U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in Brussels on Wednesday ahead of a planned announcement by US President Joe Biden that troops will withdraw from Afghanistan by September 11. Reuters reported earlier that a coalition of NATO-led troops in Afghanistan will leave the country in coordination with a planned U.S. withdrawal by September 11. President Joe Biden is expected to […]

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday night officially confirmed that American troops withdrawal from Afghanistan will start on May 1. He said the withdrawal process would be finished by September 11 – the anniversary of the 9/11 attack on the United States. Biden said: “It is time to end America’s longest war. It is time for American troops to come […]

Officials have slammed the planned unconditional withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and said the withdrawal should be done responsibly. Speaking to Germany’s DPA news agency after news broke of US President Joe Biden’s expected announcement that troops will exit by September 11, one peace talks negotiator in Doha said: “It is the most irresponsible, selfish thing the United States […]

The Taliban has published a statement rejecting the reported terms of a State Department peace plan for Afghanistan, as well as a proposed six-month delay in the U.S. withdrawal from the country. The message was published in English on the Taliban’s Voice of Jihad website, which produces media in multiple languages for the group’s Islamic Emirate. Earlier this month, President […]

German and Pakistani foreign ministers discussed on Monday bilateral relations and international issues, including the situation in Afghanistan. “Peace negotiations need to be continued and violence in the country has to come to an end after decades of conflict,” Heiko Maas said during a press conference in Berlin with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi. Qureshi arrived in Germany Sunday […]

US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad left Kabul on Monday morning after a four-day visit speaking with Afghan government and political leaders as well as civil society and diplomatic representatives, US Embassy in Kabul said in a statement. “Khalilzad completed a productive four-day visit to Kabul. He met with government and political leders, civil society activist and the diplomatic community to […]

Lawmakers in the Wolesi Jirga, the lower house of the Afghan Parliament, said that the delegation that is expected to attend the Turkey conference should be inclusive and that it should defend Afghans’ interests and the gains of the last two decades. The choice of delegation members has created tension among lawmakers who went into details on the issue during […]

The Taliban is not ready to attend the Turkey conference on the expected date, April 16, given their consultations on the details of the event, spokesman Mohammad Naeem said. He said the Taliban is reviewing the details of the Turkey conference agenda shared with them by the United States. Naeem said that the leadership of the group has not made […]

Deborah Lyons, the Special Representative for Afghanistan and head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), on Monday met with President Ashraf Ghani and discussed the upcoming Istanbul Summit, UNAMA said. During the meeting the UN envoy highlighted the pressing need for an end to violence with a political settlement that answers aspirations of all Afghans, including women. According […]

The US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad has wrapped up a productive four-day visit to Kabul where he met with government and political leaders, civil society activists, and the diplomatic community to discuss preparations for the upcoming Istanbul conference. In a statement issued by the US Embassy in Kabul, the mission said in each engagement, Khalilzad underscored the […]