It had to be symbolic, and was represented as such. Forces of the United States will be leaving Afghanistan on September 11 after two decades of violent occupation, though for a good deal of this stretch, US forces were, at best, failed democracy builders, at worst, violent tenants. In his April 14 speech, President Joe Biden made the point that […]

The White House on Thursday said that the United States has the ability to keep an eye on any resurgence of al Qaeda in Afghanistan without keeping a military footprint there a day after U.S. President Joe Biden said that he was pulling out U.S. forces after nearly 20 years of war. “We believe we have the means to keep […]

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Friday that the Taliban has to “change based on democratic ways.” Addressing Raisina 2021 conference virtually, Zarif stated: “If they (Taliban) want to go back to their 90s ideology, it will be impossible, as there is a new and different Afghanistan today.” Zarif’s remarks come a day after US President Joe Biden and […]

At least nine Taliban militants – including the group’s spy chief Ajmal Mashak – were killed in an airstrike by the Afghan force in northern Balkh province, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) said Friday. The MoD said in a statement that the airstrike was conducted in the Hussain Khel village in the Balkh district of the province on Thursday. According […]

President Ashraf Ghani said on Thursday that US President Joe Biden and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg’s decision to withdraw foreign forces set the context for a “reset” of assumptions, alignments, and actions and that the Afghan government is “not at risk of collapse”. Addressing a virtual event organized by Azerbaijan’s Nizami Ganjavi International Center, Ghani said: “We are not at […]