Iran FM Calls for Attention To Impacts of Humanitarian Issues of Afghanistan on Region

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.

Despite years of training and supply of modern warfare by the US, the Afghan army lost the ability to resist the Taliban insurgents and collapsed when the withdrawal of all US forces was underway.

The fall of the well-equipped Afghan army has raised many questions and in the last year and a half Afghan and foreign civil and military officials have been talking about it.

In the SIGAR report, Ashraf Ghani's government has been criticised for not reducing the dependence of the Afghan army on American forces and for not having a "national security strategy" for the post-foreign forces era.

SIGAR stressed that former President Ashraf Ghani often replaced commanders of the National Army and appointed people loyal to him based on ethnicity, which led to the politicisation of the army.

SIGAR believes that while corruption had weakened the Afghan army, there had not been any political will to fight it.

SIGAR has also criticised the United States for keeping the army dependent on foreign forces.

According to SIGAR, after signing the Doha agreement with the Taliban in 2020, the international forces airstrikes decreased and the Taliban started taking control of more territories in Afghanistan. SIGAR believes that the Afghan army had not been used to fighting the Taliban without air support.

On the other hand, it became difficult for the Afghan army to equip the troops on the battlefield because it did not have enough air support capabilities.

In 2019, the US conducted nearly 7,500 airstrikes across Afghanistan, and it facilitated the Afghan army to advance in the battlefields and take control of more territories.

According to SIGAR's assessment, the Taliban utilised the tactical, leadership, and logistical weaknesses of the Afghan army. The group also focused on media and social media in psychological warfare against the Afghan security forces and weakened more the morale of the soldiers.

SIGAR added that despite spending 90 billion dollars in 20 years, the US built an army in Afghanistan whose structure had been similar to the US army. However, the Afghan army lacked the facilities, leadership, and skills available in the US army.