Presidents of Tajikistan, Iran Discuss Afghanistan

He warned that if the country's water continues to flow uncontrolled to other countries, people will not even have drinking water in the near future.

He called on the group's officials to build dams with "speed, seriousness and sobriety" and control the flow of Afghanistan's rivers.

On Wednesday, January 15, the Taliban's Environment Department held a meeting titled "National Climate Change Conference" in Kabul to review the results and consequences of the 29th World Climate Change Summit.

At the meeting, Abbas Stanekzai said that Afghanistan is facing a water shortage crisis and the water level is constantly declining.

Stanekzai warned, "If we do not control the flow of our water and the water goes to other places indiscriminately, it will be detrimental to us. A day will come when we will not even have drinking water throughout Afghanistan."

He called on the Taliban's Ministry of Energy and Water to use the available facilities to do more in the field of water control and the construction of dams. "I am confident that the Ministry of Energy is working in this area, but these efforts are not enough," he said. “We need to work with more speed, seriousness and poise to control our waters in the next few years."

Referring to the consequences of the long-running wars in Afghanistan, he stated that these wars have caused serious damage to the country's environment. The Taliban official added that about 80% of Afghanistan's forests have been destroyed.

Stanekzai also addressed the UN envoy in part of his speech, saying, "It is your duty to take practical measures in the field of the environment."

The Taliban's dam construction has raised concerns among countries in the region, including Iran and Central Asia.

Referring to the Taliban's dam construction in the western region, Iranian officials have threatened to take their water rights from the Taliban by force. Central Asian countries are also concerned about the construction of the Qosh Tepa Canal.

The meeting was co-chaired by Sheikha Najwa bint Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatar’s Deputy Minister of Labour and Mohammad Amin Anis, head of labour deployment at the Taliban-led Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.

According to the Gulf Times, the meeting "discussed the latest developments in the field of work between the two countries and other related issues".

The Qatari government has refused to provide details on the topics of the agenda of the meeting. However, the Taliban have already asked countries such as Qatar to use Afghan workers.

The Qatari government has received the Taliban delegation with official ceremonies. The Qatari delegation was led by a woman. The Qatari government, like other countries, has included a female official in its delegation with the Taliban, a group that has completely excluded women from the public sphere and confined them to the four walls of their homes.

The Taliban have focused on sending labour out of the country. Recently, the ministers of foreign affairs, labour, and social affairs, and the deputy ministers of public health, interior affairs, and the head of the Taliban's National Bureau of Statistics, in a meeting in Kabul, emphasised on the acceleration of plans to send the workforce abroad.

According to a statement from the Taliban's Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Taliban leader Mullah Hibatullah has also ordered "relevant agencies to play a role in the process of legal sending Afghan workers abroad, consolidating professions, health, birth certificates and other documents, and work in accordance with their responsibilities".

Kirby said that the United States will continue to work with Pakistan on counterterrorism.

Kirby said at a news conference on Wednesday that Islamabad has never been a "technical ally" of the United States and that no formal treaty has been signed between the two countries. He added that the United States has cooperated with Islamabad over the past two decades in countering terrorist threats on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

Despite this, the United States and Pakistan have cooperated over the past several decades to counter the threat of terrorism, which "still exists in the backbone of Afghanistan and Pakistan," Kirby said at a news conference in Washington on Wednesday, January 15.

These threats still linger on the Afghan-Pakistan border, he said.

Pakistan accuses the Afghan Taliban of supporting militants opposed to the country, but the Taliban have always claimed that they do not do so.

Islamabad has repeatedly called on the Afghan Taliban over the past three years to expel TTP militants from Afghanistan and hand over its leaders to Pakistan.

For the past few decades, Pakistan has been an important partner of the United States, first in the fight against Soviet influence in Afghanistan and then in the fight against terrorism.

However, Pakistan sheltered Taliban leaders during the two-decade presence of the United States and NATO in Afghanistan, and according to officials of the former Afghan government, Islamabad supported the group's war.

Amir Khan Muttaqi also said that the international community's assistance should be such that it has long-term benefits for Afghanistan.

The fourth coordination meeting between the Taliban administration and United Nations agencies was held on Wednesday, January 15, at the Taliban's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kabul.

The meeting discussed economic stability, health and nutrition, education, economy, food security, counter-narcotics, climate change, refugees and internally displaced persons.

Amir Khan Muttaqi said at the meeting, "The assistance of the international community should be provided based on the needs and priorities of the Afghan people."

He said that permanent resettlement of refugees returning from neighbouring countries, providing alternative livelihoods for farmers, ensuring Afghanistan's access to international financial resources in the field of climate change, supporting the health sector, and paying attention to the mine clearance sector are among Afghanistan's priorities today.

The Taliban's foreign minister called on UN agencies to change the type of aid to Afghanistan from humanitarian to developmental aid.

"It must be ensured that aid is spent on long-term infrastructure systems, efforts must be made to use domestic production to increase the positive impact of aid," he explained.

This comes close on the heels of the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump and there is a possibility of cutting off the country's aid to Afghanistan.

The organisation stressed that food access restrictions coupled with climate change have limited people's ability to provide for their families.

The United Nations on Wednesday, January 15, expressed concern over the critical situation of malnutrition and food access restrictions in Afghanistan.

The WFP is helping millions of people, including providing children with food in schools, it wrote.

According to a report by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), in the first nine months of 2024, 343,000 children with acute malnutrition were admitted to hospitals in Afghanistan for treatment.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) reported in September last year that food insecurity has become a growing crisis in Afghanistan, with four million infants and pregnant mothers suffering from malnutrition.

International organisations say that due to the spread of poverty and hunger, an increasing number of Afghan children are at risk of malnutrition.