The Department of Homeland Security and State Department announced on Tuesday that they would expand the number of terrorism-related exemptions to allow Afghan evacuees who worked with and supported the U.S. government to qualify for protection and immigration benefits. Why it matters: Existing exemptions from terrorism-related inadmissibility grounds (TRIG) include providing material support under duress and voluntary medical care to […]

Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said during a visit to Sanglakh Valley in Jalriz district of Maidan Wardak on Thursday that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) does not harbor ill will to any country in the world. Addressing residents of Jalriz district, Muttaqi said: “The previous governments of Afghanistan did not have good bilateral relations with the countries […]

Deputy Interior Minister for Security, Mullah Abdulhaq Akhundzada, who is currently in the north of the country to assess the security situation, said Thursday that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) forces will be incorporated into the country’s three branches of security – the police, military and intelligence. Akhundzad said the forces will be included in the country’s security forces […]

The regional capos who broke Afghanistan once before are angling to contest control of the country with the current Taliban rulers. Exiled warlords, power brokers, and ethnic leaders who fled Afghanistan last year ahead of the Taliban’s victory are threatening civil war unless the Islamists start negotiating to let them return home and reclaim their power and authority as an […]

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Assistant Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan, Tarig Ali Bakheet, held a meeting with the Special Envoy of the European Union for Afghanistan, Thomas Nicholson, on Tuesday and discussed the unfolding developments in Afghanistan. In a series of tweets the OIC said discussions at the meeting focused […]

The United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees, Kelly T. Clements and an accompanying delegation met with Afghanistan’s acting Deputy Foreign Minister, Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, in Kabul where they discussed the return of refugees and resettlement of IDPs. Stanekzai said the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) government intends to prevent further migration and repatriate former refugees. “However, given the decades […]

In a joint statement in April, both India and the United States (US) demanded the Taliban to respect human rights and women rights, and deter Afghanistan from promoting or harbouring terrorists. A month later, the US Special Representative for Afghanistan held high-level engagements with senior Indian diplomats. Officials from both the countries also met Abdullah Abdullah—who had carried a special […]

Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban have illegally detained and tortured residents in northern Panjshir province for their alleged links to armed opposition forces, Human Rights Watch said Friday. The U.S.-based global rights monitoring group said fighting had escalated in Panjshir since mid-May, when fighters of the National Resistance Front (NFR) started attacks on Taliban units and checkpoints. The violence prompted the Taliban […]

Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban said Saturday their security forces had killed at least eight key militants of the self-proclaimed Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) and captured three others. Taliban forces carried out an afternoon raid against an ISIS-K base in Taloqan, the capital of the northeastern province, Takhar, and eliminated what local officials told Afghan state-run media was a “funding, equipping and […]

According to the order of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), the Ulema Council in Takhar province started work on Sunday. This council is made up of fifteen religious scholars and five elders of the province and its chairman, who have direct contact with the IEA’s Supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada. The council has the right to […]