Afghanistan News

Special envoys of China, Russia and Pakistan held talks with top officials of the Taliban interim government and other senior Afghan leaders to discuss the recent developments in the war-ravaged country.

U.S. and Afghan officials claim Ahmad Massoud the son of Afghanistan’s most celebrated anti-Taliban resistance leader has escaped into neighboring Tajikistan, less than a month after vowing to defend his homeland against militants.

Amnesty International detailed cases of human rights abuses purportedly carried out by the Taliban about a month after the militant group took over Afghanistan.

The Taliban expanded its interim cabinet on Tuesday, announcing a list of deputy ministers but failed to name any woman despite facing an international backlash.

Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai says Taliban-ruled Afghanistan can model itself on the Islamic Republic of Iran.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with newly appointed UK Foreign Secretary Elizabeth Truss on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Monday and discussed various issues including Iran and Afghanistan.

Renowned Afghan commander and former Herat governor says what the Taliban has introduced as the caretaker government in Afghanistan will not last as they represent only one ethnic group. In an exclusive interview with the news website Entekhab, Ismail Khan also says Iran can pressure the Taliban into forming an inclusive government and avoid a war given Iran has friends in the region and with the help of other neighbors. The last part of the interview follows:

The head of Iran-Afghanistan chamber of commerce Hossein Salimi says the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan will have no impact on economic relations between the two countries.

Female workers in the city of Kabul have been told to stay home, with work only allowed for women who cannot be replaced by men, the interim mayor of Afghanistan’s capital says.

The Taliban government in Afghanistan has issued a new guideline for Afghan news outlets.

Chief of Staff of Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Baqeri has said that a multipolar world will emerge despite American efforts to achieve global domination.

Iconic Afghan commander, Amir Ismail Khan, known as the Lion of Herat, says the recent Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has been a ‘coup’ and the result of the betrayal of former President Ashraf Ghani. The news website Entekhab, has conducted an exclusive interview with Ismail Khan who was briefly captured by the Taliban before escaping from the militant group. The first part of the interview follows:

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has welcomed the reopening of schools in Afghanistan but stressed girls must not be kept away from the classrooms.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban co-founder and current acting prime minister of the so-called Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, has been sidelined after a dramatic shootout in the presidential palace in Kabul, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The Iranian president says all terrorist groups must be eradicated from Afghanistan and that Iran will not allow the Daesh terror group to find a safe haven in that country.

A US drone strike in Afghanistan last month killed 10 civilians – including seven children – and not Daesh extremists as first claimed, the Pentagon admitted on Friday.

Human rights groups accuse the European Union of failing to do enough to assist Afghans living in fear of Taliban rule.

The hasty withdrawal by US and NATO-allied troops from Afghanistan looked more like an escape, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday.

Dutch Foreign Minister Sigrid Kaag resigned on Thursday after she met fierce criticism in parliament over the handling of the Afghan crisis.

The foreign ministers of Russia, Iran, China and Pakistan held a four-way meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) summit to particularly reaffirm the importance of achieving national reconciliation in Afghanistan, Moscow said on Thursday.

A thorough investigation into the deaths of innocent Afghan civilians in a US drone strike in Kabul must be conducted, and Washington should be held accountable for its mistake, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian says.

Taliban's chief of staff Qari Fasihuddin says the militant group is considering the creation of a regular army in Afghanistan in the near future.

UN chief Antonio Guterres on Monday urged the world community to dig deep and provide desperately needed aid to Afghans, and to support women and others whose rights appear threatened by the Taliban.

Three Republican congressmen told Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday that he should resign over his handling of the US military pullout from Afghanistan.

The Taliban on Monday denied speculations that its co-founder and acting Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar had been killed or injured recently.