World Migration Day: Over 1 Million Migrants From Iran & Pakistan Returned To Afghanistan

Matthew Miller said that the US has engaged with various groups, including the Taliban and Tahrir al-Sham, to advance its interests.

Asked at a news conference on Tuesday (December 17) whether Washington has interacted with groups such as the Taliban, ISIS and al-Qaeda in the past, Miller said, "We have that capability. But I am not aware of any interaction with al-Qaeda."

The US State Department spokesperson added, "We are engaging with the Taliban to advance the interests of the United States, and we are also interacting with Tahrir al-Sham, to find and bring back Austin Tice, an American journalist."

The US State Department had previously said that Washington continues to designate the Taliban as a "global terrorist organisation”. The ministry also stressed that it would not hesitate to engage with the Taliban for the benefit of the United States.

While the US and UN officials have repeatedly emphasised on engagement with the Taliban government, the policy remains controversial among Afghans.

Many Afghan human rights activists and politicians find it unacceptable to engage with a group that systematically violates the rights of citizens, especially women.

According to sources, Rahm Dil Hanafi was from Panjshir and was previously one of Ahmad Shah Massoud's commandos.

According to informed sources, the Taliban’s intelligence agency was trying to arrest Rahm Dil Hanafi, and when they failed to find him, they took his wife with them. Rahm Dil Hanafi has nine children.

Sources say that Rahmdel Hanafi had gone to Iran after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, but had returned to Afghanistan with the guarantee of Nooruddin Azizi, the Taliban's minister of commerce, and Qudratullah Amini, the former governor of Panjshir.

Sources said that the fate of Hanafi's wife is still unknown, and it is not clear where she was transferred.

The Taliban has not yet commented on the matter, but the group has so far arbitrarily detained a large number of former Afghan military personnel and officials or their family members.

The two groups harshly criticised ISIS, saying that instead of fighting Israel, it is fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Khalil-ur-Rehman Haqqani, a prominent leader of the Haqqani Network, was killed last week at the Ministry of Refugees in Kabul in a suicide attack. The assassination of Haqqani was claimed by ISIS-K.

In a message in Pashto on Tuesday, al-Qaeda al-Jihad called Khalil-ur-Rehman Haqqani a "great mujahid". In its statement, the group expressed its condolences to the Taliban leader over the killing of Haqqani.

In a separate statement, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), another branch of al-Qaeda, called Khalil ur-Rahman Haqqani "one of the strong mountains of jihad" and said, "He came from a noble jihadi family that was a stronghold and comrade of Sheikh Jalaluddin Haqqani on the path of jihad. Today, his life ended well and he was martyred after decades of jihad and perseverance against the occupiers."

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is an offshoot of Al-Qaeda which operates specifically in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

The al-Qaeda statement said that ISIS had been heavily attacked, saying it had "undertaken a task that the Americans were unable to perform after their withdrawal".

"The religious duty against ISIS is to kill and destroy them, because they are a great evil and a great calamity," it added.

The statement expressed sympathy with the Haqqani family.

The Haqqani Network has long had close ties with al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed in 2022 at the guest house of Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban's interior minister, in Kabul.

According to the United Nations Security Council report, the Taliban have continued their alliance and cooperation with al-Qaeda. According to the report, al-Qaeda has rehabilitated eight of its bases in Afghanistan and is in the process of rebuilding.

The office said that poverty and unemployment have seriously affected almost half of the Afghan population, especially women.

OCHA said in a statement on Tuesday, December 17, that in 2025, 21 million people will face water and health shortages, 14.8 million people will face acute food insecurity, 14.3 million people will face limited access to health services, and 7.8 million women and children will need food assistance.

"Unemployment, family debt and poverty remain widespread, affecting almost half of the population, and are even more pronounced for women, especially female-headed households," OCHA said in a statement.

The UN office also said that in addition to the economic crisis, the Afghan people are exposed to increasing legal restrictions imposed by the Taliban. According to OCHA, these restrictions increase protection risks for all people, especially women, girls and other vulnerable groups.

The UN agency has warned that political developments in Afghanistan's neighbouring countries increase the risk of a crisis of repatriation of Afghan refugees.

If the law is approved by President Vladimir Putin, Russia will be the first member of the Security Council to remove the Taliban from the list of terrorist groups.

The new move by the Russian parliament is good news for the Taliban, which is eagerly waiting for recognition from the international community.

Currently, no country in the world has recognised the Taliban government, which entered Kabul in August 2021. However, Russia has gradually established ties with the group, who Vladimir Putin called Moscow's ally in the fight against terrorism in July.

The Russian House of Representatives, or Duma, approved the draft law on Tuesday, December 17. The draft law was presented by some members of the Russian State Duma after Russian National Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu visited Kabul and said that Taliban's name could be "temporarily" removed from Russia's list of terrorist groups.

Under the new law, the Kremlin can temporarily suspend the ban on terrorist groups. It could also pave the way for Russia's normalisation of relations with Syria's new rulers.

Russian Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov on Monday called for the removal of Syria's Tahrir al-Sham group from Russia's list of banned terrorist groups. The Islamist group, led by rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, ended more than half a century of rule by the Assad family in Syria by launching a massive offensive against Syrian government forces this month.

Previous Russian laws did not provide for the temporary suspension of the activities of banned organisations.

The Interfax news agency previously wrote about a draft law approved by the Russian parliament today, according to which "the activities of certain prohibited organisations in accordance with Russian law may be suspended for a limited period of time at the request of the Prosecutor General or his deputy and by a court order”.

If the law is signed into law by Vladimir Putin, Russia will be the first member of the Security Council to remove the Taliban from its list of terrorist groups.

China has also accepted the Taliban ambassador but has not yet officially recognized the Taliban government.

Other members of the Security Council have conditioned official relations with the Taliban on respect for women's rights. However, the Taliban have ignored the demands of Western countries by issuing discriminatory decrees against women.