Qatar’s ruling emir and the visiting U.S. secretaries of state and defense discussed developments in Afghanistan and efforts to enhance security there, the emir’s court said on Monday. The emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, received U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin after their arrival in Doha earlier in the day. The visit came […]

The Taliban have invited a number of countries, including Russia, to take part in an event dedicated to the announcement of the composition of the new Afghan government, Al Jazeera reported on Monday. “We have sent invitations to Turkey, China, Russia, Iran, Pakistan and Qatar to take part in the [ceremony] of announcing [the composition of the new Afghan] government,” […]

Turkey is working with Qatar and the United States about operating Kabul airport and is in talks with the Taliban, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday, adding security at the airport was the main issue. Cavusoglu told broadcaster NTV that 19 Turkish technicians were in Kabul, holding talks with Qataris about the airport, Reuters reported. Turkey has told […]

The Taliban announced a new caretaker government on Tuesday evening and said the acting head of state will be Mullah Hassan Akhund. Addressing a press conference in Kabul, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid made the announcement and said the new acting prime minister will be Mullah Hassan Akhund. The Taliban swept to power more than three weeks ago when former president […]

If Washington is going to deter a militant China, it needs the support of democratic India. Unfortunately, India looks like the country most immediately — and perhaps most adversely — affected by the Biden-created debacle. As a result, New Delhi could decide to side not with America but with a Chinese ally, Moscow. India saw the Afghan government as a […]

Finance will need to be at the centre of decision-making not only in Western capitals, but also in Taliban-controlled Kabul. Not even the most pessimistic predictions anticipated the speed with which the Taliban would overrun the incumbent regime in Afghanistan, but it was always certain that the US military withdrawal would leave the government and its military exposed. So, one […]

Russia looks to the Taliban as a stabilising force in Afghanistan – and this may mean formal recognition of the new regime in the country. During the farewell meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Moscow last month, Putin spoke in public about the Taliban takeover for the first time. He stated that the world […]

The choices that NATO, the US and the UK now face in Afghanistan when dealing with the Taliban will involve unpleasant compromises, but it is necessary for Western governments to start deciding on their priorities and considering their options. The collapse of the Afghan government and the subsequent crisis in Kabul constitute a policy failure of the highest order. However, […]

Recent developments in Afghanistan constitute a strategic gain for Pakistan, at least for the moment. In more than 40 years of civil strife, war and instability in Afghanistan, it would not be wrong to say that its neighbours have often pursued their own strategic interests by manipulating the Afghan political field, even at the expense of peace in the country. […]

United States (US) Army Major General Chris Donahue, Commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, became the last US service member to leave Afghanistan, when he boarded a C-17 transport plane at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on August 30, 2021. The last US troops thus left Afghan soil exactly 12-days before the September 11, 2021, deadline originally set by […]