Taliban

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.

The acting interior minister of Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government, who has a $10m FBI bounty on his head, held a meeting with United Arab Emirates leader Mohammed bin Zayed in Abu Dhabi.

The Afghan government formed by the Taliban movement assesses the latest statements of the Russian authorities on relations with Afghanistan as positive, the spokesman of the Taliban government Zabihullah Mujahid has said in a commentary to TASS.

An Iranian newspaper has slammed officials in Iran for turning a blind eye to what it calls an ‘ethnic cleansing and killing spree of Shia Muslims’ in neighboring Afghanistan under the Taliban rulers.

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.

An Iranian newspaper has taken a swipe at the government for giving the all clear to the Taliban to make investments in southern Iran.

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.

Deputy prime minister of the Taliban administration for political affairs, Mohammed Abdul Kabir, has denounced the Daesh terrorist group as the common enemy of Afghanistan and Iran.

An Iranian newspaper has raised the possibility that the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan might be linked to the recent terrorist attack in the southeastern Iranian city of Kerman which left scores of people dead and hundreds more wounded.

The foreign minister of the caretaker government in Afghanistan Amir Khan Muttaqi visited representatives of Afghan migrants in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad on Monday, calling on all Afghans in Iran to return to their homeland as he said the conditions are back to normal.

Amir Khan Mottaghi, Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan, expressed the nation's commitment to creating an environment conducive to the repatriation of Afghan immigrants.

An Iranian daily says the terrorist attack in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan on Friday should be viewed in a broader context where multiple agents, most outstandingly the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan, are involved.

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.

A newspaper has come down heavily on the Iranian government for its “paradoxical policies” of not recognizing the caretaker administration in neighboring Afghanistan and yet hosting a top-level Taliban delegation.

A joint operation by the Iranian Intelligence Ministry and the Taliban has thwarted a drone attack by the Israeli spying service Mossad in eastern Iran.

Although Iranian officials are scrambling to allay public concerns over the massive influx of Afghan refugees to Iran and also the government’s recent moves to approach the Taliban administration in neighboring Afghanistan, calls are growing that the trend has to stop.

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.

The influx of refugees to Iran after the takeover of the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan is posing a security challenge for Iran, a leading Iranian newspaper has warned.

An Iranian lawmaker has called for retaliatory measures against the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan in response to their failure to secure Iran’s water share from the Helmand River.

The Taliban have freed Mohammad Hossein Velayati, an Iranian photojournalist working for the Tehran-based Tasnim News Agency, after holding him in custody for a week.

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.

The Iranian President’s Special Representative for Afghanistan Affairs, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, has called for the fair delivery of Iran’s water rights from the Hirmand River, also known as Helmand.