On September 25, 2024, Australia, Canada, Germany, and the Kingdom of the Netherlands announced that they had formally taken steps to call on Afghanistan to cease its violations of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). This is the first and key step before officially filing proceedings with the International Court of Justice (ICJ), […]

On September 19, 2024, two Pakistani soldiers were killed while another soldier sustained injuries at the Ghulam Khan Border terminal in the North Waziristan District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), when Afghan border guards opened fire at them. Two Afghan border guards were also critically injured in the firing. According to Pakistani officials, the incident occurred at a time when the […]

Ahmad Massoud, the leader of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, recently declared he will defeat the Taliban “no matter the odds.” For Massoud to mount a military threat to the Taliban, he would need the cooperation of the Central Asian republics, Iran or Pakistan (among others) to do the job. However, Afghanistan’s neighbors have no interest in another civil […]

Iran’s military has built a wall along more than 10 kilometers of its eastern border with Afghanistan, the main entry point for immigrants, Iranian media reported Monday. “More than 10 kilometers of walls have been built on the border and another 50 kilometers is ready to be walled off,” ISNA news agency said, citing General Nozar Nemati, deputy commander of […]

Central Asian countries are taking steps to broaden relations with their southern neighbor, the Taliban-led Afghanistan, despite the hard-line group’s increasingly restrictive policies, particularly toward women. Kyrgyzstan removed the Taliban from its list of terrorist organizations earlier this month, Turkmenistan resumed work with Afghanistan on a major gas-pipeline project, and Uzbekistan signed $2.5 billion worth of cooperation agreements with Kabul […]

KEY TAKEAWAYS Lacking formal recognition from all member states, the Taliban will not be present at the U.N. General Assembly next week. Their absence speaks volumes about how the international community struggles to constrain a regime that has repeatedly defied U.N. treaties, sanctions and Security Council resolutions. Three years into Taliban rule, the Afghan people are beset by a host […]

He also said: “The conquest of Kabul is like the conquest of Makkah.” The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) has reiterated that the current system is based on the Holy Quran and Sharia, opposed to previous laws that were of European and American origin. Speaking during his tour of northern provinces, Hibatullah Akhundzada criticized previous laws […]

The next Moscow format meeting is expected to be held in the next two weeks, Muttaqi announced on Thursday, adding that a high-level IEA delegation will attend it. Russian ambassador in Kabul Dmirtry Zhirnov, in a meeting with Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Amir Khan Muttaqi on Wednesday, invited him to participate in the next meeting of the Moscow Format […]

Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi says currently, 39 embassies and consulates of Afghanistan in different countries are under the control of the Islamic Emirate. Delivering the foreign ministry’s annual report, Muttaqi also said that IEA’s new ambassador to Uzbekistan will visit Tashkent next Saturday, and that Russia will remove the IEA from their list of banned groups. He stated […]

At a July 2023 press conference, President Joe Biden somewhat angrily defended his record on the counterterrorist threat from Afghanistan: “Do you remember what I said about Afghanistan? I said al Qaeda would not be there. I said it wouldn’t be there. I said we’d get help from the Taliban. What’s happening now? What’s going on? Read your press. I […]