, the mineral water entrepreneur.

Though he was the youngest son of his family, Ahmadyar never had any notions of becoming anything other than a businessman. "I was not making castles in the sky," he says. "I was thinking I would make the business of the family."

That meant importing cigarettes from Bulgaria. And so he did for a time. But the new regime has brought new opportunities. "Since 2003, when the government of Afghanistan was established, the Herati people have started to focus more on industry – before that, we were just involved in trade," Ahmadyar says.

He now is involved in construction – Afghanistan's largest legal industry – and when the government offered land in a new Herat business park tax-free for five years, he saw another opportunity. He didn't even know what he would do – perhaps make soda. But a lab test of the water showed it was so pure that he decided to open a mineral-water business.

So far, he has invested $600,000 in Zalal water, and it is profitable, he says. With his new facilities coming on line, he might consider starting a soda brand, after all.