As Afghan economy struggles, Taliban increasingly looks to go it alone

By

The Washington Post

KABUL — More than two years after the Taliban’s takeover, its internationally isolated government is pushing ahead with a plan to make the Afghan economy more self-sustaining, if not outright self-sufficient.

Afghan officials are overseeing the construction of dams and canals to boost agriculture, and tunnels to connect remote provinces. Steel mills work through the night to churn out red-glowing, heavy beams for infrastructure projects.

The Taliban-run government’s ambitions, at least in part, are driven by necessity. The Taliban’s crackdown on women’s rights has worsened its pariah status, stalling efforts to gain control over Afghan central bank reserves held abroad and to secure Western funding. While foreign aid funded three-fourths of the public expenditures before the takeover, the Taliban says it is largely relying on domestic revenue and customs to finance its projects.

And challenges are mounting. Afghanistan’s top trading partner, Pakistan, is increasingly frustrated with the government in Kabul and has been willing to disrupt economic ties for political purposes. Meanwhile, cash-strapped Afghan business owners and other taxpayers say they’re running out of savings to pay for the Taliban-run government’s plans.

“Self-sufficiency itself does not mean anything,” said Omar Joya, an Afghan economist, unless the Taliban can achieve “economic growth, employment, lower poverty levels and an adequate life so that people can at least meet their basic needs.”

Taliban officials say a priority is an expansion of oil extraction, drawing on reserves that could eventually cover domestic demand, according to assessments conducted before the Taliban takeover. With new wells, one of Afghanistan’s biggest oil fields, located in the Amu Darya basin in the north of the country, could increase its output more than threefold in the coming months, officials projected.

They are also rushing to exploit the country’s vast wealth of lithium ore and other minerals, which might be worth almost $1 trillion, according to a U.S. Defense Department estimate in 2010. Afghan authorities say they struck seven mining contracts earlier this year, worth $6.5 billion in investment.

It could take years before mining can start on a large scale. Once it does, the Taliban says infrastructure projects now underway will be essential for exporting coal, minerals, as well as vegetables.

In the west of the landlocked country, a railway link with Iran that is being repaired has raised the prospect of Afghan freight trains heading to Iranian sea ports. Meanwhile, repairs at the Salang tunnel in northern Afghanistan were just completed, Taliban officials say, which could ease travel between central and northern Afghanistan and facilitate trade with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

During years of war, long-haul trucking in Afghanistan was obstructed by Taliban attacks and military checkpoints where extortion was common, but a more reliable road network could now help to revive this commerce.

“Afghanistan is standing on its own feet,” said Shir Baz Kaminzada, a mining and industry representative and the chief executive of one of the country’s largest printing companies, which until not long ago produced NATO leaflets.

But Kaminzada acknowledged that reminders of the country’s international isolation remain ever present. Western manufacturers that used to supply his plants with equipment and banks that facilitated his payments now shun his company, he complained.

He blamed Pakistan for much of the disruption. Afghanistan’s industry is rising from the ashes, he said. “They’re scared.”

Tensions with Pakistan

The more Afghan officials seek autonomy, the more apparent it has become how dependent the country remains on neighboring countries. When trucks carrying agricultural produce headed toward Pakistan this fall, they were repeatedly halted at the border. As politicians traded accusations, pomegranates and onions rotted in the sun.

Pakistan’s leadership blames the Afghan Taliban for harboring militants who have staged a mounting number of deadly attacks in Pakistan in recent months. Angered, Islamabad has expelled hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees, seized Afghan imports and imposed restrictions on cross-border trade.

The impact of the political tensions was palpable at the customs department in Kabul on a recent afternoon, where imports from and exports to Pakistan are processed.

As trucks carrying goods arrived at the gate, many of the warehouses were only half-full. Ahmad Khalid Rahimi, a 45-year-old customs official, was quick to explain that the empty shelves were in no way a reflection of the economy, but rather of the department’s efficiency. “Everything is being processed very quickly,” assured Rahimi.

“Why are you lying?” whispered a frustrated worker who stood nearby. “We don’t have enough supplies these days.”

An hour away, at the Milat steel factory on the outskirts of Kabul, the gap between the government’s ambitions and reality is evident every day at 4 p.m. when the electricity goes out for about six hours, and the cranes and observation towers lose power.

Hundreds of employees were hired when the factory, central to the Taliban’s infrastructure plans, reopened last year. And yet, the factory has in recent months struggled with shortages of electricity.

The Taliban is hoping to use solar energy to make the country’s power grid self-sufficient. But for years to come, the Milat steel factory will likely have to compete with the power demands of more than 5 million Kabul residents and the constraints of a grid that has for decades relied on imported electricity.

Despite high demand for the factory’s output, Milat Steel recently had to lay off 150 of its 500 workers, said Nasir Ahmad Haqmal, 35, who supervises production.

Uncertain times

Taliban officials primarily blame the West for many of the challenges. In an interview, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid singled out the United States for freezing $7 billion in Afghan central bank assets after the Taliban takeover. “First, they occupied our country. And now they occupy our reserves,” said Mujahid.

But Afghanistan’s new partners could prove challenging, too. While some Chinese companies are positioning themselves to reap a windfall from lithium and other natural resources, the Chinese government’s ties to the Taliban remain limited. Afghanistan is focusing much of its outreach on Iran, but long-standing border tensions over scarce water supplies make political relations between the two countries unpredictable.

Meanwhile, taxes, fees and licenses have become such a burden for some Afghans that they say they’re thinking about giving up their businesses.

Ismail Hotak, 25, founded a commercial real estate agency on the outskirts of Kabul last year. Even though business has been dismal, he keeps getting hit with taxes and unexpected fees that he said he didn’t know existed.

“If the authorities ask me for any more money, I’ll just close,” he said.

Many of these fees existed before the Taliban takeover but were less stringently enforced. Corrupt officials “reduced the cost if we paid them directly. Most of it went into their own pockets,” recalled Sahib Khan Ansari, 48, a steel vendor in Kabul.

Ansari said he appreciates the decline in corruption and the increased investments in infrastructure under the Taliban.

But the one thing that would make the economy flourish by clearing the way for foreign aid and investment, he said, would be the reopening of schools for girls.

Mirwais Mohammadi and Lutfullah Qasimyar contributed.

As Afghan economy struggles, Taliban increasingly looks to go it alone
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WHO Says Over 1M Children Malnourished in Afghanistan

According to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus the Director-General of WHO, they need $185 million to fight against malnutrition. 

The World Health Organization said that over a million children in Afghanistan are facing severe malnutrition.

According to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus the Director-General of WHO, they need $185 million to fight against malnutrition.

He also wrote on his X that 30% of the total Afghanistan population faces acute food insecurity.

“Close to 1 million children are severely malnourished and 2.3 million are suffering from moderate acute malnutrition. WHO needs $185 million to continue providing medicine and supporting hospitals to prevent more Afghan children and women dying of malnutrition and the consequences of food insecurity,” he said.

The Ministry of Public Health said that the number of malnourished mothers and children in the country has slightly increased compared to past years.

Six-month old Amir has been in the nutrition treatment department of Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital.

Amir’s mother says that he was taken from Kapisa to Kabul for treatment.

“He had Inflammation and skin rash, and the doctors said to take him to Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital, he may have kidney or lung illness, when I took him here they said that he is malnourished, Mahfoza,” the mother of Amir.

“Our economic situation is not good so my child became malnourished and also we can’t eat a good thing and wear a good thing, said Muska a companion.

According to the doctors of Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital, the number of malnourished children has increased compared to past years, and in the winter 20 to 25 malnourished visited the hospital.

“Compared to the past year, especially in winter, our patients increased and nowadays 15 to 20 patients are referred daily,” said Fatima Azimi, Nurse

“For children not to face malnutrition, respectable families should increase the distance between births and observe health guidelines, and our society should be saved from poverty and improved,” said Abdul Gafoor Rasooli, a doctor.

According to figures from the Ministry of Public Health’s Department of Public Nutrition, in the first six months of the ongoing solar year, 896,000 children and 444,000 pregnant and breastfeeding mothers visited malnutrition treatment centers across the nation.

WHO Says Over 1M Children Malnourished in Afghanistan
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Taliban official says Afghan girls of all ages permitted to study in religious schools

Associated Press
Updated 11:57 AM EST, December 21, 2023

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan girls of all ages are permitted to study in religious schools, which are traditionally boys-only, a Taliban official said Thursday.

A day earlier, U.N. special envoy Roza Otunbayeva told the Security Council and reporters that the United Nations was receiving “more and more anecdotal evidence” that girls could study at the Islamic schools known as madrassas.

But Otunbayeva said it wasn’t clear what constituted a madrassa, if there was a standardized curriculum that allowed modern education subjects, and how many girls were able to study in the schools.

The Taliban have been globally condemned for banning girls and women from education beyond sixth grade, including university. Madrassas are one of the few options for girls after sixth grade to receive any kind of education.i

Mansor Ahmad, a spokesman at the Education Ministry in the Afghan capital Kabul, said in messages to The Associated Press that there are no age restrictions for girls at government-controlled madrassas. The only requirement is that girls must be in a madrassa class appropriate to their age.

“If her age is not in line with the class and (the age) is too high, then she is not allowed,” said Ahmad. “Madrassas have the same principles as schools and older women are not allowed in junior classes.” Privately run madrassas have no age restrictions and females of all ages, including adult women, can study in these schools, according to Ahmad.

There are around 20,000 madrassas in Afghanistan, of which 13,500 are government-controlled. Private madrassas operate out of mosques or homes, said Ahmad. He did not give details on how many girls are studying in the country’s madrassas or if this number increased after the bans.

Otunbayeva addressed the Security Council on the one-year anniversary of the Taliban banning women from universities. Afghanistan is the only country in the world with restrictions on female education.

Higher education officials in Kabul were unavailable for comment Thursday on when or if the restrictions would be lifted, or what steps the Taliban are taking to make campuses and classrooms comply with their interpretation of Islamic law.

Afghanistan’s higher education minister, Nida Mohammed Nadim, said last December that the university ban was necessary to prevent the mixing of genders and because he believed some subjects being taught violated the principles of Islam.

 

Taliban official says Afghan girls of all ages permitted to study in religious schools
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Barred From University for One Year, Girls Cope With Depression

Female students urged the Islamic Emirate to reopen universities for them.

Several female students said that education is their fundamental right and that the world should not remain silent in this regard as a year has passed since girls were denied the opportunity to attend universities.

Female students urged the Islamic Emirate to reopen universities for them.

“In the past one year, not only me, but all the girls and students who were denied the opportunity to go to university are suffering from depression and an unclear future,” Huzaifa, a student, told the TOLOnews.

“The international community and the current government should not forget us; We are the future builders of the country. It has been a year that we are not going to university,” Najla, another student told TOLOnews.

Heather Barr, director of the Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, said:

“There is no other country in the world that has policies like this. Everyone can see regardless of what their religion is, that your country cannot function without women and girls being part of the effort and so what is unfolding in Afghanistan is so tragic and difficult to watch and really has alarming consequences for women’s rights globally,” Heather Barr said.

The Islamic Emirate has not recently commented about the reopening of universities for girls in the country.

“If the current government wants to be in power, it should pay attention to the foundation of the country. Otherwise, the society will go towards illiteracy, and a society against human principles will rise,” said Fazela Sorush, a women’s rights activist.

“Education is the foundation of a country. When girls are not educated, and there is no women doctors, engineers and women activists in the country, then half that country will live in poverty,” said Yalda Sultani, another women’s rights activist.

On December 19, 2022, the Ministry of Higher Education sent a letter directing both public and private universities to cease educating females until further notice.

Barred From University for One Year, Girls Cope With Depression
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CSTO Concerned by Insurgency and Smuggling from Afghan Soil

But by rejecting this claim, the Islamic Emirate once again assured that the territory of Afghanistan will not be used against any country.

The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Secretary General, Imangali Tasmagambetov, at the joint meeting of the Council and the 16th plenary session of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly in Moscow expressed concerns about the increase of terrorist groups activities, drug smuggling and smuggling of weapons in Afghanistan.

The CSTO Secretary General, during his speech, said that the southern borders of Central Asia in the region are facing threats and to prevent these threats, an agreement should be made.

Imangali Tasmagambetov, the CSTO Secretary General, said: “The danger of the spread from the territory of Afghanistan of terrorism, extremism, drug trafficking and illicit trafficking in weapons and narcotics remains. This directly threatens the southern borders of the CSTO area of responsibility.

In terms of coordinating efforts to address these challenges, I should like to emphasize the role of the Working Group on Afghanistan under the CSTO Council of Foreign Ministers.”

But by rejecting this claim, the Islamic Emirate once again assured that the territory of Afghanistan will not be used against any country.

Zabihullah Mujahid added that the Islamic Emirate stands against any kind of narcotics trafficking.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman of the Islamic Emirate said: “The concerns that the CSTO said are not true, they mentioned several cases that either smuggling is going on or dangers are felt from Afghanistan, both of these are false. We are taking a very serious stand against drug trafficking. Yesterday, the Cabinet of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan strongly ordered the deputy ministry of counter-narcotics of the Interior Ministry to take a serious stand against drug trafficking and the transfer of weapons.”

Meanwhile, a number of political experts said that the Islamic Emirate must take practical steps to address the concerns of the countries of the world about its obligations in the field of fighting terrorism in the country.

“The Islamic Emirate should try to prepare itself in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations Security Council, inter-state treaties, international covenants, international custom, and international law in order to resolve the concerns of the world, so that the world can be sure that there is no danger from the soil of Afghanistan,” said Janat Fahim Chakari, political expert.

“In the past few decades, Afghanistan has never influenced the neighboring countries, but on the contrary, we were influenced by their plans from the neighboring countries. We hope that this intelligence and economic confrontation will be the basis of the talks and it will be resolved,” said Mohammad Zalmay Afghanyar, military analyst.

Earlier, some representatives of the member countries of the CSTO expressed their concern about drug trafficking from Afghanistan by broadcasting a joint statement at the joint meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers, Defense and the Secretaries of the Security Councils of this organization.

CSTO Concerned by Insurgency and Smuggling from Afghan Soil
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White House: ‘We Didn’t Just Leave a Bunch of Weapons in Afghanistan’

Speaking at a press briefing, he said that the US has not left a bunch of weapons in Afghanistan. 

John Kirby, US National Security Council spokesman, once again rejected the claims regarding the existence of weapons left by US forces in Afghanistan.

Speaking at a press briefing, he said that the US has not left a bunch of weapons in Afghanistan.

“We didn’t just leave a bunch of weapons in Afghanistan, this is a fallacy, this is a farce, what we did over the course of our 20 years in Afghanistan, a course with congressional approval and consultation, was arm and helped equip the Afghan national security forces,” John Kirby noted.

The spokesman of the Islamic Emirate, Zabihullah Mujahid, referring to the remarks of Kirby, said that the US military equipment was destroyed when the American forces left the country.

“There are no weapons in Afghanistan that fell into the hands of a smuggler, or were transfered  somewhere; We reject this claim … by any country. But in the past twenty years of occupation, weapons were being brought from remote countries or through different countries to Afghanistan and were falling into the hands of America and it was equipping American troops,” Mujahid told TOLOnews.

Meanwhile, some military and political analysts have different views regarding the US military equipment.

“The concerns of the neighboring countries, especially Pakistan are true. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan should be accountable in this regard,” Sadiq Shinwari, a military analyst said.

“Any government that defends independence or is responsible for preserving independence must protect its territorial integrity, its national sovereignty, and its independence in such a way that any weapon, whether it be a light weapon or a heavy weapon, is honor and dignity,” Abdul Shukor Dadras, a political analyst said.

Earlier, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan (SIGAR), said in a report that more than seven billion dollars’ worth of US military equipment was left in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan.

White House: ‘We Didn’t Just Leave a Bunch of Weapons in Afghanistan’
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Roza Otunbayeva Briefs UN Security Council on Situation of Afghanistan

Pointing out the issue of engagement, the UN envoy said that officials of the current Afghan government are open to further engagement with UNAMA.

The head of UNAMA, Roza Otunbayeva, today briefed the UN Security Council on the situation in Afghanistan, saying that the human rights situation in Afghanistan today is a record of “systemic discrimination against women and girls”.

“The key features of the human rights situation in Afghanistan today are a record of systemic discrimination against women and girls, repression of political dissent and free speech, a lack of meaningful representation of minorities, and ongoing instances of extrajudicial killing, arbitrary arrests and detentions, torture and ill treatment,” she said.

Pointing out the issue of engagement, the UN envoy said that officials of the current Afghan government are open to further engagement with UNAMA.

“We see that many of the de facto authorities are open to further engagement with UNAMA and to seek an awareness of human rights standards,” Otunbayeva added.

The head of UNAMA, referring to the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan said: “The humanitarian situation remains of grave concern. We are entering another winter in which more than 20 million people will depend on aid. Given this year’s drop in funding, and by extension provision of assistance, many needy Afghans will be more vulnerable than they were this time last year.”

Briefing the UNSC, Roza Otunbayeva said that the Islamic Emirate maintained a good level of security in the country.

“The de facto authorities continue to maintain a generally good level of security. Unexploded ordnance remains a significant concern in Afghanistan, especially for children. Relations between the de facto Directorate of Mine Action Coordination and the United Nations have improved and the suspension limiting any form of cooperation was lifted in October this year,” she said.

Roza Otunbayeva Briefs UN Security Council on Situation of Afghanistan
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Afghans fled the Taliban in droves. Now Pakistan wants to send them back

By Andrew North

The Economist

Dec 19th, 2023

Omid has been living in Pakistan without a formal permit. The police are trying to push him out

He was eating dinner with his family when the knocking began. Like many Afghans, Omid, a translator, had fled from Afghanistan in 2021 after the Taliban took over. He and his family snuck across the border to Pakistan, where they tried to keep a low profile as they waited for their applications for asylum in the West to be processed.

Omid, his wife Nafisa and their three children were sitting cross-legged on the floor tucking into a steaming dish of rice and beans that Nafisa had prepared. The children were reaching out for strips of flatbread when they heard a series of sharp thumps on the metal gate outside their home. The noise made everyone freeze. “Open up,” a voice shouted. “It’s the police.”

“Again?” whispered Omid to Nafisa, as he got up to answer the door. It was the third time that officers had come to their house in as many weeks. They had already taken copies of all their documents. Omid was shocked to see a squad of eight officers gathered outside. “We have come to search the house,” said their commander, wearing the signature dark shirt and beret of the Pakistani police.

The lights on the police vehicles had attracted an audience of nearby residents. “Namak haram!” Omid heard someone shout, a phrase that translates roughly as “traitors”. Until recently it was a phrase that Afghans in Pakistan didn’t hear very often; now it’s hurled at them with alarming frequency.

About 4m Afghan refugees were living in Pakistan at the start of 2023, the result of decades of war and repression on the other side of the border. Nearly half of them didn’t have formal permission to live in Pakistan, but most of the time the police weren’t terribly strict about paperwork.

Then on October 3rd the Pakistani government announced that it was going to start arresting irregular migrants and removing them from the country. Although the official statement didn’t mention Afghans by name, everyone knew it referred to them. Police began seeking them out, and public expressions of hostility surged.

The most vulnerable refugees are those like Omid, who fled after the Taliban returned to power in August 2021. Many of the 600,000 Afghans who came to Pakistan then had already applied for asylum in other countries – including Britain and America – and intended to stay in Pakistan only temporarily. Because these claims took so long to process, they were forced to overstay their short-term visas.

The thought of going back to Afghanistan terrifies Omid. He knew as soon as they returned to power that the Taliban might target him for working with foreigners, and tried to get on a Western evacuation flight during the chaotic airlift in August 2021. He couldn’t make it through the crush around Kabul airport.

The Islamists put out reassuring statements offering amnesty to anyone who had worked with America or the previous American-backed government. But as the months went on, Omid heard numerous reports of people associated with foreigners being threatened, abducted and murdered. One day towards the end of 2021, a Taliban official got in touch and told Omid he knew about his past. “He called me a marked man,” he said.

Over the following days Omid received a succession of calls from numbers he didn’t recognise. “I stopped picking up after I heard a voice say, ‘We are watching you’,” he said. “I knew I had to leave as soon as I could.”

Soon after the announcement in October, Afghans across Pakistan started to share news and rumours on WhatsApp about people being arrested. Some heard of whole families being taken away, including women and children.

Omid’s landlord came to their home to explain that he risked being punished for letting his property to Afghans. “Leave now,” he said, “or I will hand you over to the police.” After showing the landlord documents that proved their asylum cases were still pending, Omid persuaded him to give the family a reprieve. But the landlord was still uneasy. “Please go as soon as you can,” he said.

Omid is trying to speed up his asylum application, but there’s not much he can do about it. Western governments are overwhelmed by the backlog of cases, and the process moves very slowly. In December, following a visit from America’s envoy to Afghanistan, Pakistan’s government extended the deportation deadline to February 2024.

The police seem determined to carry on rooting out Afghans, however. Since October at least 400,000 Afghans have returned to Afghanistan from Pakistan. Some of these people had been arrested and deported, but many are so scared of ending up in a Pakistani jail that they cross the border voluntarily.

Omid’s family have stopped leaving the house for all but the most essential missions – they no longer even go to the mosque to pray. The fate that could await them if they are deported to Afghanistan is too awful to contemplate. “I don’t even want to think what will happen to us if we’re sent back,” Omid said.

No one is quite sure why the Pakistani government decided to turn against Afghan refugees after tolerating them for so many years. Some suspect that politicians are trying to distract the public from Pakistan’s economic crisis. (Pakistani officials say they are simply enforcing existing immigration codes.)

But any hopes for a compliant ally across the border quickly evaporated. In the past two years there has been a series of terror attacks in Pakistan, many of them suicide-bombings, which have killed more than 2,000 people. They have been mounted by a group affiliated with the Taliban called the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan, which the Pakistani government says has been given sanctuary in Afghanistan.

Omid tried to explain to the policeman that they had already submitted all their details to his colleagues. The commander pushed past, with his colleagues following behind. The family’s dinner was getting cold. “Who else is living here?” the commander demanded, before asking for everyone’s papers.

Omid’s wife was ordered into another room to be searched and questioned by the female officers. The commander told Omid to follow him as he scoured the rest of the house. “He kept asking me the same questions,” said Omid. “Who we were. Where we were from. He knew all the answers. It was just pressure.”

The only thing that has saved him from being arrested so far is the documentation he has showing his family’s asylum cases are still under active consideration. But he may just have got lucky. Afghans say that some others in the same situation have been sent back regardless.

Finally, the commander called a halt to his search and handed back Omid’s documents. “Eat,” he said, gesturing to their meal. But the message was clear. The authorities were not going to leave him alone. As the officer left, he called the family namak haram (traitors). “For God’s sake,” he said, “just go.” 

(Names and some details have been changed to protect identities)

Andrew North is writing a book about Afghanistan. He was previously based in Kabul with the BBC

Afghans fled the Taliban in droves. Now Pakistan wants to send them back
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US State Dept Warns Americans Against Traveling to Afghanistan

The statement claims that the “Taliban have harassed and detained aid and humanitarian workers.”

The US Department of State urged its citizens to refrain from traveling to Afghanistan “due to terrorism, risk of wrongful detention, kidnapping and crime.”

“US citizens should not travel to Afghanistan for any reason,” the State department said in statement.

Since the political change in August 2021, the US Embassy in Kabul has suspended operations, and the US government is not able to provide “any emergency consular services to US citizens in Afghanistan.”

“Multiple terrorist groups are active in country and US citizens are targets of kidnapping and wrongful detentions,” the statement said. “The Department has assessed that there is a risk of wrongful detention of US citizens by the Taliban.”

The statement claims that the “Taliban have harassed and detained aid and humanitarian workers.”

It also added that the activities of foreigners may be viewed with suspicion, and reasons for detention may be unclear.

“Even if you are registered with the appropriate authorities to conduct business, the risk of detention is high,” the statement added.

The Department of State also urged US citizens who are in Afghanistan to depart immediately via commercial means “if possible.”

The Islamic Emirate’s spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said that such statements are based on incorrect information and that Afghanistan is safe and there is no threat to foreign nationals.

“The Taliban do not regularly permit the United States to conduct welfare checks on US citizens in detention, including by phone,” it said. “Detention can be lengthy and while in detention, US citizens have limited or no access to medical attention and may be subject to physical abuse.”

US State Dept Warns Americans Against Traveling to Afghanistan
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FM Muttaqi Opposes Appointment of UN Peace Envoy for Kabul

The acting minister also said that Afghanistan’s doors for engagement were open for all.

The acting minister of foreign affairs, Amir Khan Muttaqi, said he opposes the appointment of a representative of the UN for peace and reconciliation negotiations in Afghanistan.

The new potential envoy was suggested by UN special coordinator for Afghanistan  Feridun Sinirlioğlu in his report to the UNSC in November 2023.

In a meeting with UK Chargé d’Affaires for Afghanistan Robert Chatterton Dickson, Muttaqi said the report of the UN’s special coordinator on Afghanistan is “balanced,” according to Zia Ahmad Takal, the deputy spokesperson of the ministry.

The acting minister also said that Afghanistan’s doors for engagement were open for all.

“Amir Khan Muttaqi considered most parts of the report of the UN special coordinator for Afghanistan as positive but opposed the appointment of a UN peace representative for Afghanistan taking into account the current situation of the country. He added that Afghanistan has had developments in many sectors and has positive engagement with countries,” said Zia Ahmad Takal, deputy spokesperson for the ministry of foreign affairs.

Takal said that the acting foreign minister also met with the Chinese special envoy for Afghanistan, Yue Xiaoyong.

In the meeting, Amir Khan Muttaqi said better bilateral relations between the two countries are “important” and he emphasized the start of work on Mes Aynak copper mine.

Political and economic analysts are of the view that strengthening economic and political relations between Afghanistan and its neighbors would benefit Kabul.

“The investment of foreigners in Afghanistan’s natural resources can strategically ensure the economic growth of the country,” said Muhammad Bashir Shabiri, an economic analyst.

“The world has a consensus in strategic engagement with Afghanistan. Countries will individually engage with Afghanistan considering their respective interests,” said Fazal Rahman Oriya, a political analyst.

Earlier, the Islamic Emirate urged its desire for positive engagement with the world.

FM Muttaqi Opposes Appointment of UN Peace Envoy for Kabul
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