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Don’t Just Look At Security Issues, Expand Trade, Says Taliban’s Foreign Minister

Sep 17, 2024, 09:22 GMT+1

During a meeting with foreign ambassadors in Kabul, Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban's foreign minister called on neighbouring countries and the region not to look at Afghanistan solely from a security perspective.

Muttaqi stressed that countries should work on expanding economic cooperation with the Taliban instead of focusing on security issues.
The Taliban's Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosted ambassadors and representatives of foreign countries and organisations in Kabul on Monday.

Muttaqi stated at the meeting, "A bilateral or multilateral view of issues from a security perspective alone is not the solution, and such an attitude destroys common economic opportunities."

Muttaqi is referring to the concerns that the countries of the region have about militant and terrorist groups on Afghan soil. These groups are mainly a threat to Central Asian countries, China and Pakistan. The Taliban has ignored the request of these countries to expel terrorist groups from Afghan territory.

Pakistan claims that Afghan soil is being used against the country's security and stability. Pakistani officials have repeatedly called on the Taliban to stop attacks by the TTP and hand over the group's leaders to Islamabad.

The Taliban's foreign minister said that "realistic, logical and practical steps must be taken to ensure security and stability," without elaborating on these steps.

Muttaqi called on the countries of the region to work together to secure legitimate interests, put aside minor issues, and focus on expanding economic cooperation.

In part of his speech, he said that the Taliban government is working on opening embassies outside the region and providing transparent and standard consular services to the people.

He also stressed that the Taliban prioritises relations with Arab countries.

Recently, the Taliban's relations with the United Arab Emirates have expanded.

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45,000 Afghans Sought Asylum In Europe This Year

Sep 16, 2024, 18:04 GMT+1

The European Union Agency for Asylum reported on Monday that 45,000 Afghans have applied for asylum in European countries in the first half of 2024.

According to the report, Afghans were the second largest group of asylum seekers in Europe after Syrians.

The organisation's report, published on Monday, said that 513,000 people had applied for asylum in European countries till the end of July.

The EU refugee agency wrote that this figure was stable compared to the first six months of 2023, but there were some changes at the local level.

During this period, 71,000 Syrian citizens have applied for asylum in various European countries, as the largest group of asylum seekers.

According to the report, Afghans submitted the most asylum applications to Germany, Greece, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, and other countries, respectively.

According to the report, the number of Afghans seeking asylum in European countries has decreased by 18% compared to the same period in 2023.

The report also emphasised that the acceptance rate of Afghans in EU member states was about 65 percent.

Recently, immigration policies in many European countries have been tightened in their refusal to accept migrants with the aim of reducing illegal arrivals.

Taliban Publicly Flogs Nearly 40 People In One Month

Sep 16, 2024, 15:45 GMT+1

The Taliban's Supreme Court has reported the flogging of at least 37 people, including women, from mid-August to mid-September.

The Taliban have convicted the men on charges such as running away from home, theft, blasphemy, extramarital sex, and same-sex relations.

The Taliban's Supreme Court announces the execution of the flogging sentences of the defendants in various provinces a few days a week.

According to statements published on the court's X social media account, the Taliban have flogged people in Maidan Wardak, Khost, Bamyan, Parwan, Ghazni, Helmand, Zabul, and Kabul provinces for more than a month.

The majority of the court's statements stated that the people were flogged in front of the public and local officials of the group.
The Taliban's implementation of corporal punishment has been criticised by human rights organisations.

The Taliban, however, has ignored calls to stop corporal punishment of citizens, and the group's officials have consistently emphasised on the implementation of the "Hudud Sharia law”.
Human rights organisations say that the Taliban's judicial system is completely substandard and that defendants are deprived of due process, such as the right to a lawyer.

In addition, during more than three years of the Taliban's rule, documented reports of Taliban members violating the group's laws, such as extramarital sex and same-sex relations, have been published, but the Taliban have not yet announced their prosecution in any case.

Taliban Suspends Polio Vaccination Campaign in Afghanistan

Sep 16, 2024, 14:09 GMT+1

The Taliban on Monday suspended a polio vaccination campaign in Afghanistan, the Associated Press reported, citing the United Nations.

The reason for the suspension of the campaign has not yet been announced, and Taliban officials have not publicly commented on the matter.

Afghanistan and Pakistan are the only countries in the world which have not been able to stop the spread of this deadly and paralysing disease among children.

A senior World Health Organisation (WHO) official told The Associated Press that he is aware of discussions about changing the approach from door-to-door vaccination to vaccination in places such as mosques.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has so far confirmed 18 cases of polio in Afghanistan this year. Except for two cases, all of them have been reported in the south of the country. This figure shows an increase compared to six cases in 2023.

Trump’s Assassination: Suspected Gunman Wanted to “Take Afghan Troops to Ukraine”

Sep 16, 2024, 12:38 GMT+1

The New York Times has reported that Trump assassination suspect Ryan Wesley Routh said last year that he was looking to recruit former Afghan troops to fight in Ukraine.

"We can probably purchase some passports through Pakistan, since it’s such a corrupt country," Routh had said.

On Sunday, media outlets reported a shooting near Trump's residence in Palm Beach, Florida.
Police officials said that the gunman was among the bushes near the golf course when Secret Service agents spotted the barrel of his rifle.

Police officials identified the suspect as Ryan Wesley Routh and said that he was stopped and taken into custody while he was fleeing.

The New York Times reported that Roth, 58, gave an interview to the newspaper in March last year and said that he was looking to recruit troops from the former Afghan government for the war in Ukraine.

He had said that he was planning to illegally transfer Afghan troops from Iran and Pakistan to Ukraine.

Routh claimed that dozens of Afghan soldiers have expressed interest in fighting in Ukraine.

It is unclear how successful Ryan Routh's efforts to recruit Afghan troops have been, but a former Afghan government soldier in Iran told the New York Times that he had been contacted about the matter and that if going to Ukraine meant the end of his illegal stay in Iran, he wanted to go to war.

Ryan Routh himself spent a few months in Ukraine in 2022. Roth had said he was willing to fight in Ukraine and be killed.

Pak Security Officials’ Delegation Travels to Kandahar to Discuss Border Issues

Sep 16, 2024, 11:02 GMT+1

Sources told Afghanistan International that a delegation of Pakistani military and civilian officials travelled to Kandahar on Sunday to discuss the border issues between the two countries.

According to sources, the Pakistani delegation met with Mullah Shirin Akhund, the Taliban's governor in Kandahar.

The Pakistani delegation's meeting with Taliban officials in Kandahar is part of regular meetings of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Joint Border Committee, sources told Afghanistan International on Monday.

According to sources, the delegation held talks with Taliban border officials at the Angur Adda and North Waziristan border crossing before leaving for Kandahar.

The visit of Pakistani military and civilian officials to Kandahar comes after the recent clashes between Taliban and Pakistani border forces in Khost province.

In the clashes that took place about ten days ago, Pakistani media reported heavy casualties for the Taliban's border forces.

The Express Tribune newspaper, citing its sources, reported that 16 Taliban fighters were killed and 27 other Taliban fighters were wounded in an exchange of fire with Pakistani border forces in Zazai Maidan in Khost.

According to the report, two Taliban tanks were also destroyed in the clashes. According to the report, the clash between the Taliban and the Pakistani army took place between the morning of September 8 to the evening of September 10.
Taliban officials have not yet commented on the casualties.

Earlier, Geo News and Pakistan's state-run radio quoted sources as claiming that two Taliban commanders were also killed in the clashes.
Following the clashes, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur announced that he would start talks on security issues with the Taliban government. Gandapur's remarks were met with serious reactions from politicians in the ruling parties.