Inside The Taliban’s Bid To Rebuild Its Military With Russian Support

Speaking to the Russian newspaper Izvestia, Kabulov said the current deadlock was the result of Western actions.

Kabulov said the responsibility for releasing Afghanistan’s frozen assets lies with the United States and European countries, as they were the ones that imposed the freeze, not Russia or the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

Kabulov added that there are currently no discussions with either the United States or European governments on the issue.

Russia has repeatedly raised the matter at regional forums, including meetings of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the Moscow Format.

The United States transferred around $3.5 billion of Afghanistan’s central bank reserves to the Swiss-based Afghan Fund. Taliban efforts to gain access to those assets have so far been unsuccessful.

The fund was established to support Afghanistan’s economic stability while preventing the Taliban from accessing the money. It is overseen by a board comprising representatives from the United States, Switzerland, and two former Afghan officials, Anwar-ul-Haq Ahady and Shah Mohammad Mehrabi.

The fate of another $3.5 billion in Afghan reserves remains uncertain because of compensation claims filed in the United States by families of victims of the September 11 attacks. The plaintiffs argue that the Taliban bears responsibility because of its links to al-Qaeda, which carried out the attacks on New York’s World Trade Center.

Speaking at a mosque in western Kabul on the ninth day of Muharram, Karimi said he had raised the issue of the Taliban’s treatment of Shia Muslims with Prime Minister Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, who had instructed Taliban officials to address the matter.

Karimi said, however, that Akhund’s orders had produced no results.

“I have expressed my dissatisfaction to many senior figures, asking why the prime minister’s orders and directives are not being followed,” he said.

The deputy minister criticised Taliban Justice Minister Abdul Hakim Sharaei on Thursday, saying certain individuals had recently acted against Shia Muslims in ways that contradicted official Taliban policy. He warned of the consequences of such actions.

In recent days, Sharaei ordered the detention of several Shia Muslims for raising Muharram flags and held them in his private detention facility.

Sources told Afghanistan International on Wednesday that, following instructions from the Taliban’s prime minister and interior minister, Sharaei released the detainees after three days.

The justice minister also detained several Shia community elders on Tuesday after summoning them to the Ministry of Justice. According to sources, he required them to pledge that Muharram flags would be removed from mosques and Hussainiyas as soon as possible.

Criticism of the Taliban Justice Minister

Karimi warned against pushing the Hazara and Shia communities “to the limit”, saying they should not be forced into decisions they do not wish to make.

He expressed regret over Sharaei’s recent treatment of Shia Muslims, arguing that the justice minister’s actions fell outside the scope of his official responsibilities.

Karimi said the justice minister’s duties are clearly defined and that he should focus on his legal responsibilities rather than intervening in cultural and religious matters.

Sharaei is one of the Taliban’s most influential cabinet members and is reported to operate a private prison in addition to the group’s official detention facilities. Over recent years, he has reportedly detained several individuals there, including over land disputes.

Karimi is one of the few Hazara officials serving in the Taliban administration. His public criticism of the group’s treatment of Hazaras and Shia Muslims is highly unusual.

He also urged Hazara people, particularly young people, not to react emotionally to recent developments, stressing that Shia Muslims do not support violence, conflict or civil war.

The Shia cleric said that throughout his more than four years in the Taliban administration, he has consistently promoted unity and solidarity among Afghanistan’s people.

Meeting With Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund

Karimi said he had told senior Taliban leaders, including the prime minister, that if protests or armed resistance emerged in Hazara and Shia areas, he would accept responsibility.

He claimed to understand the Hazara and Shia communities well and said he had also told the Taliban intelligence chief: “If you mistake our people's silence for weakness or fear, you are making a mistake.”

Karimi added that today’s Hazara community is “completely different” from that of the past.

“Our people are educated. A nation with education understands its circumstances and makes rational decisions based on that understanding,” he said.

He concluded that Afghanistan’s civil wars had revealed the realities of the country’s ethnic communities to one another, and that Hazaras do not want the bitter experiences of history to be repeated.

He said the inmates were handed over via the Milak border crossing on Tuesday under the 11th phase of a prisoner transfer agreement between Iran and the Taliban.

According to Sarhadi, the prisoners had been serving sentences in prisons across six Iranian provinces, including Sistan and Baluchestan, Hormozgan, Fars, Kerman, Bushehr and Khuzestan.

Iran’s Fars News Agency reported on Thursday that the Hirmand prosecutor said the transfer was carried out in coordination with the judicial, security and executive authorities of both sides.

Under the agreement, the prisoners will serve the remainder of their sentences in Taliban-run prisons in Afghanistan.

Iranian authorities did not disclose the offences for which the prisoners had been convicted.

In recent weeks, Iran has also transferred hundreds of other Afghan prisoners to the Taliban.

Millions of Afghans live in Iran, and the exact number of Afghan prisoners in the country has not been officially released. However, the Taliban periodically announce the transfer of Afghan inmates from Iranian prisons.

The transfers have continued steadily in recent years under agreements between Tehran and the Taliban.

On May 4, the Taliban’s General Directorate of Prison Affairs said that since the group returned to power in August 2021, around 2,000 Afghan prisoners had been transferred from Iran to Afghanistan. According to the directorate’s spokesperson, some have been released after completing their sentences, while others remain in custody.

Iranian and Taliban officials have held repeated meetings in recent years to discuss the transfer of Afghan prisoners from Iranian jails to Afghanistan.

The transfers have nevertheless raised concerns among human rights organisations, which warn that some of those returned could face ill-treatment because of their political views or alleged links to groups opposed to the Taliban.

He argued that criticising the Taliban’s policies on women and girls from afar has had no impact.

The right-wing British politician, who three years ago said Afghanistan was better off under Taliban rule, wrote in an article for The Telegraph that continued isolation of Afghanistan does not serve Britain's national interests.

Ellwood argued that condemning the Taliban leadership’s decrees against women and girls from a distance has failed to influence the group's policies, and said Britain should pursue active diplomacy to prevent larger crises.

The former British Army officer said that after 20 years of military involvement, billions of dollars in spending and the deaths of 457 British service personnel, the campaign ended in failure and the Taliban returned to power.

Ellwood said severe poverty, the lack of employment opportunities and widespread despair among Afghanistan’s population of around 40 million have created conditions that could strengthen recruitment by Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) and fuel increased migration to Europe.

The former chairman of the UK Parliament’s Defence Committee warned that ignoring Afghanistan would pave the way for deeper Chinese influence, arguing that Beijing is steadily expanding its access to the country’s vast mineral resources. Referring to the example of the late US Senator John McCain’s efforts to encourage American engagement with Vietnam after years of war, Ellwood said diplomacy does not amount to recognising or endorsing the Taliban but is instead a means of shaping the future.

Writing in The Telegraph, Ellwood said there are differing voices within the Taliban administration. While hardliners close to Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada appear content with Afghanistan’s isolation, others within government ministries recognise that international engagement is essential to revive the economy.

He argued that the West’s current policy towards Kabul is neither morally effective nor realistic, and called on Britain to reopen its embassy in Kabul.

Ellwood resigned as chairman of the Defence Committee in 2023 after making controversial remarks praising the Taliban.

At the time, he said Afghanistan was in a better position under Taliban rule than during the former republic and had achieved a degree of stability.

Ellwood’s latest call for engagement comes as the 2026 report by the Dutch Children’s Rights Foundation ranked Afghanistan last out of 194 countries for children’s rights, citing policies imposed by the Taliban administration.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the Taliban Justice Ministry said Sharaei described cooperation among security institutions in maintaining public order as essential and called on Kabul’s security commanders to give the matter serious attention.

Sharaei also urged greater cooperation between Taliban security officials and the commission responsible for preventing the illegal seizure of state land. He said the commission would continue recovering unlawfully occupied land with “determination and firmness”.

According to the ministry, the security commanders pledged to cooperate in maintaining public order, recovering seized state land and implementing Hibatullah Akhundzada’s directives.

The meeting came days after the Taliban justice minister ordered the detention of more than 30 Shia Muslims in his private prison for displaying Muharram flags and symbols in Kabul. On Wednesday, Sharaei released the detainees’ following instructions from the Taliban’s prime minister and interior minister.

At the same time, Taliban security forces acting on Sharaei’s orders raided the headquarters of private broadcaster Tamadon TV in Kabul and suspended its broadcasts. Officials at the station said on Wednesday that unidentified individuals were removing the broadcaster’s equipment and other property.

Sharaei is regarded as one of the Taliban’s most influential ministers. In addition to overseeing the group’s official detention facilities, he reportedly operates a private prison where several people have been detained in recent years, including over land disputes.