U.S. intelligence agencies have told the Biden administration that the Taliban could overrun most of Afghanistan within two to three years if U.S. troops leave before a power-sharing deal is reached between the warring sides, a news report said on Friday. Such a takeover potentially would allow al-Qaeda to rebuild in Afghanistan, the New York Times reported, quoting anonymous U.S. […]

US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad has left for Turkey and the region ahead of the Istanbul summit on Afghan peace which will be held next month. The US State Department said in a statement on Saturday that Khalilzad began the trip on Thursday – a trip aimed at encouraging the two warring parties to accelerate their negotiations […]

The High Council for National Reconciliation chairman is optimistic about next month’s conference on Afghanistan in Turkey. Speaking to France 24, Abdullah Abdullah hoped the UN-led Istanbul meeting would help promote Afghan peace negotiations.

Afghan Foreign Minister Mohammad Haneef Atmar, who is currently on an official visit to India, met with his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Monday night and discussed an international consensus on the Afghan peace talks, the Afghan Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. “The two sides reviewed the Troika Peace Meeting in Moscow and assessed the final declaration […]

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, following the NATO ministerial in Brussels on Tuesday, said that the alliance sees that there is no “easy solution” in Afghanistan. “We all see that there is no easy solution. There is no risk-free path ahead and we need to prepare for all options,” Stoltenberg said after the meeting. The NATO chief said that the alliance’s […]

Four Indonesians had been held by group notorious for kidnapping for ransom for more than a year. Philippine troops have killed a leader of the Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom group and rescued four Indonesian hostages – one aged just 15 – who had been held for more than a year, the military said on Sunday.

The Afghan government and the Taliban agreed on Friday to try to accelerate peace talks, at a meeting in Moscow that followed an international conference there on the peace process, a senior Afghan official was quoted as saying.

The Taliban warned Washington on Friday against defying a May 1 deadline for the withdrawal of American and NATO troops from Afghanistan, promising a “reaction,” which could mean increased attacks by the insurgent group.

It’s an open question of whether President Joe Biden will stick to the current deadline for pulling all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan under a peace agreement signed with the Taliban last year. First, though, we’ll have to figure out how many troops are actually there right now.

Strong reactions from public figures continue to grow following a decision by the National Statistics and Information Authority (NSIA) to add 54 new ethnic designations to the already existing 14 ethnic groups used on the electronic national identity cards.