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.
A senior Taliban official has said that “malicious elements” operating in a neighbouring country against the Taliban must be neutralised, insisting that defending the group is the duty of all Afghans.
The Taliban’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi expressed regret over the killing of Chinese citizens along the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border during a phone call with Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin.
The Taliban’s Supreme Court said on Tuesday that a man convicted of murder was executed in a stadium in central Khost province, with local residents present. The man, identified as Mangal, was a resident of Khost.
The Afghanistan Freedom Front (AFF) says its fighters attacked the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice headquarters in Maimana, the capital of Faryab province, on Sunday evening.
The Taliban media office in Khost province has announced that a man sentenced to death will be publicly executed on Tuesday in the provincial stadium. The United Nations has previously urged the Taliban to halt the use of capital punishment in Afghanistan.
Sources have confirmed to Afghanistan International that a Taliban delegation travelled to Saudi Arabia for talks with Pakistani officials, but the negotiations ended without any breakthrough.
Tajikistan’s presidential press office said on Monday that two attacks launched from Afghan territory over the past week have killed five people and injured five others.
A former senior British officer has alleged that UK special forces committed “war crimes” in Afghanistan by carrying out the extrajudicial killing of detainees. He said that senior military officials were aware of the incidents but concealed them.
Pakistani religious leader Fazlur Rehman, head of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F), said on Sunday that Pakistan’s long-standing policy toward Afghanistan has failed. He stressed that Islamabad has been unable to turn Kabul into a friend.
The Afghanistan Freedom Front says its fighters launched a rocket attack on Taliban forces in Badakhshan, killing three fighters and wounding two others.