Azerbaijan To Open Embassy in Kabul

The order has been issued following a complaint from the Taliban embassy in Islamabad.

Dawn newspaper wrote that the complaint was lodged in a meeting between the officials of the Taliban’s embassy in Islamabad and Pakistani authorities.

As per the report, the Taliban conveyed during a meeting with Pakistani officials that two Afghan immigrants with residence permits were subjected to harassment and threats at a police station in Rawalpindi, where demands for money were also made.

The report also stated that an Afghan child, who had a Proof of Registration Card (PoR), had been killed as the result of torture by several people.

The Taliban have said that the Pakistani police addressed the killing of this child under a wrong first police investigation report (FIR) and declined to impose punishment on the suspects.

It has been said that the investigation has begun against Rawalpindi police officers and officials who are accused of persecuting Afghan immigrants.

This is despite the fact that in the past few months, Afghanistan International has also received numerous reports of harassment by the police during the deportation of undocumented Afghan immigrants from Pakistan. Several human rights and refugee support organisations have also confirmed the reports of police harassment against Afghan immigrants.

At this meeting, the United Nations is expected to vote on a draft resolution regarding the assessment of Feridun Sinirlioğlu, the UN Special Coordinator for Afghanistan.

The draft of this resolution has been prepared by Japan and the United Arab Emirates.

On November 9, in a letter to the Security Council, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres presented a report of the UN Special Coordinator’s assessments.

In his report, he emphasised that adhering to international obligations and initiating the process towards establishing an inclusive constitution would pave the way for normalising global relations with the Taliban.

The UN Secretary-General also addressed the human rights situation in Afghanistan.

In April, the UN appointed Feridun Sinirlioglu, a Turkish diplomat, to lead the assessment and asked him to submit his report by November.

In his report, the UN coordinator has made several suggestions, including the implementation of measures to address the needs of the Afghan people, a focus on issues affecting the security and stability of both the region and the world, the formulation of a roadmap for Afghanistan's full integration into the international community, and the fulfilment of its international obligations. Furthermore, he proposed the establishment of mechanisms to coordinate and monitor the implementation of UN coordinator’s recommendations.

The new resolution, which will be put to the vote today, will also advocate for the appointment of a special representative for Afghanistan. This special representative is expected to play a role in facilitating interaction between international and Afghan stakeholders, promoting coordination. Additionally, advancing intra-Afghan peace talks will be a key aspect of the mission assigned to the United Nations Special Representative.

Taliban’s foreign minister had previously rejected the appointment of a UN special representative for peace talks in Afghanistan.

This official said that the peace talks failed due to “unreasonable and unconstitutional demands” of the TTP.

The Pakistani official, who did not want to be named, said that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan sought to dominate parts of the country's tribal areas during the negotiations.

Earlier, Pakistani Senator Mushahid Hussain was quoted by the Pakistani media outlets as stating that during discussions at the Tehran conference on Palestine, Muttaqi told him that most of the issues between TTP and Pakistani government have been solved, except for the “merger of the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas”.

According to the media reports, Muttaqi claimed that while both sides were on the verge of finalising an agreement, Pakistan withdrew from negotiations.

Taliban’s foreign minister has not publicly commented on these reports yet.

In its report, Express Tribune wrote that the senior Pakistani official who didn’t to be named, called Muttaqi’s statement "absurd" and said that his narrative was not true.

The source informed The Express Tribune that the TTP aimed to establish their own “empire within the former tribal areas” under the guise of peace talks.

The parties also reached an agreement to enhance transit transportation through Afghanistan.

Ismatilla Ergashev, Uzbekistan’s Special Envoy for Afghanistan, was also present in this meeting.

On Tuesday, Hamidullah Akhundzada, the Taliban’s Minister of Transportation and Aviation, arrived in Uzbekistan. According to Uzbek media reports, he and Ilhom Makhkamov, Uzbekistan’s Minister of Transport, reviewed the bilateral cooperation between both the countries.

Further details of this meeting have not yet been disclosed.

Reports indicate that the meeting discussed issues related to accelerating the implementation of the Uzbekistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan railway project.

Taliban, Uzbekistan and Pakistan signed an agreement on the railway route known as "Trans-Afghan" in Islamabad in July.

However, no country has recognised the Taliban regime so far, and the implementation of the project remains unclear.

The plan for the "Trans-Afghan" railway line connecting Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan was introduced in 2018 with the goal of establishing an economic corridor linking Central Asia to the Indian Ocean waters.

The construction cost of this railway is estimated to exceed USD 4.5 billion, spanning a length of 573 kilometres. Beginning from Termez, the railway traverses the cities of Mazar-e-Sharif and Kabul in Afghanistan before reaching Peshawar in Pakistan.

Kakavand also announced the discovery of “500 kilograms of methamphetamine of Afghan origin” in Hormozgan province.

On Thursday, the IRIB News Agency quoted Kakavand as stating that approximately 470 tonnes of narcotics were seized in Iran over a period of nine months.

Also, the Iranian authorities have announced the arrest of 2,859 retailers and smugglers during this period.

At the same time, Ali Akbar Javidan, the police chief of Hormozgan province, said that in the last 24 hours, about two tonnes of drugs were discovered in this province.

While the Taliban in Afghanistan claim to have reduced drug cultivation and trafficking over two years, Iranian authorities consistently refute these reports, saying that the claim is not accurate.