The United States on Monday imposed sanctions on three leaders of Islamic State’s Afghanistan branch and another man it accused of acting as a financial facilitator for the group, in a move that follows a series of attacks in Kabul claimed by the militant group. The State Department on Monday named the group’s emir, Sanaullah Ghafari, spokesperson Sultan Aziz Azam […]

The news was almost universally hailed as a plus, a diplomatic achievement. The U.S. Department of State trumpeted that Qatar had agreed to serve as the “protecting power” overseeing U.S. interests in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, through Doha’s embassy in the Afghan capital.[1] The arrangement is actually an odd one. The tradition often is that a neutral, Western power would play that […]

The United Nations on Monday pushed for urgent action to prop up Afghanistan’s banks, warning that a spike in people unable to repay loans, lower deposits and a cash liquidity crunch could cause the financial system to collapse within months. In a three-page report on Afghanistan’s banking and financial system seen by Reuters, the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) said the […]

Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi called for the release of the country’s frozen assets on Sunday saying it belongs to all Afghans and a humanitarian catastrophe will be prevented by freeing up the foreign reserves. “We have told the US that we (United States and IEA) are no longer in conflict. We (IEA) have not […]

Association for Human Rights in Central Asia (AHRCA) and International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR) are concerned that authorities of Uzbekistan harassed and intimidated Khidirnazar Allakulov (Truth and Progress party / Haqiqat va Taraqqiyot), Mahmud Davronov (Free Motherland party / Ozod Vatan) and Jahongir Otajonov (Erk) and other outspoken opposition activists in the run-up of Presidential elections in October 2021 […]

The presidents of Iran and Russia weighed plans to finalize a comprehensive agreement on long-term cooperation and broaden the regional and international collaboration between the two countries. In a telephone conversation on Tuesday, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin highlighted the common stances of Tehran and Moscow on bilateral, regional and international issues, stressing the need […]

The rapid fall of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIRoA) on August 15, 2021 was predictable to those who are familiar with the vast levels of corruption that plagued the country during the last twenty years. Widespread corruption, cronyism, extortion, and theft permeated all aspects of Afghan society, from the presidential […]

On 23rd October 2021, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress adopted the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) first dedicated law titled “Land Borders Law” which lays down provisions for border protection and integration of border areas. China currently has a 22,000-kilometre land border with 14 countries which is shared with Russia, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Myanmar, and Nepal, […]

China and Central Asian countries should actively assist Afghanistan in dealing with humanitarian crisis and bringing about a smooth transition of the situation in Afghanistan, said attendees at a think tank forum held in Beijing on Friday. The think tank forum of China and five Central Asian Countries focused on the new situation of Afghanistan, the security and development of […]

US Special Representative for Afghanistan Thomas West said on Friday the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) letter to Congress this week “misconstrued the facts” about the country’s economic and humanitarian crises. In a series of tweets, West said: “The Taliban’s (IEA) letter to Congress earlier this week misconstrued the facts re Afghanistan’s economic & humanitarian crisis. Afghanistan was unfortunately already […]