SCO Virtual Summit To Discuss Afghanistan & Regional Security Issues

On Saturday, Nabil said that Biden shed light on the true nature of the Taliban as the Wagner Group of the United States in the region.

The new statements of the US President about the absence of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and the US-Taliban cooperation to fight this terror network have been met with wide-ranging reactions among the Afghan political spectrum.

Ali Maisam Nazary, the Head of Foreign Relations of the National Resistance Front (NRF) led by Ahmad Massoud, reacted to the US President’s statement on Al-Qaeda and said that international terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda and ISIS maintain an active presence in Afghanistan.

On Saturday, he warned that the international community's current negligence concerning terrorism threat to global security will lead to future regrets.

However, the Taliban's foreign ministry welcomed the statement of US President Joe Biden, who said that Al-Qaeda is no longer present in Afghanistan.

The ministry said that Joe Biden's statements “arise from understanding the truth" and contradict the recent report of the United Nations Security Council regarding the presence of terror groups in Afghanistan.

On Friday, the US president during a press conference said that Al-Qaeda is no longer present in Afghanistan and added that earlier he had said “he would get help from the Taliban” to destroy the terror group.

In an interview with Afghanistan International, Ahady said that Afghanistan's assets have been transferred to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) which provides five percent profit annually.

According to the former finance minister of Afghanistan, over $100 million in profit has been obtained during 2022. Ahady added that if this fund would be kept in the BIS, it will earn more than one hundred million dollars annually.

Ahady said that the Taliban can use the Swiss-based trust fund for printing Afghani banknotes and passports, but the group has not made such requests yet.

He also said that Afghanistan is a member of organisations such as the Asian Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank and should pay membership fees to these organisations.

Ahady added that the Taliban paid the membership fees for Afghanistan last year, however, the group has not paid these fees for 2023. He said that in return for paying the membership fees, these organisations will provide humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.

Ahady added that if the Taliban does not agree to pay the membership fee of international organisations, the Swiss-based trust fund may pay these fees.

The supervisory member of the ‘Fund for the Afghan People’ added that the frozen reserves of Afghanistan in Switzerland are not used for humanitarian aid in Afghanistan. According to him, this will be spent only for some necessary purposes related to government spending. However, he stressed that the trust fund will not provide money directly to the Taliban and will pay related organisations for projects that are "for the benefit of the people".

In September 2022, the United States announced that it would transfer 3.5 billion dollars of the reserves of the Central Bank of Afghanistan to a trust fund in Switzerland to be used to help the Afghan economy.

The Taliban have repeatedly demanded that Afghanistan's Central Bank reserves must be given to the group.

The Ministry of Higher Education of the Taliban on Saturday said that during Irfan’s visit to Iran, he met the officials of the Diplomacy Center of the Islamic Republic.

Irfan told the Iranian authorities that cooperation in higher education is more favourable under the Taliban than during the previous Afghan government.

It is said that the officials of Iran's diplomacy center committed to cooperating with the Taliban in higher education.

The Taliban officials discuss cooperation arrangements with regional countries such as Iran on higher education, while there is no development on when the group will allow higher education for Afghan girls and women in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, secondary and higher secondary schools remain closed for Afghan girls despite international pressure on the Taliban to allow Afghan girls their right to education.

During a press conference, Biden said on Friday, "Remember what I said about Afghanistan? I said Al-Qaeda would not be there. I said it wouldn’t be there. I said we would get help from the Taliban. What is going on? Read your press. I was right."

Former US Special Envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, said that Biden's comments on Afghanistan might have come based on a recently declassified National Intelligence Council (NIC) assessment.

Khalilzad, who shared Biden's comments on his Twitter account on Friday night, said that the NIC assessment said that Al-Qaeda has little infrastructure in place in Afghanistan.

Khalilzad added that according to NIC’s report, Al-Qaeda is unlikely to reconstitute the capability in Afghanistan to direct external operations from the country through 2024.

The former US envoy also stressed that according to NIC assessment, if Al-Qaeda decides to carry out attacks globally, it can rely on the attack capabilities of its affiliates in the Middle East and Africa.

However, the UN Security Council has recently warned in a report about the emergence of Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups in Afghanistan.

Vahidi added that Iran’s border security would be partially ensured by intelligent management systems.

Over the past two years, the Taliban and the Islamic Republic of Iran have had several border skirmishes at the joint borders between Afghanistan and Iran. In the latest case in June, Taliban forces and Iranian border guards clashed in the Kang area of Nimroz province. During this border skirmish, a member of the Taliban and two soldiers of the Islamic Republic had been killed.

However, the Iranian interior minister stressed that the border situation is regularly discussed with the Taliban.

He said, "We will certainly welcome any software and hardware equipment for the improvement of border security."

However, Vahidi said that currently "the situation of the joint borders with Afghanistan is calm and we do not have any problems with the Taliban”.