The Christian Lebanese Forces party will reject anyone aligned with the armed Shi’ite movement Hezbollah as prime minister and stick to its boycott of government if a new consensus cabinet is formed, the party’s leader said on Wednesday. Lebanon is in the throes of one of the world’s worst economic meltdowns, according to the World Bank, with the local lira […]

Tuesday’s hearing at the Special Criminal Court was delayed for several hours because nine of the eleven prisoners accused of involvement in the November 2015 Paris terrorist attacks refused to take their places in the glass security enclosure.They were protesting in support of Muhammad Usman, one of their number, who says he has been refused medical treatment. Justice and solidarity […]

Pakistan’s government on Wednesday sent a 50-member delegation of tribal elders to Kabul to negotiate an extension of a truce with the Pakistani Taliban that expired this week, two security officials said. Talks between the two sides that led to cease-fires in the past have been mediated by the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Pakistani Taliban — known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan […]

Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev met with the head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) Deborah Lyons on Wednesday in Almaty and reaffirmed Kazakhstan’s commitment to supporting Afghanistan. According to the Kazakhstan presidential press service they discussed prospects for cooperation between Kazakhstan and the UN as part of international efforts to stabilize the situation in Afghanistan and provide humanitarian […]

India has sent a team to Kabul to oversee the delivery operations of India’s humanitarian aid to Afghanistan and to hold talks with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA). This is the first such visit by the Indian government to Kabul since the IEA’s takeover. During the visit, the team will meet senior IEA leaders and representatives of international organizations […]

The United Nations Security Council has confirmed the resurgence of al Qaeda, the terrorist group behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that is closely tied to the Taliban and is using their return to power in Afghanistan to find safe haven, attract recruits, and boost fundraising for their never-ending jihad. Al Qaeda’s leader, Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri, who succeeded Osama bin […]

Tajikistan’s authoritarian government said that five people had been killed Tuesday in an “anti-terror operation” in a troubled region bordering Afghanistan and China. The five “members of an organized criminal and terrorist group were neutralized” after “armed resistance”, the state information service said, citing the interior ministry. The statement said that the operation was carried out on Tuesday morning and […]

On May 21, 2022, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Afghan Taliban) published issue 196 of their official Arabic-language monthly magazine, Al-Somood. The editorial on the third page of the issue is titled “Afghanistan: The Beating Heart of the Islamic Nation.”[1] In the editorial, a parallel is drawn between Kabul and its “sister” city Jerusalem. The writer argues that Kabul […]

Late Lt.-Gen. Hamid Gul, who died on August 15, 2015, had been chief of the Pakistani military’s Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), which, using U.S. arms and Saudi money, supported the Afghan mujahideen who fought the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and who were the predecessors to today’s Afghan Taliban, under the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Taliban jihadi organization). Gul […]

What’s new? After an informal ceasefire in late 2020, the Arakan Army used the lull in fighting to consolidate control of much of central and northern Rakhine State. Distracted by fallout from the 2021 coup, Myanmar’s military did little to oppose it at first, but rising tensions may lead to renewed combat. Why does it matter? Many Rakhine State residents, including some […]