Heart of Asia Conference on Afghanistan Kicks Off in Dushanbe
Voice of America
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - A regional ministerial conference called the Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process (HoA-IP) started Monday in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe to try to advance the goal of ending the decades long conflict in Afghanistan.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who arrived early Monday to attend the annual conference, also met his Tajik counterpart Emomali Rahmon on the sidelines. The meeting is just the latest in a flurry of diplomatic efforts to jumpstart a peace process that has been stalled for months. The gathering is taking place as a May 1 deadline, negotiated separately between the United States and Taliban, to withdraw all foreign forces from Afghanistan, looms. President Joe Biden told reporters in his first press conference last week that it was “going to be hard to meet the May 1 deadline."Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. Fire rages following an Israeli strike on an area designated for displaced Palestinians, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, in this still picture taken from a video, May 26, 2024. Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. A member of the bomb squad of the Israeli police collects debris after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants struck in the Israeli city of Herzliya on May 26, 2024.