Iranian Official Warns Afghan Refugees of Deportation If Non-Compliance of Hijab Law Found

On Sunday, 100 Afghan prisoners were handed over to the Taliban at the Nimroz border.

Ahmad Zia Takal, Deputy Spokesperson of the Taliban's Foreign Ministry, said that after the group's agreement with the Islamic Republic of Iran, 1,113 prisoners have been transferred to Afghanistan.

Taliban and Islamic Republic officials have not discussed the charges of these prisoners.

During a meeting with Abdul Latif Mansoor, the group’s minister of water and energy on Tuesday, the Taliban acting prime minister said that the water level has decreased in most of the cities and other areas of Afghanistan.

Taliban’s acting prime minister has remarked about the severe drought in Afghanistan while over 200 members of the Iranian parliament have asked for the water rights of Iran from the Helmand River.

These Iranian members of the parliament on Tuesday in a joint statement emphasised that any obstruction to providing water rights is a “violation of Iran nation’s right and is against international laws”.

These parliament members asked for a quick flow of Helmand water toward Iran.

However, the Taliban’s response has been that there is not enough water in Afghanistan.

In the meeting with Abdul Kabir, the Taliban’s minister of energy and water, said that the group is committed to all agreements about the water issues.

The Taliban prime minister’s office in a statement said that Abdul Kabir has stressed on long and short-term programmes to address the drought in Afghanistan.

He did not provide further details about these international companies.

British, Polish, and French companies were printing Afghani banknotes earlier.

Following complaints from Afghan citizens regarding the old Afghani banknotes, the United States agreed to print banknotes worth 10 billion Afghanis through a Polish company and transferred that to the Central Bank of Afghanistan.

The printing costs of these banknotes have been paid from Afghanistan’s central bank reserves that is based in Switzerland under the control of the US and Swiss authorities.

Senior Taliban officials are on the blacklist of the UN and have remained under sanctions and aren’t allowed to travel outside Afghanistan. On the other hand, no country has recognised the Taliban government as the legitimate Afghan government. Nonetheless, it is not clear which countries and which companies have reached an agreement with the Taliban over the printing of Afghani banknotes.

The acting governor of the Taliban-controlled Central Bank in a meeting with the Taliban’s acting prime minister once again claimed that as a result of the Central Bank’s policies, the value of Afghanistan’s currency has remained stable.

Sources said that Norway has invited low-ranking Taliban officials instead of senior officials of the group, who they had invited in 2022, to Oslo.

In addition to the Taliban officials, other Afghan politicians and activists along with participants from various backgrounds and different parts of the world are also present at the Oslo Freedom Forum, which has been held with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway.

Public pressure has pushed the Norwegian Foreign Ministry not to invite senior Taliban leaders to the Oslo Forum and instead, the Taliban participants include Abdul Qahar Balkhi, the spokesman of the Taliban Foreign Ministry, and other officials from the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Defence of the group.

The presence of Taliban officials at the Oslo Freedom Forum has once again provoked protests from Afghans.

Earlier, Mina Rafiq, Afghan women’s rights activist, protested against the presence of Taliban officials in the Oslo meeting, in front of Norway’s foreign ministry.

On Tuesday, the Afghan Women's Political Participation Network also criticised the presence of the Taliban at the Oslo Forum. The network said in a statement that Norway has welcomed human rights violators who have deprived Afghan women of education, work, and other social activities.

The network has accused Norway of supporting "a terrorist group" by hosting Taliban officials.

The presence of Taliban officials at the Oslo meeting has also been criticised by Afghan citizens on social media.

However, the Chinese company has stated that the extraction of the Aynak copper mine will start after the transfer of ancient artefacts from the mining site.

The Chinese company, MCC, won the Aynak copper mining contract in May 2007, but since then, they have refused to extract the mine due to "security reasons and the presence of ancient artefacts in the mining area".

During a meeting with the Chinese contractor, Delawar has that the Taliban’s Ministry of Mines and Petroleum has fulfilled its responsibilities according to the contractual agreement and stressed that the Chinese company should not delay the extraction process.

Delawar added that a committee with representatives of the Taliban’s Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, the Ministry of Information and Culture, and the Chinese MCC Company has been formed to transfer the ancient artefacts from Mes Aynak.

Earlier, in a meeting with Mullah Baradar, the Taliban’s deputy prime minister for economic affairs, the Chinese contractor representatives had said that after the complete transfer of the artefacts of the Aynak copper mine area, they will start the extraction process.

The Taliban’s Ministry of Information and Culture, too, said that the ministry has been prepared to transfer these artifacts.

According to the Taliban’s Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, the Chinese company has also promised to provide support for 300 families living in the area where the Aynak copper mine is located.