First Shipment of New Afghani Banknotes Printed with US Support Received by Taliban

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Taliban had previously said that the Moscow Consultative Format would be incomplete without the participation of the group.

According to Russian officials, the representatives of China, India, Iran, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan will attend the Moscow Format meeting.

The Taliban participated in a similar meeting that was held on October 20, 2021. However, Zamir Kabulov, the Russian Special Envoy for Afghanistan said that the Taliban had not been invited to this year’s meeting.

At the Moscow consultative meeting on Afghanistan last year, participants had asked the Taliban to form an inclusive government in Afghanistan.

Although the Taliban claim that they have formed an inclusive government, the international community, including Russia, which is hosting a meeting on Afghanistan again in the coming week, has criticised the group’s exclusionary policies.

The Russian Foreign Minister has too emphasised on Tuesday that the Taliban have not yet fulfilled their commitments to form an inclusive ethnopolitical government.

Sergey Lavrov also added that he discussed Afghanistan with his Indian counterpart in Moscow.

Indian foreign minister too said that Delhi and Moscow have discussed Afghanistan’s various issues and that his country will attend the upcoming Moscow Format meeting.

Officials of the YouTube channel told Afghanistan International that the Taliban searched the network's office without providing any reason and arrested four female and two male employees of the channel and transferred them to a security office in district 3 of Kabul.

The recent arrests of Afghan Youtubers take place as earlier this week, the Taliban had detained five employees of another YouTube channel in Uruzgan province.

During the search operations, the Taliban treated the YouTube channel’s employees harshly.

Taliban officials have not reacted to the reports of the arrest of the YouTubers yet.

Affiliated members of the YouTube channel said that they have an official license from the Taliban and that the channel doesn’t produce any political programmes and is solely focused on the production of cultural and historical video content.

Officials of the YouTube channel also emphasised that the female employees of the channel observe the hijab required by the Taliban.

According to the latest assessment of the WFP, nine out of 10 Afghan families are unable to meet their food needs.

According to the WFP, Afghans have experienced unprecedented economic challenges and natural disasters, such as earthquakes and floods, in the past year.

The United Nations had previously announced that the people of Afghanistan will face a difficult winter this year.

After the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban, Afghan citizens have faced mass unemployment and have been facing serious economic crises.

Among others, former government employees have been fired and replaced by Taliban members.

Muttaqi had addressed Taliban members, while paying a visit to Mullah Omar’s grave in Zabul Province, but the Taliban spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, published them on Wednesday.

The Taliban’s foreign minister also said that Mullah Omar had urged that the US and its allies should be defeated and the Taliban members delivered on that promise.

Muttaqi added that although Mullah Omar was hiding in one corner of Afghanistan, his orders had been "obeyed" throughout the country.

Taliban officials had announced earlier this week that the body of Mullah Omar, the former leader of this group, was buried in Sewri district of Zabul province.

The Taliban did not say when his body was buried in the district, but the previous government of Afghanistan had announced that Mullah Omar had died in Pakistan.

DABS didn’t provide further details about when the power outage will start.

DABS, however, stressed that based on officials of Uzbekistan, the adjustments and changes are temporary and will be completed soon.

In August this year, Afghanistan settled its multimillion-dollar outstanding debts owed to Uzbekistan for electric power supplies. It had owed Uzbekistan for the 2,151.3 kilowatt hours of electricity supplied in 2021.

However, Tajikistan is still waiting for its payments. In July Tajikistan received $2 million from Afghanistan toward the debt, which now stands at over $28 million.

Afghanistan imports over 80 percent of its electricity, at an annual cost of some $220 million, according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), a watchdog created by the U.S. Congress. In Afghanistan, only 22% of the 1,600 megawatts used each year are produced nationally, while the rest is imported from neighbouring countries.

Uzbekistan is its biggest electricity supplier. This year, around half of Afghanistan’s imported power is coming from Uzbekistan, and most of the rest from Tajikistan.

Both have long-duration electricity supply agreements signed before the Taliban returned to power, which are adjusted annually. The Afghans are contracted to pay Uzbekistan $100 million and Tajikistan $69 million for the power supplies.

Any halt to electricity supplies from Central Asia risks leaving over 10 million Afghans in the dark, the United Nations Development Program, or UNDP, has previously warned.