Afghanistan News

Several European states are considering reopening their embassies in Afghanistan in a move that would entail diplomatic recognition of the Taliban almost three years after the fall of Kabul, people familiar with the matter have claimed.

Iran's special envoy to Afghanistan has stressed the need for comprehensive negotiations with all parties to address the "complex and serious" situation in Afghanistan and the wider region.

Iranian Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagher Kani says the decades-long US-led occupation continues to plague Afghanistan as it has led to the underdevelopment and serious economic problems in the country.

Flash floods from heavy seasonal rains in Afghanistan have claimed the lives of more than 300 people and destroyed over 1,000 houses, the United Nations food agency reported Saturday.

Finland remained the world's happiest country for a seventh straight year in an annual UN sponsored World Happiness Report. Afghanistan, plagued by a humanitarian catastrophe since the Taliban regained control in 2020, stayed at the bottom of the 143 countries surveyed.

The two top US generals who oversaw the evacuation of Afghanistan as it fell to the Taliban in August 2021 blamed the administration of President Joe Biden for the chaotic departure, telling American lawmakers that it inadequately planned for the evacuation and did not order it in time.

Afghanistan’s Taliban government has accused Pakistan of killing eight civilians in an air raid on Monday. The group responded by opening fire on Pakistani targets, allegedly wounding seven people.

A Taliban spokesman has rejected a US military official's claim that the group's inability or unwillingness to contain extremist groups will destabilize central and southern Asia.

The Taliban refused to attend a UN-sponsored conference in Qatar, insisting that their delegation should be recognized as the sole representative of Afghanistan.

The United Nations has published a quarterly report detailing concerns about the human rights situation in Afghanistan, specifically focusing on the limited rights women are awarded under the Taliban rule.

A Russian business jet has disappeared off the radar in a mountainous area of Afghanistan, Russia’s federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsia, has confirmed.

Opium poppy production in Afghanistan, once the world’s top supplier, has plummeted since the Taliban outlawed cultivation of the crop in 2022, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report shows.

Thousands of Afghan refugees and migrants in Pakistan are heading to the border to return home as a Pakistani deadline to leave the country expires.

An explosion ripped through a mosque in Pul-e-Khumri, the provincial capital of north Afghanistan's Baghlan province, on Friday, inflicting casualties, Provincial Director for Information and Culture Asadullah Mustafa Hashimi says.

The death toll from the powerful earthquake that struck Afghanistan on Saturday has risen to 2,445 while more than 9,200 people have been injured, the Xinhua news agency reported. According to the outlet, 13 villages in the Zanda Jan district of Herat have been completely wiped out and many victims remain trapped under the rubble.

The death toll from strong earthquakes that jolted western Afghanistan has risen to more than 2,000, a Taliban government spokesman confirmed Sunday. It’s one of the deadliest earthquakes to strike the country in two decades.

Back-to-back earthquakes have jolted Afghanistan as well as Khorasan Razavi Province in northeastern Iran, but there are no reports of any possible damage in the Iranian province, which borders Afghanistan.

Iran’s ambassador to Afghanistan has stated the United States’ main policy on Afghanistan is to create insecurity and instability for the country’s neighbors.

Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has called for international aid for Afghanistan during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly, saying that the country’s frozen assets should be used to address its “acute” humanitarian issues.

Speaking at the UN headquarters in New York, Kyrgyzstan’s President Sadyr Zhaparov highlighted instability in Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover in 2021.

The United Nations rights chief has accused Afghanistan's ruling Taliban of a "shocking level of oppression" of women and girls and cautioned that human rights in the Asian country were in a state of collapse.

Iran’s foreign minister has highlighted the need to support regional initiatives within the framework of neighboring countries to help resolve challenges facing Afghanistan.

Methamphetamine trafficking in and around Afghanistan has surged in recent years, even as the Taliban have curbed heroin trafficking since taking power, according to a United Nations report on Sunday.

Human rights groups have condemned the Taliban’s latest restrictions on Afghan women’s education and movements. The ruling Taliban administration has recently barred women from visiting one of Afghanistan’s most popular national parks and stopped them from leaving for the United Arab Emirates to study on academic scholarships.

Members of the Taliban government have prevented 100 female Afghan students who were given a scholarship to study at the University of Dubai from boarding their flight to the UAE.