Discussions With Terrorists Will Not Improve Lives of Afghans, Says Senior NRF Member

The US delegation has called the detention of US citizens a “significant obstacle to positive engagement” with the Taliban.

On July 30 and 31, US Special Representative for Afghanistan Thomas West; Special Envoy for Afghan Women, Girls, and Human Rights Rina Amiri, and Chief of the US Mission to Afghanistan based in Doha Karen Decker, along with other US officials met and discussed issues of critical interest with senior Taliban representatives and the group’s technocrats in Doha.

While asking for the release of detained American officials, the US envoys did not give details about the number of Americans in detention under the Taliban in Afghanistan. However, earlier, the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken had referred to the detention of several US citizens by the Taliban and said that about 175 US citizens remained in Afghanistan, some of whom had entered the country after the fall of the Afghan government in August 2021.

The identity of the detained US citizens remains unknown because their families have requested to hide their details and have asked the US authorities not to speak publicly about their cases.

In the past, the Taliban have taken American citizens hostage and exchanged them for the release of their high-ranking officials from the Guantanamo prison.

In the last case, the Taliban had been able to secure the release of Bashir Noorzai, a major drug trafficker and one of the main financial supporters of the group in exchange for Mark Frerichs, an American engineer who was kidnapped in 2020 while working on construction projects in Afghanistan.

Noorzai had been arrested in New York in 2005 and had been serving two life sentences since 2009.

In a statement, the Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice announced that the ministry is establishing outposts in Darayim district, and drivers were advised not to listen to music and not to transport women without a male guardian.

The ministry added that "the drivers asked for forgiveness” from the Taliban members and pledged that they will act according to the Taliban’s directives in the future.

The Taliban have recently tightened restrictions on listening to music across Afghanistan.

On Sunday, the Directorate of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in Herat province announced that the Taliban agents had confiscated musical instruments from across Afghanistan and set them on fire.

Earlier, the Ministry had set fire the musical instruments confiscated from artists in the capital city, Kabul too.

The Iranian Vice-President added that the Taliban are not committed to their duties and that’s why more environmental challenges have emerged in the region.

Talking to Iranian media outlets on Monday, Salajegheh who also heads the Department of Environment of Iran, stressed that Afghanistan and Turkmenistan have been the origin of dust storms raging in parts of the country.

According to him, the Islamic Republic has held talks with Turkmenistan about it, but the Taliban has not been considerate.

The Iranian Vice-President pointed to agreements between Afghanistan and Iran and said that Tehran has been following up with the Taliban on the implementation of these agreements.

Earlier, Mojtaba Zuljodi, the deputy of Iran's Department of Environment, warned that an environmental and humanitarian disaster will take place in Sistan region.

Zuljodi asked for the Taliban’s cooperation in releasing the country’s water rights from the Helmand River along with the revival of the "Hamun" lake.

During a meeting with a group of British religious scholars who visited Kabul, Hanafi discussed the activities of the controversial Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.

According to the Taliban-controlled Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA), during the meeting with the British scholars, Hanafi stressed that through its activities, the Taliban intends to be the pride of all Muslims.

Hanafi discussed the Taliban’s moderate attitude even though the Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has imposed unprecedented restrictions on the people of Afghanistan, including Afghan women.

According to several reports published in the last two years since the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan, the ministry’s employees have repeatedly violated people's privacy across the country.

In many cases, the citizens have been insulted, humiliated, and slapped in the face in public by the ombudsmen of the Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.

The ministry has stressed every action taken by its agents has been to implement Sharia in Afghanistan.

Saadati claimed that the “enemy” has now been utilising the Afghan refugees in Iran and stressed that these refugees have been under surveillance by Iran’s intelligence and security agencies.

The statement comes as last year, after an attack on an Iranian shrine which killed 13 people and wounded several others, Iran’s intelligence ministry claimed that the attackers were citizens of Afghanistan and Tajikistan.

Although Saadati stressed that there are no security concerns from these Afghan refugees, he added that these refugees top the list of groups under surveillance by the Islamic Republic's intelligence and security agencies. He also mentioned the "illegal" activities of some Afghan refugees and warned them about these activities.

Saadati said, "According to our policies, we must have a good relationship with the people of Afghanistan."

Recalling the border tensions between the Taliban and Iran, this Iranian MP said that these "small incidents were resolved with the authority of the Islamic Republic of Iran”.

The process of expulsion of Afghan refugees from Iran has increased in recent months. In the latest case, the Islamic Republic deported more than 7,500 Afghan refugees and handed them over to the Taliban at the Dogharon border.

According to Iranian officials, thousands of Afghans have been deported from Iran every week because they do not have valid residence documents.