Afghanistan’s dramatic collapse in opium production following the Taliban’s nationwide drug ban is fundamentally reshaping global heroin markets, reducing supplies of the drug while raising the risk that traffickers and users will increasingly turn to more dangerous synthetic opioids, according to a United Nations report released Friday. The World Drug Report 2026, published by the UN Office on Drugs and […]

Since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, Moscow has pursued increasingly close ties with the extremist Islamist organization. Russia is now the only country that formally recognizes the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. Even neighboring countries such as China, Iran, India, and Pakistan have refused to do so. Earlier this year, Moscow signed a […]

Zamir Kabulov, Russia’s presidential envoy for Afghanistan, said Moscow and the Taliban administration want Afghanistan’s frozen assets to be released. However, he said no breakthrough is expected soon because the United States and Europe are ignoring the issue. Speaking to the Russian newspaper Izvestia, Kabulov said the current deadlock was the result of Western actions. Kabulov said the responsibility for […]

Five years ago, the 20-year American war in Afghanistan came to an inglorious end. In April 2021, the United States had begun its final withdrawal, with the goal of pulling out the 2,500 U.S. troops that remained in the country by September. Within weeks of the first U.S. departures, the Taliban had swept up scores of positions as Afghan government […]

Pakistan’s defense minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, has accused the Taliban and India of supporting militant violence inside Pakistan, linking both to recent attacks in the country’s northwest. In a statement following recent violence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Asif called for a united and decisive campaign against militancy and said Pakistan faced threats from both external and internal actors. “After last […]

A draft UN Security Council resolution renewing the mandate of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) no longer refers to the Taliban as Afghanistan’s “de facto authorities,” according to Security Council Report, an independent New York-based organization that monitors and analyzes the work of the Security Council. Instead, the draft resolution uses the phrase “relevant authorities,” a change that […]

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said Thursday that Pakistan airstrikes carried out in eastern Afghanistan killed 13 civilians and wounded 10 others, most of them women and children, marking the latest escalation in tensions between Pakistan and the Taliban. In a statement, UNAMA said the casualties have been occurred in airstrikes conducted during the night of June 9-10 […]

On the early morning of June 10, 2026, Pakistani military aircraft launched a series of cross-border airstrikes, targeting civilian and residential areas in the eastern Afghan provinces of Khost, Kunar, and Paktika. According to the Taliban Government’s chief spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid, the strikes killed at least 13 people – including 11 children, one woman, and an elderly man – while […]

Pakistan on Wednesday confirmed carrying out airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan, saying the operation targeted militant hideouts along the border and killed 26 members of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). In a statement, Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the strikes were conducted in response to a series of recent attacks inside Pakistan, including an assault on a Federal Constabulary post in Musa […]

Mohammad Mohaqiq, leader of the Islamic Unity Party of Afghanistan, has condemned the Taliban’s response to Tuesday’s protests in Herat, describing their actions against demonstrators as contrary to Islamic and humanitarian principles. In a statement issued on behalf of his party, Mohaqiq said that “violating the dignity, rights and honor of the people” has never been, and will never be, […]