Afghan Women Excluded From International Exhibition In Kabul

Writing on X on Friday, Gorka posted a photograph of American detainees and said: “We will not rest until Dennis Coyle and Mahmood Habibi come home.”

The United States’ representative at the UN Security Council has also accused the Taliban of using detainees as leverage. Tammy Bruce said the group must end all forms of hostage-taking and arbitrary detention.

According to Bruce, the Taliban have “openly sought the release of an al-Qaida operative detained in Guantanamo Bay, while paradoxically promising to uphold their counterterrorism commitments”.

The New York Times reported several weeks ago that secret negotiations between the United States and the Taliban over the release of American prisoners had reached a deadlock. The report said US officials and Taliban representatives had held confidential talks in recent months on the possible release of American detainees in Afghanistan.

According to the report, the Taliban are seeking the release of Mohammad Rahim, who has been held at Guantanamo Bay since 2008 and is accused of cooperating with Osama bin Laden within the al-Qaida network.

The United States has repeatedly asked the Taliban to clarify the fate of Mahmood Shah Habibi, an Afghan-American citizen and former head of Afghanistan’s Civil Aviation Authority. The Taliban have denied detaining him.

Washington has offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the identification of Habibi’s location and his safe return.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Habibi was detained in Afghanistan in 2022, days after the killing of al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, a claim rejected by the Taliban.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has said only Dennis Walter Coyle and Polynesis Jackson are in Taliban custody.

US representatives have travelled to Afghanistan several times over the past year in efforts to secure the release of American prisoners.

Andrey Serdyukov, chief of the CSTO Joint Staff, said at a press conference on Thursday that the presence and activities of such groups in Afghanistan threaten regional security and could lead to the spread of terrorism to neighbouring countries.

He described the situation as a serious concern for Central Asian states.

At the same time, Sergei Shoigu, secretary of Russia’s Security Council, described the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border as a key security hotspot for CSTO member states.

Expressing concern about rising threats along the organisation’s western and southern borders, Shoigu said the southern frontier, particularly developments linked to Afghanistan, remains a central focus of the bloc’s security agenda. He added that the situation along the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border is among the organisation’s top security priorities.

The remarks come after reports of 17 armed clashes along the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border last year.

All 15 members of the Security Council unanimously adopted the resolution to continue sanctions under the 1988 regime against the Taliban. Travel-ban exemptions for several Taliban leaders were not renewed.

The draft resolution was prepared by the United States.

The Taliban has repeatedly called on countries to lift international sanctions. However, concerns about the continued presence of militant groups in Afghanistan, restrictions on women’s rights and the absence of an inclusive government led the Security Council to maintain the sanctions regime.

In its latest assessment, the UN Security Council’s Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team said the Taliban supports the activities of militant groups including al-Qaida, the TTP and the East Turkestan Islamic Movement inside Afghanistan.

In the six-month report on global terrorist threats, the monitoring team said al-Qaida continues to benefit from Taliban support and operates in Afghanistan as a provider of training and advisory services, particularly to the TTP.

According to the report, al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent remains active in south-eastern Afghanistan. It said the group’s leader, Osama Mahmoud, and his deputy, Yahya Ghauri, are based in Kabul, while its media team operates from Herat.

Speaking at a weekly briefing on Thursday, February 12, Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said the report shows the TTP receives “preferential treatment” under Taliban rule and could pose a threat beyond the region.

Andrabi said Islamabad would raise the issue with members of the UN Security Council, adding that the findings reinforce concerns Pakistan has repeatedly shared with the international community.

Pakistan has long argued that militant activity in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan threatens regional stability. The Taliban, however, have consistently rejected such allegations as baseless.

In a statement issued Thursday, the ministry said the decision followed internal consultations on resuming the commission’s activities. The first meeting of Afghan members of the commission has already been held.

According to the ministry, the meeting was attended by the Taliban’s deputy finance minister for policy, representatives of relevant government institutions and members of the private sector.

Participants discussed ways to expand economic cooperation between Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, including the exchange of expertise and information, trade facilitation and the prioritisation of joint projects. Taliban representatives also reviewed the history of economic cooperation between the two countries.

Earlier this month, the Taliban’s Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs announced the formation of a separate joint economic commission involving Afghanistan, China and Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia and its embassy in Kabul have not yet commented on the reported reactivation of the Afghanistan–Saudi joint commission.

The first meeting of the Afghanistan–Saudi Arabia Joint Economic Commission was held in 2018 in Riyadh, bringing together officials from Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan’s former government to strengthen economic and trade relations.