98% of Telephone SIM Cards Registered in Afghanistan, Says Taliban Communications Minister

Hidayatullah Badri, Taliban’s governor of the Central Bank, said on Wednesday that the inflation rate this year is 2.4 percent, while this figure reached 15.4 percent in 2021.

Recently, the World Bank reported that the annual inflation rate in Afghanistan was 2.83 percent until May 2023.

Taliban officials also claimed that there are currently no restrictions on newly opened bank accounts and that customers can withdraw their money without any limitation.

However, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction reported to the US Congress on Tuesday that the evaluations show that the Central Bank of Afghanistan is not independent of the Taliban and does not have the ability to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.

Vehicles carrying Afghan refugees were shot at by unidentified armed men and Islamic Republic’s forces on Sunday.

The news agency stated that armed men shot at the refugees for extortion purposes, however, the Iranian border forces prevented the shooting.

The Islamic Republic authorities have not yet commented on the shooting issue.

Earlier, Tasnim news agency, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reported quoting Parviz Qasimzadeh, the commander of the Zabul border regiment in Iran, that 156 "illegal citizens" were arrested from the border areas of Sistan and Baluchistan.

Aminzadeh told Ham-Mihan Daily that currently Iran's influence in Afghanistan has been impacted highly despite all the cultural ties between the two countries.

Following the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, the Islamic Republic improved its political relations with the group and granted some privileges to the Taliban, including handing over the Afghan embassy in Tehran to the Taliban.

However, after a brief period of good relations, the tensions between Tehran and the Taliban escalated over the water rights issue from Helmand River to a level that the President of Iran issued a warning against the Taliban.

Looking at the relations between Tehran and the Taliban over the past two years, Aminzadeh said that "the era of Iran's influence” in Afghanistan has been over.

On Tuesday, Aminzadeh stressed, "Now the Taliban is the ruling regime in Iran's neighbouring country, and coexistence with any geographical neighbour and observing neighbourly customs in Iran-Afghanistan relations is fundamental and a definite necessity."

According to him, the Islamic Republic is not seeking to overthrow the Taliban government, because "it does not matter who is ruling in Afghanistan and whether they like him or not”.

The former senior foreign policy official of Iran said, "Taliban talks about an Islam, which is not compatible with the culture of Iranians."

Moreover, contrary to the expectations of the Taliban, the Islamic Republic, along with other neighbouring countries, has not recognised the Taliban government.

AFF stated that this operation had been carried out on Tuesday night.

AFF has published a video clip of the operation at Faizabad airport on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).

The Taliban have not yet commented on the attack of the Afghanistan Freedom Front.

NRF stressed that it has carried out a targeted attack on the base of the "terrorist Taliban" forces in Morghzaarji area of Shuhada district of Badakhshan province.

In a statement, NRF added that one of the members of the front has also been killed in the attack.

NRF stated that in the attack a member of the Taliban has also been wounded and NRF forces confiscated three rifles too.

The Taliban has not reacted to the NRF reports so far.

NRF is one of the military fronts formed against the Taliban after the group’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021.