Need to Form International Negotiations Group for Afghanistan, Says Uzbek President

The US National Security Strategy document, which was published on Wednesday, stated that since the threats have evolved, the US counterterrorism approaches have transformed too. The document states that this is the reason why the US ended its longest war in Afghanistan, while the country had long ago achieved its objective of delivering justice to the 9/11 victim families by assassinating Osama Bin Laden and other key leadership of the al-Qaeda.

The strategy document stressed that the US is confident in its ability to maintain the fight against al-Qaeda, ISIS, and associated forces from over the horizon, a strategy that the US utilised to eliminate al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawhiri in Kabul.

The new strategy suggested that the terrorist threat today is more ideologically diverse and geographically dispersed than it was two decades ago when Washington started the war on terrorism in Afghanistan.

The US believes that al-Qaeda, ISIS, and other affiliated forces have spread from Afghanistan and other countries in the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia.

According to the new US National Security Strategy document, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia are havens for terrorists, and their local affiliates have become entrenched actors in regional conflicts.

These students had been dismissed last week for what the Taliban has called disorder and revelation of the poisoning incident of the dormitory of Kabul University.

Among the expelled students are several Hazara girls who had participated in a demonstration against Hazara killings and the suicide attack at the Kaj educational center in Western Kabul.

After the demonstrations in a couple of universities across Afghanistan, several girls had been poisoned in the dormitory of Kabul University. Sources had said that the Taliban members served poisoned food to the dormitory students to prevent the protest of Kabul University female students.

Taliban officials had denied that the girls had food poisoning and had said that they were sick. So far, Taliban officials have not commented on the expulsion of Hazara female students from Kabul University.

The Russian President discussed Afghanistan at the sixth Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Astana Kazakhstan on Thursday.

Putin also discussed the terrorist attack that targeted the Russian Embassy in Kabul on September 5 and said that such terrorist attacks in Afghanistan confirm that terrorism remains a major challenge in Afghanistan.

Addressing the participants, the Russian president noted that to normalise the situation in Afghanistan, joint support to improve the economic situation of the country is needed.

He added, "We want reparation for the losses caused to Afghans during the years of occupation and the release of illegally frozen reserves of Afghanistan."

CICA is an organisation that has 27 countries as members and eight other countries with five organisations as observer members. Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, South Korea, Russia, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam are permanent members of CICA.

However, Afghanistan’s representative was not present at the sixth summit of CICA.

CICA observer member countries are Indonesia, Ukraine, the United States, Belarus, Japan, Philippines, Laos, and Malaysia.

The United Nations, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the International Organisation for Migration, the Arab League, and the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic-speaking countries are the observers’ organisations in CICA.

Takashi had previously urged the Taliban to not restrict women's rights.

Taliban's foreign ministry stressed that the Japanese ambassador has assured them of the continuity of his country’s cooperation with the people of Afghanistan. Muttaqi has requested Japan's cooperation in infrastructure projects in Afghanistan.

While the Taliban has always asked for foreign aid since taking power on August 15, 2021, Muttaqi however, has mentioned the group’s “budget without foreign aid" as an achievement of the Taliban.

Muttaqi has also spoken about the progress the Taliban has made in the economic sector of Afghanistan and stressed on the "collection of revenue, fight against narcotics, treatment of addicts and human rights". However, according to the United Nations, 95% of Afghan citizens do not have enough food and the Taliban has been accused of widespread human rights violations.

Bennett stressed that the reason for his visit to Kabul was to report on the situation based on his first-hand experience of the ground.

According to the statement of the Taliban's foreign ministry published on Tuesday, referring to the human rights situation of Afghanistan, Muttaqi had said that "warlords and kidnappers can no longer violate anyone's rights”.

The Taliban's foreign minister added that the leader of this group, Hibatullah Akhundzada, has issued decrees and in meetings has “encouraged members of the Taliban to treat people well and give them their rights”.

Muttaqi asked Bennett to cooperate and publish the facts instead of criticising one another.

The UN Special Rapporteur meets with the Taliban’s foreign minister, while the group is accused of severe human rights violations against Afghans.