From Nato to Taliban: Meet the all-weather dealmaker of Afghanistan

By Devvrat Pandey:

From a US-backed elected authorities to a hardliner Taliban regime, Afghanistan has witnessed a sea of adjustments in its administration and ruling tradition. However, the nation stays open for big international companies making an attempt to make a fortune by exploiting its pure reserves. In these unsure circumstances, there are nonetheless a couple of constants ingrained within the Afghan system that make issues occur for the international gamers within the nation. The Taliban regime has signed a number of contracts with firms from China, UAE, and Qatar concerning infrastructure improvement and pure assets.

Ahmad Rateb Popal, aka Ahmad Popal, Rateb Popal, or Ahmad Ratif Popal, a former mujahid turned businessman, is the promoter of ‘Watan Group’. The enterprise group and its subsidiaries have been linked with bribery allegations in addition to factoring offers between international safety forces, rebel teams, and the Afghan regime. He had labored as a translator for the Taliban ambassador in Islamabad in 2001, throughout US and Nato safety forces operations in Afghanistan. But his story started in December 1979, when the Soviet Union initiated an operation in Afghanistan. “The Russians confiscated our land and property, and arrested my father, who disappeared along with some 100 members of my immediate family,” he as soon as instructed ‘the Humanitarian News’ about his motivation towards Russia.

So a lot in order that in early 2002, Rateb was concerned in a bomb detonation close to the Russian embassy in Kabul. He by accident linked the wires that exploded in his hand and broken one eye, arms, and some fingers on his proper hand.

Ahmad [Rateb] Popal has a number of on-line identities (Source: rocket attain, LinkedIn, Facebook)The Watan Group

The Watan Group is an organization primarily based in Afghanistan that gives telecommunications, logistics, and safety companies. It is owned by the Popal brothers (Ahmad Rateb Popal and Rashid Popal), who reportedly even have an in depth affiliation with former Afghan President Hamid Karzai. According to the corporate web site, it has an estimated income of $142.2 million. It has seven subsidiaries: AMP Trading, Ehsaan Construction, Navia Design, Sino-Afghan Steel, Watan Telecom, Watan Risk Management, and Watan Oil & Gas. Watan Risk Management’s clientele as soon as included USAID (United States Agency for International Development) and different tasks below the Nato and US army provide chain and logistics operations in Afghanistan.

The personal army arm, Watan Risk Management, was as soon as one of many few dozen personal safety firms working in Afghanistan. Its most profitable enterprise was guarding US Army truck convoys from Kabul to Kandahar, carrying provides and reinforcements for the US military.

According to Afghanistan-based RAWA News, Afghanistan has minerals, oil, and gasoline price $2.4 trillion. Its mineral wealth has all the time attracted the pursuits of international nations, and profitable Afghan regimes have dreamt of a day when the landlocked nation might wean itself off international help and turn out to be self-sufficient.

The US Congress information point out that the Watan group was as soon as linked with Taliban-led militant commander Ruhullah. Popal sought assist from Ruhullah, the commander of a militant group within the Kandahar area, to offer secure passage for American army vehicles carrying provides and reinforcements for his or her safety forces. Ruhullah reportedly charged $1,500 per truck to make sure it safely reached its vacation spot, thus not directly giving the insurgents a big sum of money that had turn out to be the main supply of revenue for Taliban militias. The US Congress expressed deep considerations and put strain on the US armed forces, asking them to pay shut consideration to who they labored with in Afghanistan. There had been considerations that Pentagon subcontractors in Afghanistan had been enriching native rulers and not directly serving to the enemy.

Watan Risk Management, the safety arm of Watan Group, was one of many personal firms accused by the Pentagon of allegedly paying insurgents to guard provide routes, basically channelling worldwide funding to the Taliban-led militant teams.

Popal’s affiliation with Taliban for offering secure passage to US provide vehicles [Analysis by Devvrat Pandey]

As per the report printed in ‘The Guardian’ NCL Holdings was one of the private security firms that received a contract from the US military to transport its supplies to the base location in Kandahar. Despite being awarded the tender, NCL had no previous experience in transportation and supply chain. The owner of NCL was Hamid Wardak, the young American son of the former Afghan Defence Minister, General Rahim Wardak. Records show that NCL sent part of its US trucks to Watan convoys and also paid bills to the group. The Watan Group’s promoters, Ahmad Retab Popal and Rashid Popal, were also closely associated with former President Hamid Karzai. Even during the US presence in the country, private security contractors were forced to pay large sums as insurance for protection from militants on the roads of Kandahar. It was an accepted reality of the military logistics operation in Afghanistan that the US government was funding its troops who were fighting.

Watan Risk Management (WRM) was later disbanded due to continued pressure from the US Congress, and a ban was imposed on further tendering to secure any contracts from the US military.

According to Michael Semple, an expert on the region of Afghanistan and Pakistan, Popal could tactfully deal with both sides, i.e., US-Nato security forces and Taliban-led militants, with ease. “It may well be that they’ve got some stretches of the road covered with agreements with enforcers and other stretches of the road where they haven’t got a functioning agreement, and that people on the other side are holding out for too much money,” he observed.

In 2011, Karzai’s close associate Rateb Popal’s Watan Oil and Gas received the oil extraction contract in a three way partnership with a Chinese state-owned agency regardless of accusations that their firms used US funds to pay safety cash to the Taliban.

According to a press notice launched by the Office of the President of Afghanistan in December 2011, former President Hamid Karzai chaired a gathering along with his cabinet and Afghanistan’s Minister of Mines and introduced a take care of a Chinese state firm (CNPC) with a neighborhood accomplice, the ‘Watan Group’. As per the deal, the Karzai authorities was to obtain a 70 per cent share of income from CNPC, 20 per cent company tax, and 15 per cent royalty.

Karizai’s workplace press launch announcement of a contract between CNPC & Watan Group (Source: net archive)

Watan Group and China National Petroleum Company agreed to a 25-year deal to entry an estimated 160 million barrels of oil from three fields in northern Afghanistan: Kashkari Bazarkami, Zamarudsau, and Farib.

In 2010, Rateb Popal’s youthful brother Rashid Popal began a brand new company named Amania Mining Company (AMC) with its registered workplace in Shar-i-Ab, Kabul, Afghanistan, and operational shops in Karachi and the United Arab Emirates. According to studies, Rateb Popal at the moment resides within the UAE and operates from there. Rashid Popal-led Amania Mining Co. has contracts with a number of native and international companions to extract oil in northern Afghanistan.

Popal energy in Taliban regime

In September 2022, one other main contract was signed between the Taliban administration and UAE-based GAAC Holding to handle the bottom companies and safety of three airports in Afghanistan. The ten-year contract was awarded by Ghulam Jailani Popal, deputy head of the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation within the present Taliban-Afghan authorities, in line with the Congressional Research Service report. Jailani Popal was additionally an in depth aide of former President Hamid Karzai. Back in 2012, he served because the Governance Advisor to the President of Afghanistan.

Rateb Popal and his personal firms have been benefiting from his community throughout Afghan regimes all through the previous decade, whatever the authorities in energy. In most international investments and joint ventures, Rateb or his brother-led consortiums had been straight or not directly concerned. There isn’t any denying the opportunity of Popals enjoying a job within the current airport take care of the UAE, regardless of Qatar and Turkey making an attempt to safe it collectively.

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Published On:

Jan 30, 2023