On September 7, 2021, hundreds of Afghans – most of whom were women defying the Taliban jihadis patrolling public life in Afghanistan – turned out in the streets of Kabul chanting anti-Pakistan, anti-Taliban slogans. Some of the slogans raised by the protesters included: “Pakistan, Pakistan, Leave Afghanistan” and “Freedom, Freedom.”[1] The women protesters – chanting “Death to Pakistan,” “Allah-o-Akbar,” “Freedom,” […]

With the help of China, the Taliban will fight for an economic comeback in Afghanistan, Zabihullah Mujahid tells Italian newspaper. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has told an Italian newspaper that the group will rely primarily on financing from China following the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan and its takeover of the country. In his interview published by La Repubblica […]

Qatar’s ruling emir and the visiting U.S. secretaries of state and defense discussed developments in Afghanistan and efforts to enhance security there, the emir’s court said on Monday. The emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, received U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin after their arrival in Doha earlier in the day. The visit came […]

The Taliban have invited a number of countries, including Russia, to take part in an event dedicated to the announcement of the composition of the new Afghan government, Al Jazeera reported on Monday. “We have sent invitations to Turkey, China, Russia, Iran, Pakistan and Qatar to take part in the [ceremony] of announcing [the composition of the new Afghan] government,” […]

Finance will need to be at the centre of decision-making not only in Western capitals, but also in Taliban-controlled Kabul. Not even the most pessimistic predictions anticipated the speed with which the Taliban would overrun the incumbent regime in Afghanistan, but it was always certain that the US military withdrawal would leave the government and its military exposed. So, one […]

Russia looks to the Taliban as a stabilising force in Afghanistan – and this may mean formal recognition of the new regime in the country. During the farewell meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Moscow last month, Putin spoke in public about the Taliban takeover for the first time. He stated that the world […]

Recent developments in Afghanistan constitute a strategic gain for Pakistan, at least for the moment. In more than 40 years of civil strife, war and instability in Afghanistan, it would not be wrong to say that its neighbours have often pursued their own strategic interests by manipulating the Afghan political field, even at the expense of peace in the country. […]

United States (US) Army Major General Chris Donahue, Commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, became the last US service member to leave Afghanistan, when he boarded a C-17 transport plane at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on August 30, 2021. The last US troops thus left Afghan soil exactly 12-days before the September 11, 2021, deadline originally set by […]

The Taliban said road links to Panjshir valley are now open, and food and other supplies can now be transported. Soon after declaring they had taken over the valley and ended remnants of resistance against their rule, the group said electricity, cellphone and internet services would be restored soon. “Thank God that we do not have civilian casualties in our […]

The Taliban said on Monday they had taken control of all of Afghanistan – including the Panjshir Valley, the historic Tajik bastion that neither the Soviets in the 1980s nor the Taliban in the 1990s were able to conquer. But resistance leader Ahmad Massoud – son of legendary anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, known as the “lion of Panjshir” – […]