Two organisations in Brussels have convened a high-level conference on the growing challenges posed by Taliban rule and what participants described as the urgent need for political change in Afghanistan, South Asia Journal reports.
The Taliban’s deputy prime minister for administrative affairs, Abdul Salam Hanafi, has called for strengthened political and economic relations with the European Union during a meeting with senior EU officials in Kabul.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Tahir Andrabi, said on Friday that border crossings with Afghanistan will remain closed to trade and transit until the Taliban provide credible guarantees that militants will not be allowed to enter Pakistan from Afghan territory.
The brother of Jahan Shah Safi, a former Afghan security officer arrested in the United States on charges of assisting ISIS, has strongly rejected the allegations, calling them baseless.
A former senior commander of Afghanistan’s security forces has appealed to US President Donald Trump to help create conditions that would allow Afghans to return home and resume the fight against the Taliban.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Afghanistan under Taliban rule faces “certain problems,” describing the decades-long conflict in the country as “a horrible situation.”
The Taliban’s chief spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, said during a ceremony in Paktia that modern warfare is driven by technology and that the group must strengthen its capabilities accordingly.
A former senior commander of the Afghan National Army has rejected allegations against Jahan Shah Safi, an Afghan refugee arrested in the United States on suspicion of links to ISIS-K, saying he is “not a terrorist.”
Local sources in Parwan province told Afghanistan International that five former Afghan security personnel were arrested by the Taliban after being deported from Iran.
The Taliban’s Supreme Court says 15 people in Kabul have been flogged on charges of selling and trafficking narcotics, while three others in Paktia were flogged for using counterfeit currency.
The Taliban say Afghanistan–Pakistan trade routes will reopen only if Islamabad provides firm guarantees that the crossings will no longer be used for political or economic pressure.
According to SIGAR, from 2002 to mid-2021 the United States allocated approximately $144.7 billion for Afghanistan’s reconstruction, of which an estimated $26–29 billion was lost to waste, fraud and abuse.
Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi has accused Pakistan of attempting to advance what he described as “mysterious projects” in Afghanistan, alleging that Islamabad seeks to topple the Taliban by exerting economic pressure.
Three Afghan sources and two Pakistani officials, including one based in Istanbul, told Reuters that a meeting between Taliban and Pakistani representatives was held in Saudi Arabia.
Families of ten Afghan migrants killed by Iranian border forces say the Islamic Republic returned their bodies only after keeping them “hidden for about 24 days.”
An Afghan national living in the United States has been charged with threatening to build a bomb, carry out a suicide attack, and kill Americans, the US Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, Ryan Raybould, announced on Friday.
The United States has suspended all immigration applications including green card and citizenship requests from nationals of 19 countries, all of them outside Europe.
Uzbek media, citing the country’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry, reported on Wednesday that the Termez–Hairatan border crossing has reopened after four years.
The Taliban governor’s spokesperson in Khost said on Tuesday that two sons of a man executed earlier that day have also been sentenced to death. Their executions, he said, have been postponed because the heir of the victims is not currently in Afghanistan.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that Moscow believes dialogue with the Taliban must continue, stressing that Afghanistan remains critically important for regional stability. He also noted that Russian border guards are stationed in Tajikistan.
The Taliban governor’s spokesperson in Khost said on Tuesday that an estimated 80,000 people gathered at a stadium in the provincial centre to watch the public execution of a man convicted of premeditated murder. The Taliban had urged the public a day earlier to attend.
A senior Taliban official has claimed that no actor inside Afghanistan is able to “speak” except the Taliban, asserting that the group now has “complete control” over the country and that the press is the only sphere not yet fully subdued.