Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the U.S. ambassador to Israel’s guidance to embassy staff amid Iran tensions, and the British Labour Party’s special election defeat.
‘Open War’
Pakistan has said it is in an “open war” with Afghanistan’s Taliban regime as cross-border strikes reached their fiercest levels in years. “[T]he Taliban became a proxy for India,” Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif wrote on X on Thursday. “Our cup of patience has overflowed. Now it is open war between us and you.”
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the U.S. ambassador to Israel’s guidance to embassy staff amid Iran tensions, and the British Labour Party’s special election defeat.
‘Open War’
Pakistan has said it is in an “open war” with Afghanistan’s Taliban regime as cross-border strikes reached their fiercest levels in years. “[T]he Taliban became a proxy for India,” Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif wrote on X on Thursday. “Our cup of patience has overflowed. Now it is open war between us and you.”
Islamabad alleges that Kabul is harboring the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. In recent years, the militant group has killed hundreds of Pakistani security personnel. According to a United Nations Security Council report published this month, Kabul has provided the Pakistani Taliban with weapons, such as rifles and drones. But the Taliban regime has denied hosting the group, instead arguing that Pakistan is trying to deflect blame from its own domestic security weaknesses.
On Thursday, Afghan troops stormed more than 50 Pakistani border positions in response to Pakistani strikes earlier this week. “Our operation last night was a retaliatory operation and a response to Pakistan’s operation, not an attack to start a war against Pakistan,” Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid said on Friday.
Hours later, the Pakistani military launched a wave of airstrikes targeting more than 20 locations, including in Afghanistan’s two largest cities. According to Pakistani military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, strikes hit military sites in Kabul and the southern city of Kandahar, where Afghan Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada lives.
The exact number of casualties is unknown. On Friday, Chaudhry said that Pakistani forces had killed 274 people in Afghanistan—without distinguishing between Taliban militants and civilians—and wounded more than 400 others. Meanwhile, Mujahid said that Afghan troops had killed 55 Pakistani soldiers. Civilian deaths were not specified. However, Islamabad confirmed that 12 of its soldiers were killed, while Kabul added that it had lost 13 Taliban troops.
Initial death tolls highlight the military prowess of each country. Although Pakistan is a nuclear-armed nation whose military is considered vastly superior to Afghanistan’s, the Taliban have years of experience in guerrilla warfare, giving them an advantage during ground incursions.
The last time that Pakistan and Afghanistan engaged in heavy fighting was October. Although Qatar mediated a cease-fire between the two sides, several rounds of peace talks in Turkey the following month failed to produce a lasting agreement, and both countries have occasionally traded fire since.
“Pakistan does not view its border problem with Afghanistan as merely cartographic but existential,” FP columnist C. Raja Mohan argued at the time.
On Friday, the Taliban regime suggested that it is willing to negotiate with Islamabad. “Afghanistan has never been a supporter of violence and has always preferred to resolve issues based on mutual understanding and respect,” Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi told Mohammed bin Abdulaziz al-Khulaifi, Qatar’s minister of state for foreign affairs, during a phone call. “However, this approach will be effective only if the other party demonstrates a practical and sincere willingness to find solutions.”
Today’s Most Read
What We’re Following
“An abundance of caution.” U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told embassy workers on Friday that if they wish to leave the country, they “should do so TODAY.” This is out of “an abundance of caution” following conversations with the U.S. State Department, Huckabee wrote in an email seen by the New York Times, adding that U.S. personnel should purchase commercial flights out of Ben Gurion International Airport to any destination that they can book passage to.
Although Huckabee stressed that there was “no need to panic,” speculation is mounting that such a warning could foreshadow a U.S. attack on Iran. According to Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, U.S. and Iranian officials made “significant progress” toward reaching a nuclear deal during talks in Geneva on Thursday, and the two sides are expected to hold technical-level discussions in Vienna next week.
However, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that he is “not happy” with the talks’ outcome so far but that he hadn’t yet made a decision on whether to strike Iran. “We have the greatest military anywhere in the world. There’s nothing close. I’d love not to use it, but sometimes you have to. We’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters. He said that additional talks were expected to take place later in the day.
Also on Friday, the State Department confirmed that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is still expected to visit Israel on March 2-3, though he is not planning to take reporters.
A “disappointing” Labour loss. Britain’s Green Party won a special election in northwest England on Thursday, according to results announced early Friday, marking the second by-election defeat for the ruling Labour Party since Prime Minister Keir Starmer took office. Labour’s loss was further exacerbated by its placing, falling behind the far-right Reform U.K. party to take third with just around 25 percent of the vote. This is the first time that Labour has not controlled the seat (with one exception) since 1906.
Labour chair Anna Turley described the results as “deeply disappointing,” but Starmer vowed to continue to “fight against the extremes in politics on the right and the left, parties who want to tear our country apart,” for “as long as I’ve got breath in my body.” However, the loss of another by-election has intensified calls for his resignation.
Labour has repeatedly touted itself as the best way to prevent Reform U.K. from taking power as far-right nationalism surges across the country. But Labour lawmakers are now beginning to question whether the party’s strategy is effective. “In an election we tried to make into one of unity versus division, the electorate chose division—just not the division we were campaigning most against,” one Labour parliamentarian told Reuters.
Surge of approval. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called snap parliamentary elections on Thursday following a surge of public support for her handling of Trump’s efforts to acquire Greenland. Frederiksen’s Social Democrats formed a minority government with other left-leaning parties in 2019, then grew to a majority grand coalition in 2022 after securing a coalition with centrist parties. The new vote will take place on March 24, more than six months before Frederiksen was due to hold elections.
Last month, Trump dropped his threat to seize the semiautonomous Danish territory by force after announcing that he and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte had “formed the framework of a future deal” on Greenland. Still, Frederiksen remains wary. “As everyone knows, the conflict about Greenland isn’t over yet,” she said during a speech to Parliament on Thursday, adding that Denmark must “continue rearming itself” to counter “the Russian war machine from the east, threats from the west, and the risk of terror from the south.”
On Saturday, the U.S. president announced that he was planning to send a hospital ship to Greenland, claiming that many of its residents are sick and “not being taken care of.” Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen rejected the proposal, telling Trump that Nuuk provides free health care for all its citizens—unlike the United States.
What in the World?
Why were more than 1,000 people trapped in Mexico’s Guadalajara Zoo overnight on Sunday?
A. The presence of low-flying drones over the city
B. A bomb threat made at the nearby Jalisco Stadium
C. Violence related to the capture of a cartel leader
D. Escaped zoo animals roaming the surrounding streets
Odds and Ends
Animal lovers are going bananas for a baby macaque named Punch. The 7-month-old monkey went viral this month when zookeepers at Japan’s Ichikawa City Zoo gifted Punch a plush Ikea orangutang toy to help him cope with social anxiety after being abandoned by his mother. Fans are flocking to the zoo to offer their support, and Ikea has donated more stuffed animals for Punch to cuddle with. “Just like the zookeepers, we sincerely hope that Punch will soon become comfortable in an environment with the other monkeys and no longer need the soft toy,” Ikea said in a statement to USA Today on Thursday.
And the Answer Is…
C. Violence related to the capture of a cartel leader
As long as money can be made selling drugs, eliminating one cartel boss will simply lead to the installation of a replacement, Antonio De Loera-Brust argues.
To take the rest of FP’s weekly international news quiz, click here, or sign up to be alerted when a new one is published.
