The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) issued a report this week in which it stated the Pentagon made $232 million in questionable salary payments to the former government of Afghanistan’s defense ministry personnel for fiscal year 2019 to May 2020. SIGAR found that during this period, the US Defense Department (DoD) disbursed $232 million to the former Afghan […]

A three-day conference in Uzbekistan has united the region, worried about the guerrillas in their midst. The Taliban’s failure to make the leap from insurgency to governance is coming under scrutiny this week as they meet with representatives of countries that are growing increasingly concerned that after almost year in power, the extremists have again transformed Afghanistan into a global […]

House Republicans are calling on the Biden administration to release information related to the chaotic withdrawal of US troops almost a year ago that preceded the collapse of the former Afghan government. According to the Washington Examiner, GOP members of the House Intelligence Committee sent a letter to the secretaries of defense and state, urging them to comply with previous […]

Tajikistan exported more than $51.2 million worth of goods to Afghanistan in the first half of 2022, an increase of 38 percent against last year. The total volume of trade amounted to $52.7 million, of which 97.2 percent accounted for supply of Tajik goods to Afghanistan, Asia Plus reported. Last year the export of Tajik products amounted to just over […]

Uzbek Deputy Minister of Transport, Zhasurbek Choriyev said in a statement Tuesday the Trans-Afghan railway Termez – Mazar-e Sharif – Kabul – Peshawar will be completed within five years and that surveys will be conducted from early next month. Choriyev said in a statement, delivered at this week’s meeting on Afghanistan in Tashkent, an orthophoto survey of the railway route […]

Formation of a government on the basis of “broad representation” was emphasized in an international conference on Afghanistan that was held in the Uzbek capital Tashkent on Tuesday. Ensuring women’s rights and access of Afghan girls to receive a full school education was also emphasized, according to a statement released by the hosts. “That will be a fundamental condition for […]

US and Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) officials have exchanged proposals for the release of billions of dollars from Afghan central bank reserves held abroad into a trust fund, three sources familiar with the talks told Reuters. Significant differences between the sides remain, however, according to two of the sources, including the IEA’s refusal to replace the bank’s top political […]

Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Hissein Brahim Taha said on Tuesday there was a pressing need for a “well-coordinated and strategically integrated approach to the wide range of challenges facing Afghanistan and its people”. In a statement to delegates at the Tashkent International Conference on Afghanistan: Security and Economic Development, which was read out by IOC […]

Afghanistan’s Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs said in Tashkent on Tuesday that the Islamic Emirate will not allow the security of neighboring countries and the region to be threatened from Afghanistan’s territory. Amir Khan Muttaqi outlined the achievements of the IEA in the past eleven months and called for positive political interaction with countries in the region and around the […]

The foreign minister of Uzbekistan on Tuesday called for the release of Afghanistan’s frozen foreign reserves. Unblocking the assets would spur the economic recovery process in Afghanistan, Vladimir Norov told an international conference in Tashkent. An independent Russian news agency quoted him as saying that freeing up the reserves would also help address acute social issues the Afghans were currently […]