Explosion Rocks Khost, But Taliban Claims It Is A Gas Cylinder Blast

In a meeting with UN officials in Geneva on Tuesday, Abdollahian said that despite the increase in Afghan immigrants in Iran, Tehran has received little support.

Iran foreign ministry in a statement said, "The Islamic Republic of Iran has hosted millions of Afghan immigrants for more than four decades. However, international support has not been proportionate to the increase in the costs imposed on Iran due to the arrival of Afghan immigrants in recent years.”

Iran's foreign minister has said that after the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban, in the last year and a half, Afghan citizens have immigrated to Iran in a unprecedented manner.

He discussed Afghan immigrants’ issues in a meeting with the officials of the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Aid, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Iran’s Foreign Minister has also said that unilateral sanctions on this country have had a destructive effect on the motivation of financial sponsors to shoulder the burden of hosting Afghan citizens.

After the fall of the previous government in 2021, thousands of Afghan citizens have been displaced to Iran due to security threats and poverty in Afghanistan.

In the meantime, Taliban’s mines and petroleum minister, Shahabuddin Delawar, stressed that in opposition to the Doha agreement, the US violates Afghanistan’s air space.

According to Delawar, the US is against the political independence of Afghanistan. He emphasised that the Taliban has implemented all the provisions of the Doha Agreement.

At the same time, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the deputy prime minister of the Taliban who signed this agreement with the US, emphasised on engagement with the world in a meeting to mark the third anniversary of the Doha agreement. He added that the Taliban is committed to global engagement.

Mullah Baradar criticised the United States and said that Washington has illegally blocked Afghanistan's assets and does not allow the world to interact with the Taliban.

The Doha Agreement had been signed on February 29, 2020, between the US and the Taliban in Doha, Qatar.

The Taliban foreign ministry has also stated that the group’s diplomatic relations with Türkiye is of "special importance".

The Taliban have added that the presence of thousands of Afghan refugees in Istanbul adds to the importance of this city.

On Monday, sources told Afghanistan International that the Turkish government has asked three former Afghan diplomats in Istanbul to hand over their diplomatic cards.

Earlier, the ministry of foreign affairs of the Taliban had issued a letter and announced the end of the mission of these three diplomats.

Meanwhile, on Monday, Zakir Jalali, the adviser of Taliban Foreign Minister confirmed that Gulmat Khan Zadran, the representative of the group, had taken control of Afghan consulate in Istanbul.

They said that they had to leave Afghanistan due to poverty and unemployment.

After the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, the parliament of Afghanistan has been dissolved and the employees working in the two bodies have lost their jobs.

In their letter, the signatories have stressed that they have applied to the government jobs, but they have not received any answer.

They said that after the dissolution of the parliament, they became unemployed and during this time they have sold all their household items to provide for food and other needs for their children, but they could no longer afford this situation.

In the letter, the Prime Minister of the Taliban has been asked to issue family passports free of charge so that they should be able to migrate from Afghanistan.

These former Afghan republic state employees said that they are committed to "serving the country", but they are not given a chance.

After the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, the Senate and the House of Representatives of Afghanistan had been dissolved and the administrative staff of these two houses have become unemployed.

In the audio file, Ahmad Shah Massoud talks about the perspective of regional countries regarding anti-Soviet Jihadi parties of Afghanistan.

Although the exact time of recording the audio file is not clear, it seems that this file has been recorded during the years of resistance against the first Taliban regime between 1994 and 2001.

Ahmad Shah Massoud, who seems to be giving a lecture to his aides, said that Hizb-e-Islami led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is a favoured party for the government of Pakistan. He added that the Shia anti-Soviet jihadi parties are favoured by Iran, and the Dawat-e-Jihad party led by Abdul Rab Rasoul Sayyaf and Hizb-e-Islami Afghanistan led by Hekmatyar are favoured by Saudi Arabia.

According to Ahmad Shah Masoud, the western countries do not trust Jamiat-e-Islami. He said that if they work and trust anyone it would be King Zaher Shah.

Zaher Shah had been living in Rome, the capital of Italy, when the audio tape had been recorded.

Massoud stressed that Jamiat-e-Islami Afghanistan did not have strong allies among the international community. He was a prominent member of Jamiat-e-Islami Afghanistan.

In the audio file, Massoud said that "among the foreign countries, only one partner remains, which is very weak, hypocritical and dubious, and that is the Islamic Republic of Iran”. He further added that the Iranian government "sometimes says yes and sometimes no”.

Massoud clarified, "The conversation of the Iranians was that we accept Jamiat as the leading party in Afghanistan's future issues, and we tell the Shiite parties to follow Jamiat."

In his discussion, Ahmad Shah Massoud expressed doubts about the promise of the Islamic Republic and said, "I don't know how sincere they are in these statements."

Leaking this audio file belonging to Ahmad Shah Massoud, 22 years after his assassination could be a sign of the deteriorating relations between the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, led by Ahmad Massoud, the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud, had previously criticised the Islamic Republic of Iran's hand over of the Afghan embassy to the Taliban in an unprecedented manner.

In a statement, the Front called the handover of Afghan embassy in Tehran to the Taliban questionable.