A decades-long fight over land has been reinvigorated as Taliban leaders look to reward their fighters with property, even if that means evicting others. For decades, roughly a thousand families called the low-slung mud-walled neighborhood of Firqa home. Some moved in during the 1990s civil war, while others were provided housing under the previous government. Soon after the Taliban takeover […]

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Russian President Vladimir Putin in New Delhi on Monday, with trade and the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan both on the agenda. “The fight against terrorism is also a fight against drug trafficking and organised crime,” Putin said in introductory remarks broadcast by Indian media. “In that regard, we are concerned about developments of the […]

A spokesman for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) foreign ministry has denied Western allegations that IEA forces have killed members of the former Afghan government’s security forces. Abdul Qahar Balkhi’s remarks came a day after the United States and a number of Western nations condemned reports of the alleged deaths of former Afghan security forces and called for an […]

Russia said on Monday it was reinforcing its military base in Tajikistan with 30 new tanks and that its forces at the facility had carried out exercises with missile defense systems, Reuters reported. The possibility of Islamist militants in Afghanistan infiltrating Tajikistan and other former Soviet republics in Central Asia is a worry for Moscow, which views the region as […]

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani have raised the possibility of jointly operating Kabul’s international airport. Addressing a joint press conference on Monday, Cavusoglu that they would “act together” in Kabul, TRT World reported. “Qatar and Turkey are continuously working with the interim government in Afghanistan to reach an agreement to […]

The UN General Assembly on Monday adopted a resolution to delay a decision on who will represent Afghanistan and Myanmar at the world body. In response, the Afghan Foreign Ministry said the United Nations’ move denies the legitimate rights of the Afghan people and is useless and has no legal basis. “The new Afghan government, as an accountable authority with […]

Afghanistan is grappling with a looming humanitarian crisis; 55 percent of the population is facing emergency levels of food insecurity this winter—9 million of whom are on the verge of starvation. As approximately 80 percent of Afghans’ livelihoods are tied directly or indirectly to agriculture, the nexus of the drought, economic collapse, insecurity, displacement, and the pandemic have culminated in […]

Several countries are returning, or planning to return, their diplomats to Afghanistan, signaling growing engagement with the Taliban leadership. The issue of whether the Taliban is formally recognized as the legitimate government of Afghanistan is of declining practical significance. Engagement with the Taliban will further facilitate the provision of humanitarian aid to the Afghan people, despite operational challenges posed by […]

Several European countries are working on opening up a joint diplomatic mission in Afghanistan that would enable their ambassadors to return to the country, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday. Western countries have been grappling with how to engage with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) after they took power in Afghanistan in mid-August. The United States and other […]

Pakistan’s foreign minister called on Saturday for a fresh effort to stop neighboring Afghanistan sliding further into crisis as he announced an extraordinary meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) later this month. The meeting of foreign ministers from Islamic countries will be held in Islamabad on Dec. 19, with delegations from the European Union and the so-called P5 […]