New Iranian Ambassador To Kabul Meets Taliban’s Foreign Minister

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry announced on Monday, December 9, that during Ishaq Dar's meeting with the Taliban ambassador, the talks focused on strengthening ties between Pakistan and the Taliban government.

The visit came a few days after Mohammad Sadiq was appointed as Pakistan's special envoy for Afghanistan. Earlier, Pakistan had announced that it did not intend to appoint a special representative for Afghanistan affairs.

In recent months, tensions between Islamabad and the Afghan Taliban have escalated, with senior Pakistani officials repeatedly accusing the Taliban in Kabul of supporting and sheltering the Pakistani Taliban. The Taliban has denied the accusations.

This meeting and Pakistan's recent move to appoint a new representative for Afghanistan could be an attempt to ease these tensions between the Taliban and Islamabad.

According to the source, the Taliban leader is also dissatisfied with the cabinet members.

According to sources, the Taliban leader raised complaints about the group's officials at the meeting, saying that members of the Taliban government "are not 100 percent committed to the implementation of the Islamic system”.

Sources said that Hibatullah Akhundzada also expressed his dissatisfaction with the Taliban's cabinet ministers that the group's officials were putting all the problems on his shoulders during talks with foreign diplomats.

Sources within the Taliban said that the leader of the group, referring to the statements of Taliban officials with foreign diplomats, said that these words mean that they are dissatisfied with him.

According to these sources, several Taliban ministers assured Hibatullah Akhundzada that they would "obey" him "for life" and would not act against his orders. However, it has been said that three Taliban ministers stated that the "strength of the system" and "popular support" for the Taliban government are currently under threat.

Sources said that during the Taliban's cabinet meeting with the leader of this group, important issues of the nation were not addressed.

According to sources, at the meeting, Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani and Taliban’s Minister of Information and Culture Khairullah Khairkhwa expressed their views on issues that were "not in line with the Taliban leader's wishes and views and aroused his dissatisfaction”.

Although the Taliban denies the existence of differences among their leaders, there have always been significant signs of disagreements.

Earlier, Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban's interior minister, implicitly criticised Hibatullah Akhundzada in a public meeting, and had stated, "You should not think that because I am the ruler, everyone should accept my words, and if anyone does not accept my words, the sky will come to earth."

Haqqani continued, "You are accountable to God and God will question you."

The Taliban's disputes are said to be mainly over Hibatullah's restrictive decrees, which have made it difficult for the group to interact with the international community.

The meeting discussed the human rights situation and the problems of women and children in Afghanistan.

The embassy wrote in a note on the social media platform X on Monday, December 9, that the meeting discussed "the broad human rights and humanitarian challenges faced by Afghan women and children".

The Australian ambassador's meeting with the UN Women's representative comes at a time when women in Afghanistan face severe legal and social restrictions and their access to education, work and fundamental freedoms is severely restricted.

Australia, along with Germany, the Netherlands, and Canada, were among the first countries to announce that they would file a complaint against the Taliban with the International Court of Justice.

Recently, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong reacted to the closure of medical institutions in Afghanistan, saying that the Taliban had destroyed one of the few remaining opportunities for women.

During the meeting, they discussed the problems of Afghanistan's health sector, strengthening the health system and attracting international aid.

The meeting was attended by Edwin Ceniza Salvador, the head of the World Health Organization in Afghanistan; Hadia Samaha, the World Bank's Human Development Practice Lead for Afghanistan; Kwabena Asante-Ntiamoah, the head of UNFPA for Afghanistan, and UNICEF officials, the Taliban's Ministry of Health wrote in a statement on Monday, December 9.

The ministry did not release details about the agreements reached during the meeting, but the Taliban's health minister said that the group is working to solve the problems of Afghanistan's health sector.

The Taliban official's remarks come as the group, in addition to closing schools and universities to girls, has recently banned girls' education in medical institutions.

Doctors Without Borders warned last week that the Taliban's decision to ban women from studying in medical institutions threatens Afghanistan's health system and will have serious consequences for women's health. The Taliban's move is another step to exclude women from public and professional life, the organisation said.

Mujahid said that the group takes care of prisoners and Taliban agents are not allowed to torture prisoners.

"There is no problem in prisons, prisoners are only supported and treated, they are not tortured, and no one is allowed to do so," a Taliban spokesman told the British newspaper The Independent.

"The media can come and see the prisons and interview the prisoners and then see what the situation is here," Mujahid added.

Based on interviews with 38 people who were arrested by the Taliban's intelligence agency, Afghanistan International revealed that more than 30 types of torture are inflicted on prisoners in Taliban detention centres.

According to the report, most of the prisoners were arrested without legal basis and subjected to severe physical and psychological torture.

Former prisoners said that Taliban agents tortured them in various ways, such as beating them with sticks, immersing their heads and bodies in cold water, electric shocks, suffocating them, removing their nails, and other painful methods.

In addition, in August, sources told Afghanistan International that at least 87 people were killed as a result of torture in Taliban’s intelligence agency prisons.

Sources said that the cause of death was electric shock, respiratory arrest, drowning in water, and torture of the sexual organs.

The Taliban rejected Afghanistan International's investigative report, while the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) also published a report on the existence of torture and ill-treatment in Taliban prisons in November.