If President Biden and his national security team believe the unmitigated debacle of the surrender of Afghanistan was behind them, they are wrong. The ghostly presence of that logistics and strategic planning failure covers the White House like an unrelenting fog. The military leadership, organizational, intelligence, and diplomatic failures linger with each new or recurring government analysis. Most egregious is […]

As many as 400 cholera cases have been confirmed in recent months in Afghanistan’s southern Zabul province, health officials said on Tuesday. Javed Hazhir, a spokesman for Public Health Ministry, said that cases have been reported in other provinces but that more cases of cholera are reported in warmer provinces in the country. “Kabul, Nangarhar, Herat, Helmand and Kandahar are […]

The UK’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan last year showed “systemic failures of leadership, planning and preparation”, according to a scathing inquiry by British MPs published on Tuesday. The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee probe revealed a “fundamental lack of planning, grip or leadership at a time of national emergency” before and during the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) takeover […]

Pakistan has decided to reopen several additional border crossings with Afghanistan, Pakistan’s Special Representative for Afghanistan Mohammad Sadiq said on Monday. “The crossings are to facilitate economic activity and regulate the visitors,” Sadiq tweeted. According to Sadiq Arandu between Chitral and Kunar and Benshahi between Lower Dir and Kunar are the first two crossings of the series to be made […]

A contract for the regulation and management of the country’s four airports was signed with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Tuesday, the Afghan Civil Aviation Authority (ACAA) said. The agreement was signed between Hamidullah Akhundzada, acting head of the Ministry of Transport and Aviation, and Razzaq Aslam, CEO of GAAC, a UAE based consortium with specialist expertise in airport […]

How the Country’s Support for the Taliban Backfired For the last two decades, conventional wisdom in Pakistan held that an Afghanistan ruled by the Taliban would be a boon to Pakistan’s security. Islamabad has long supported the Taliban with the understanding that the militants could help deny India­—which many Pakistani officials see as an existential threat—any influence in Afghanistan. But […]

On May 22, 2022, the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) claimed responsibility for a suicide attack at a conference attended by senior members of the Taliban in the Afghan capital of Kabul.[1] While ISKP has announced that participants at the conference were killed or wounded, among them senior Taliban members, the Taliban have imposed a blackout on the incident and […]

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with his Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Sunday in Beijing to discuss the situation in Afghanistan. According to a statement issued by China’s Foreign Ministry, the two sides stressed the need to establish a comprehensive political structure and protect the rights of women and children in Afghanistan. Pakistan media reported they agreed that […]

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) has banned the export of wheat, citing a shortage in meeting the domestic market demand as the reason. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, Afghanistan needs 6.5 million tons of wheat annually, but domestic production totals only four million tons. The IEA imposed the ban after videos emerged on social media recently […]

A day after the official launch and announcement of planned talks with exiled politicians and military personnel, a number of well-known figures from the previous government say they are ready to sit at the negotiating table, but before that the IEA must make sure that all tribes of Afghanistan are included in the country’s future system. The presence of men […]