5 Years Later, No Justice For Victims of Taliban’s Bombing in Kabul, Says HRW

Andrabi, who was the interior minister during Ashraf Ghani's presidency, said that Ghani and his inner "circle of three" are responsible for the failure of the political system and the misery of the people in Afghanistan.

Andrabi explained that Ashraf Ghani "only met his three-person circle during the 8am meetings and never consulted other senior leaders in his government".

The three-person inner circle of Ghani have been referred to Ashraf Ghani, former National Security Advisor, Hamdullah Mohib, and former head of Afghanistan Presidential Affairs Office, Fazl Mahmoud Fazli.

Due to the concentration of power in the presidential palace, Ashraf Ghani's critics refer to these people as the "three-member circle".

Mike Pompeo, the former US Secretary of State, said in a book he recently published that when the peace talks with the Taliban intensified, Ashraf Ghani was always a challenge for peace negotiations.

Amina Mohammed, the Deputy Secretary General of the UN, is scheduled to present her report regarding her recent trip to Afghanistan during the security council meeting.

A spokesperson of the United Arab Emirates Mission to the United Nations, said that the meeting will discuss the commitments of Amina Mohammed, the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, her findings, and her frank assessment of the situation.

The Emirates official added that due to the sensitive nature of this meeting and the current situation in Afghanistan, the meeting will be held behind closed doors.

Meanwhile, in separate statements, the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland delegations in the United Nations called the situation of women in Afghanistan unacceptable.

Amina Mohammad, who will address the UN Security Council's meeting had travelled to Afghanistan during January, and discussed the situation of Afghan women with the Taliban officials.

After leaving Afghanistan, she said during a press conference that she has done all she could to put the necessary pressure on the Taliban to revise the restrictions against Afghan women and girls.

The Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations also said in an interview with CNN that Afghan women suffer from shocking depression and anxiety.

In a tweet, Mohammed emphasised that the international community should unite for the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan.

She added that when she was in Afghanistan, met with ambassadors to find appropriate solutions to the inequalities that affect the lives of women, men and boys and girls in Afghanistan.

The Taliban in a statement also urged the world community to “take practical action against the inhumane atrocities of the Israeli regime”.

On Thursday, nine people, including a 61-year-old woman, had been killed during an attack by Israeli forces on a refugee camp in the city of Jenin, in the West Bank.

Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority, announced three days of public mourning in response to the killing of nine Palestinians.

The Israeli army said its forces had been deployed to arrest "Islamic Jihad terrorists" who were planning to carry out "major attacks".

Israel announced last night that it carried out airstrikes against Palestinian militants in Gaza after two rockets were fired at Israel.

No group in Gaza has claimed responsibility for the rockets fired towards Israel.

After entering Kabul as the acting ambassador of Iran, Qomi met Muttaqi on January 21, too.

The full details of the discussions between Iranian diplomats and the Taliban’s foreign minister have not been announced.

According to the Iranian embassy, the Taliban foreign minister appreciated the facilitation of the visa process, economic cooperation, security of the joint borders, Iran's hosting of Afghan immigrants, and Iran's humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. He emphasised on cooperation based on history, culture, and common religion between the two countries.

In their first meeting on January 21, the two sides had discussed the water rights of Iran from the Helmand river.

In an interview with an Iranian media outlet, Qomi had emphasised that the Taliban have told the Islamic Republic that they will implement the water treaty between the two countries.

The World Bank report is highly different than what the Afghan citizens go through in their daily life in Afghanistan.

Many observers said that despite the encouraging figures published by the World Bank on the economic situation of Afghanistan, Afghan people currently struggling with a cold and difficult winter.

Poverty-stricken citizens are facing a harsh winter and must choose between heating materials for their homes and food.

According to observers, a constant flow of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan through the United Nations and other aid organisations has been impactful on the relative stability of afghani against the foreign currency.

Regarding people's access to their savings accounts, the report stated that restrictions on withdrawing money from banks continues to be a challenge.

Companies and individuals who had running accounts in the banks before the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban in 2021, cannot withdraw more than a limited amount from the bank.

The World Bank reported that the civil servants’ salaries have been paid on time in the last two months, and female employees have been paid more regularly than male employees.

However, withdrawing money has not been easy for these employees and they all complained that they had to wait for long hours at the banks.

Meanwhile, people and companies are now depositing little money into their bank accounts, and the financial policies of the Taliban are not transparent.

For example, the central bank of Afghanistan, which determines the foreign exchange rate, doesn’t provide any statistics or information on the issue on its website.

The World Bank report stated that revenue collection of the Taliban remains strong and reached AFN135.9 billion (US$ 1.54 billion) between March 22, 2021, and December 21, 2022.

The World Bank report also stressed that export performance of the Taliban remains strong as during the January to November 2022 period, the Taliban exported US$1.7 billion worth of goods, compared to US$ 0.9 billion and US$ 0.8 billion for the entire year in 2021 and 2020.

The increase in the price and export of coal has been the main reason for the increase in the Taliban's 2022 revenue collection.

According to the World Bank, agricultural products, mining, and textiles, have been the major sources of revenue and export materials of Afghanistan. Around 65 per cent of the products of Afghanistan has been exported to Pakistan and around 20 per cent has ended up in India.