NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Friday the NATO will continue to support Afghanistan as the organization’s military presence is ending in the country. In a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Friday, Stoltenberg stated that NATO’s future support to Afghanistan “will have three main pillars.” “As we end our military presence, we are opening a new chapter. […]

The Taliban has “surrounded” five provincial capitals in Afghanistan as of Feb. 2021, according to the Lead Inspector General for Operation Freedom’s Sentinel. FDD’s Long War Journal has assessed that 17 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces are now under direct Taliban threat. For information on districts controlled and contested by the Taliban, see LWJ report, Mapping Taliban Control in Afghanistan. The […]

According to Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Beijing is willing to deepen counter-terrorism and security cooperation with Afghanistan and help the country strengthen its anti-terrorism capacities. Wang made the remarks during a phone conversation with Afghan Foreign Minister Mohammad Haneef Atmar on Monday. Wang said China would continue to support the Afghan government in the country’s peace […]

Eleven members of the US House of Representatives–10 Democrats and one Republican–wrote a letter to President Joe Biden on the “enduring interests and ideals that should continue to guide US efforts in Afghanistan even as the armed forces end their mission in the country” amid the start of the withdrawal of American troops from the country. The letter was signed […]

Taliban on Tuesday morning launched an attack on the Obe district in the western province of Herat, the provincial governor Waheed Qatali said. He said the attack started with the “destruction” of a bridge by the Taliban. The bridge, he said, connected the Obe district with other parts of the province. “Three Taliban fighters, including their commander, were killed in […]

President Ashraf Ghani said that the Afghan government is ready to fight against the Taliban after the full withdrawal of international troops from the country, reiterating that the key to peace talks is accepting the election as a way forward for Afghanistan’s future government. “The threat of terrorism has changed. It has not disappeared. We are all agreed on this,” […]

Afghan Foreign Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar on Tuesday spoke about a recent trip of a high-level Pakistani delegation to Kabul. He said the two sides reached agreements about the peace process in Afghanistan, but the two countries now need to take practical steps to expand bilateral cooperation on peace in Afghanistan. Atmar made it clear that Afghanistan will not trust […]

As prospects for the resumption of peace talks between the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Taliban remain vague, a spokesman for the Taliban on Monday said that the group was ready to resume intra-Afghan talks in Doha—but gave no details about when the talks would start again. “We are conducting regular meetings, the contact has not been cut off, […]

Two members of the Afghan Republic’s negotiating team, who are in Kabul, said on Wednesday that the Taliban is ready to start meaningful negotiations. Habiba Sarabi, a member of the Republic’s negotiating team, said peace talks to finalize the agenda of intra-Afghan negotiations will resume once members of both teams are back in Doha, Qatar. “When the Taliban delegation arrives […]

The US special envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad said Tuesday predictions that the Taliban will quickly overrun Afghan government forces and conquer Kabul once U.S. and coalition forces have withdrawn are unduly pessimistic. Testifying before the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, Khalilzad said: “I personally believe that the statements that their (Afghan) forces will disintegrate and the Talibs will take […]