Afghanistan’s acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi attended a meeting in Doha on Wednesday evening with representatives and ambassadors of 14 countries to discuss the relationship between the new Afghan government and the international community. During the meeting Muttaqi called on the international community to urge the United States to release Afghanistan’s national reserves. Muttaqi said that for the first […]

Former US special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad said former president Ashraf Ghani’s “intransigence,” the Afghan elite’s “selfishness” and Afghan soldiers’ lack of will to fight was to blame for the rapid takeover of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) in August. On Ghani’s refusal to change his views, or agree to the formation of a new interim government, Khalilzad […]

Unidentified gunmen attacked a police patrol overnight in northwest Pakistan, killing four before fleeing the scene, a police official said Wednesday. No group claimed responsibility for the attack in Lakki Marwat, a town in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan. Police official Umar Khan said a search operation for the culprits was still underway. Khan provided no further details and […]

Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August, foreign aid has frequently been framed as a possible lever the international community can use to push them to moderate their rule. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres argued after the takeover that “humanitarian assistance is an entry point for effective engagement with the Taliban.” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen emphasized […]

In some provinces, teenage girls have been allowed to return to secondary schools, though some teachers and parents still have doubts about what this means about Taliban rule. When Narges and her younger sisters were finally allowed to return to school last month, they braced for the new world outside their family’s gate. Following their mother’s lead, each layered on […]

A catalog of “waste, fraud and abuse” reports made against the United States’ reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan have been “temporarily” removed from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction’s (SIGAR) website. In an expose by CNN, a US State Department spokesperson told CNN they had asked SIGAR to “temporarily” remove the reports, owing “to safety and security concerns regarding our […]

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said on Wednesday evening after the meeting on Afghanistan that humanitarian and economic support should be provided to Afghanistan so that insurgent groups do not use the current crisis to recruit soldiers. Addressing a press conference after the foreign minister’s meeting on Afghanistan in Tehran, Abdollahian said the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) is […]

On October 8, a suicide bomber struck a Shiite mosque in Afghanistan’s Kunduz province. The bombing killed more than 70 people and injured over 140 worshippers belonging to the Hazara minority community. Soon after, the Islamic State terror group’s local affiliate in Afghanistan, known Islamic State Khorasan (ISK), claimed responsibility for the heinous attack via an online propaganda statement. ISK […]

Many jihadists around the world portray the Taliban’s sweep back into power in Afghanistan as a victory for their cause, perhaps second only to the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States. Al-Qaeda affiliates in particular have lauded the reconstitution of the Taliban’s self-styled “Islamic emirate”, which once harboured Osama bin Laden, the man who ordered the 9/11 hijackings, […]

The Taliban government has cut import duties on food staples as it grapples with soaring prices and a cash crunch that have made it more difficult for Afghans to feed their families just when a bitter winter looms. Afghanistan has often struggled with soaring food prices due to shortages and supply-chain issues, posing a major issue for the Taliban that […]