Afghanistan Remains US Foreign Policy Priority, Says Washington

West said that the "resilience and courage" of Afghans has made him more hopeful about Afghanistan's future.

Hours earlier, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had announced that Tom West had been appointed acting head of the US State Department's Sanctions Coordination Office.

Karen Decker, Chargé d'Affaires at the US Embassy in Afghanistan; Rina Amiri, US Special Representative for Afghan Women, and another official will perform the duties of Tom West.

It is unclear whether the US government will appoint someone else to replace Tom West or if the position of special envoy, which is of a political nature, has been eliminated.

West wrote that he "took the lead in US diplomacy toward Afghanistan during a very difficult period" and listed his achievements over the past three years.

West has many critics, mostly because of his approach to the Taliban. During this period, he tried to stay away from anti-Taliban movements and figures and adopt a soft tone towards the Taliban.

Thomas West said that the "countless resistance and courage of Afghan journalists and human rights activists" had been hopeful for him.

The former US special envoy travelled to the countries of the region several times during his mission, but he did not succeed in using these countries to change the behaviour and policies of the Taliban.

According to sources, this order was recently issued by the Taliban's Department for the Promotion of Virtue in Takhar.

Local journalists in Takhar told Afghanistan International that these restrictions have made it difficult for them to report the news.

The Taliban also recently banned live broadcasting of political programmes in domestic media and warned the media that if they do not comply with the orders, they will take legal action against officials and other media workers.

Earlier, Mullah Shirin, the Taliban's governor in Kandahar, had ordered government departments and residents of the province to refrain from taking photos and videos of living creatures.

According to sources, these military personnel were arrested about two weeks ago and there is no news of them so far. Local Taliban officials have not yet commented on this issue.

According to sources, Noorul Haq Panjshiri, a former police officer in Baghlan province, and Abdul Rashid, a former officer of the Balkh Border Brigade Command, were arrested by the Taliban from their home in Panjsheri village of Julga district.

Local sources confirmed that the local Taliban officials denied the arrest of these former military personnel and despite the repeated visits of the families of these former soldiers to the Taliban's central offices in Kabul, the group has not provided any information about them.

Sources said that these people lived in their village after the fall of the previous government and were not connected to any military or political groups opposed to the Taliban.

According to international human rights organisations, including the United Nations, the Taliban has arrested, tortured, and in some cases killed military and security personnel of the former Afghan government in the three years since they regained power.

The Taliban has denied the accusations and in some cases linked the killings of former military personnel to personal animosities.

Eskandar Momeni claimed that all the resources of the Islamic Republic are spent on immigrants and that Iran can no longer accept them.

On Tuesday, October 1, on the sidelines of a meeting of commanders, deputies, and heads of the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Republic's Police Command, Iran's Interior Minister called on the responsible institutions to cooperate in the implementation of the plan to deport undocumented immigrants.

"We have prepared the necessary plans, and other sectors that are in charge of housing, work and jobs for nationals must cooperate so that this plan is properly implemented," he said.

In recent days, there have been reports about the ban on the education of Afghan children in the Islamic Republic's schools and the prohibition of selling bread to Afghans, which have provoked reactions.

Afghan immigrants in Iran do not have the right to rent a house, make transactions, sell or conclude any contracts.

Recently, the Commander-in-Chief of Iran's Police Force announced that by the end of this year, nearly two million Afghans without residency documents will be deported from Iran.

Barakzai, who is still in the hospital, said that she will return to her tent and continue her hunger strike. Barakzai told Afghanistan International on Tuesday that her condition had improved compared to the day before, but that she was still in hospital due to an irregular heartbeat.

The LGBT rights activist said that she had entered the eighth day of the hunger strike and would return to the tent soon.

She began a hunger strike last week to recognize gender apartheid and to protest the difficult situation of LGBT people in Afghanistan.

Last year, Mohra Barakzai went on an 11-day strike in Malmö, Sweden, to highlight the situation of LGBT people in Afghanistan, and spent 150 days in a sit-in tent.

One of Barakzai's demands is to transfer LGBT people from Afghanistan to other countries.

She said that LGBT people in Afghanistan are at risk of facing death, many of them are homeless, they are not given jobs, and some of them are threatened by the Taliban and even their families.

On Monday, Diana Daneshwar, another LGBT activist in Pakistan, was taken to hospital after a five-day hunger strike.

Daneshwar’s relatives told Afghanistan International that they found her unconscious at her home around noon on Monday when a number of people from her community visited her.

Diana Daneshwar has been on a hunger strike in a Pakistani city since Thursday, September 26, to recognise "sexual and gender apartheid and genocide of the Hazaras”.