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Trump Calls Afghanistan Withdrawal US History’s ‘Most Embarrassing Moment’

July 9, 2025 Current News Articles

TOLOnews

TV Network

9 July 2025

Trump claimed that the base is now under China’s control, a claim previously dismissed as baseless by Afghanistan’s caretaker government.

US President Donald Trump once again harshly criticized the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan during a cabinet meeting, calling it “the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country.”

Trump questioned the performance of military commanders, particularly Mark Milley, the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, pointing to the abandonment of military equipment and the loss of Bagram Airbase.

Trump criticized: “They left all that equipment behind and every year they have a parade down from street with the equipment. With all that equipment that they left, they should have taken every ounce of it. Every screw, every bolt, every nail you take out of there. And Millie said, I remember one time, so we’re better off leaving the equipment. Why? It’s cheaper to leave $150 million airplane rather than flying it into Pakistan or India or some place. Yes, sir. That’s when I knew he was not an idiot. Didn’t take long to figure that one out. They left their dignity behind. It was the most embarrassing moment in my opinion in the history of my country.”

The US president further recalled Bagram Airbase, saying that it held strategic importance for Washington due to its proximity to China’s nuclear weapons production centers.

Trump claimed that the base is now under China’s control a claim previously dismissed as baseless by Afghanistan’s caretaker government.

Trump said: “We had Afghanistan, which I think was the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country, and we would have gotten out. I was the one that got him down. I would have kept Bagram, the big air base, which right now is controlled by China. Among the most powerful runways in the world. Thick, thick with concrete and seal. Anything could land. And right now, they were one hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons.”

However, experts say the US should reconsider its military presence in Afghanistan, as Afghans will not allow it.

“Although the US is a superpower and influences some Islamic countries, especially Arab ones, it is mistaken in this matter Afghans will never tolerate foreign military presence on their soil. They must reconsider this,” said Yousuf Amin Zazai, a military analyst.

Trump’s harsh remarks on Afghanistan come as, over seven months into his second term as president, he has yet to announce any official or clear policy regarding Afghanistan.

‘They threw us out like garbage’: Iran rushes deportation of 4 million Afghans before deadline

July 8, 2025 Current News Articles

Hamasa Haqiqatyar and Rad Radan

In the past month alone, more than 250,000 people, including thousands of lone women, have returned to Afghanistan from Iran, according to the UN’s migration agency. The numbers accelerated before Sunday’s deadline set by the Iranian regime for all undocumented Afghans to leave the country.

The Taliban, who returned to power in 2021, have been accused of enforcing a system of gender apartheid in Afghanistan. Women returning to the country must live with oppressive laws that ban them from showing their faces, speaking or appearing in public, as well as being excluded from most jobs and education. Anyone caught breaking these rules faces public flogging.

Speaking to the Guardian and Zan Times, an Afghan news agency, at a border crossing in southern Afghanistan, Sahar*, 40, is travelling with five children and says she has no idea where she will live now. A widow originally from Baghlan, a city in northern Afghanistan, she had been living in Iran for more than a decade. She ran a small tailoring workshop and had recently put down a deposit on a home. Last week, she says she was detained, taken with her children from a refugee camp near the southern city of Shiraz, and deported.

“I didn’t even get to pack their clothes. They came in the middle of the night. I begged them to give me just two days to collect my things. But they didn’t listen. They threw us out like garbage.”

Until recently, women were rarely forcibly returned from Iran. Men, often undocumented labourers, were more likely to face arrest and deportation. But Afghan border officials say there has been a recent shift, with at least 100 unaccompanied women deported through a single border point in Nimroz province, in the south of the country, between March and May this year.

Returning to Afghanistan without a male guardian puts women in direct conflict with Taliban law, which prohibits women from travelling alone. Many of those returned from Iran find themselves stranded at the border, unable to continue their journey.

With temperatures now reaching 52C, local officials say that a number of people have died during the forced crossings. Border officials say at least 13 bodies have arrived in the past two weeks, but it was not clear whether they had died of heat and thirst or were killed during Israel’s airstrikes in Iran.

Those arriving at border crossings in southern Afghanistan say they are thirsty, hungry and exhausted, having walked for hours under the sun. Most have no belongings, documentation or plan about where to live.

“From Shiraz to Zahedan [close to the Afghan border], they took everything from us. My bank card had 15 million tomans (£110). They charged 50,000 tomans for a bottle of water, 100,000 for a cold sandwich. And if you didn’t have it, your child went without,” says Sahar.

The Taliban says it offers short-term shelter and transport assistance to women deported without a mahram (an adult male who can accompany her on a journey). But many returnees say they received no such help. Under Taliban policy, most single women are barred from receiving land, travelling alone to their home province, or accessing employment.Sahar says her options in Afghanistan are bleak. She has an elderly mother in Baghlan, but no home, no job and no husband, meaning, under Taliban rules, she cannot travel alone or work legally. “I asked for land [from the Taliban], anything to start again. They said, ‘You’re a woman, you have no mahram. You don’t qualify.’”

The UN agency, the International Organization for Migration, and other groups provide temporary aid at border crossings, but they do not have the mandate or resources for long-term support.

In the buses taking deportees from detention to the Afghanistan borders, women also say they are subjected to verbal abuse, bribes demanded for basic services and no air conditioning in extreme heat. “They said it’s a waste for you Afghans. My child cried from the heat, but the driver laughed and mocked us,” says Zahra*.

Iran Carries Out Mass Expulsion of Afghan Refugees

July 8, 2025 Current News Articles

July 8, 2025

About 800,000 people have been deported to Afghanistan, a desperately poor country, under an Iranian campaign that accelerated sharply in June.

Hundreds of thousands of hungry, exhausted and often battered Afghans have been expelled from Iran in recent weeks, under a harsh deportation drive that accelerated sharply last month, international aid workers say.

Since March, when Iranian authorities ordered undocumented residents to leave the country, about 800,000 Afghans have poured across the border, Babar Baloch, a spokesman for the United Nations’ refugee agency, said on Monday. Almost 600,000 of them have been forced out since June 1.

During and since the 12-day war between Israel and Iran last month, Iranian officials have repeatedly cast suspicion on Afghans as possible spies for Israel, amplifying longstanding rumors and tensions. In that environment, and with the approach of a July 6 deadline set by the Iranian government, the pace of migrations soared to an average of about 30,000 per day recently, peaking on Friday at more than 50,000 people crossing into Afghanistan, Mr. Baloch said.

Iran has ranked as the world’s biggest host country for refugees, with nearly 3.5 million according to the United Nations, primarily people who fled decades of war and violence in Afghanistan. Aid groups estimate that in reality, the Afghan population in Iran is much larger — including about two million refugees who are undocumented — and Iran’s patience with them appears to have run out.

Iranian authorities say that Afghans with proper documents are still accepted, and U.N. officials confirm that some of those returning to Afghanistan in recent weeks had received visas from Iran’s consulate in the western town of Herat to go back to Iran. But most Afghans in Iran face a harsher reality.

“The gloves are off,” Arafat Jamal, the U.N. refugee agency representative in Kabul said in a phone interview. “There’s a bit of a frenzy at the moment, no one is going to oppose deportations of Afghans right now so those who wish to deport them have been ramping it up.”

Even before the war, Afghans faced barbed taunts about taking subsidized food from the mouths of Iranians.

Returnees, including refugees with valid legal documentation for being in Iran, describe being picked up by the police from their places of work or seized on the street, and then being forced into buses and held in detention sites before being transported to the border. They also relate endless extortionate demands for bribes to get out of detention centers, onto buses or finally to get across the border.

The returnees, from urban professionals to day laborers, include many who were born in Iran, have never set foot in Afghanistan and are more attuned to Iranian culture and society than the more draconian rule of the Taliban, Mr. Jamal said.

“The big concern is what happens to these people. They are from this country but hardly of it,” Mr. Jamal said. “They are bewildered, disoriented and very sad at leaving their work or their lives in Iran.”

But their arrival also imposes a heavy strain on the resources and, potentially, the stability of communities in Afghanistan, where nearly half the population lives below the poverty line and millions go short of food. Afghanistan, with a population of about 44 million, has absorbed more than 3.5 million returnees since September 2023, U.N. officials say, including hundreds of thousands forced to leave Pakistan.

Western aid donors, deterred by the Taliban’s brutal disdain for women and human rights have left international aid agencies with scant capacity to help. The U.N. refugee agency reports its appeal for $216 million in 2025 for Afghanistan is only a little over one-quarter funded.

The United States previously accounted for about 40 percent of the refugee agency’s budget, but the Trump administration has slashed that support.

Germany urges action on Afghanistan’s Human Rights Crisis

July 8, 2025 Current News Articles

By Fidel Rahmati

Khaama Press

July 8, 2025

Germany’s UN envoy voiced deep concern over Afghanistan’s worsening human rights crisis, especially for women and girls, and reaffirmed Berlin’s commitment to supporting the people of Afghanistan.

Germany’s representative to the United Nations has expressed deep concern over the deteriorating human rights situation in Afghanistan, especially regarding the rights of women and girls.

On Monday, July 7, Antje Leendertse, Germany’s UN envoy, reaffirmed her country’s commitment to supporting the Afghanistan people during a UN session.

She praised the efforts of UNAMA and other UN bodies working to improve living conditions in Afghanistan under difficult circumstances.

She also noted Germany’s continued support for the Doha process led by the United Nations, aiming for constructive dialogue on Afghanistan’s future.

Since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, women and girls in Afghanistan have faced sweeping restrictions, including bans on secondary and higher education, public jobs, and freedom of movement.

The UN and international community have repeatedly condemned these policies as violations of basic human rights, calling for inclusive governance and the restoration of women’s rights in Afghanistan.

ICC issues arrest warrants for Taliban leaders over persecution of women, girls

July 8, 2025 Current News Articles

By Joshua Yang

The Washington Post

July 8, 2025

The court charged two Taliban leaders with committing crimes against humanity. A spokesman for the group said it did not recognize the court’s authority

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants Tuesday for two leaders of Afghanistan’s Taliban regime, alleging that the Afghan government’s persecution of women and girls constitutes crimes against humanity.

The warrants are for Haibatullah Akhundzada, the Supreme Leader of the Taliban, and Abdul Hakim Haqqani, Chief Justice of the Taliban. A spokesman for the regime said the Taliban did not recognize the International Criminal Court and would not abide by its orders.

The Taliban, a group that espouses an extremist version of Islam, has imposed increasingly severe restrictions on women since taking power in Afghanistan in August 2021. Within weeks of toppling the U.S.-backed previous regime, the Taliban abolished the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and banned women from receiving a secondary education or attaining most jobs. The group also imposed a rule barring women from traveling outside without a male chaperone.

“We do not recognize any entity under the title of the ‘International Court,’ nor do we acknowledge any obligation toward it,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a social media post Tuesday. “The leadership and officials of the Islamic Emirate have established unparalleled justice in Afghanistan based on the sacred laws of Islamic sharia. Labeling the laws of Islamic sharia as oppressive or against humanity … is a clear expression of enmity and hatred toward the pure religion of Islam and its legal system.”

Afghanistan has the second-worst gender gap in the world, according to a report released last month by the UN that cited major gender disparities in areas relating to heath, education and financial inclusion.

Afghan women have also faced soaring rates of domestic and sexual violence, including at the hands of the Taliban. Women detained by the Taliban have reported being raped and tortured in prison.

The 125 nations party to the International Criminal Court are bound by law to detain the Taliban leaders if they set foot on their soil, though the likelihood of an arrest remains slim. Akhundzada and Haqqani could simply refrain from traveling to countries that recognize the Court’s authority or avoid leaving Afghanistan entirely.

The case is “the first international criminal proceedings involving targeting of LGBTQI+ individuals, individuals who do not conform to the gender expectations of an autocratic regime,” said Beth Van Schaack, the United States Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice during the Biden administration. “It’s a huge step from the perspective of international criminal justice, in terms of opening up a line of prosecution and potentially creating a really important precedent.”

Afghanistan’s Taliban government remains isolated from much of the world, which has yet to recognize the Taliban as the legitimate ruling power in the country. Russia became the first country to diplomatically recognize the regime on Thursday.

Though the specific contents of the warrants remain sealed, the proceedings likely draw on the work of newsrooms and civil society groups who collected testimony from women in Afghanistan. Many of these organizations, including Zan Times, have been hit hard by the Trump administration’s funding cuts. The White House is looking to further reduce financial support for war crimes investigations, Reuters reported last month.

We work with journalists on the ground to be “able to bring those violations to the light,” Nader said. “However, with lack of funding, that work has become much more difficult for us to do. They’re creating a perfect situation for the Taliban to commit crime.”

WFP Warns: 10 Million Afghans Face Hunger, Only 1 Million Can Be Helped

July 8, 2025 Current News Articles

Liluma Qadiry

Tolo News

7 July 2025

Despite rising humanitarian needs, the reduction in aid has left millions of Afghan families facing severe economic and humanitarian challenges.

The UN-affiliated organization states that this summer, ten million people in Afghanistan are in urgent need of food assistance; however, due to funding shortages, it can only support one million of them.

According to economic experts, the solution to reducing poverty in Afghanistan lies in fostering active relations with neighboring countries and making effective use of the country’s natural resources.

Abdul Zahoor Modabber, an economic affairs analyst, said: “To curb poverty, we must consider two key strategies: first, maintaining constructive and effective international relations; and second, utilizing both renewable and non-renewable natural and human resources efficiently. Therefore, with proper management, these resources must be used wisely and effectively.”

Following recent political developments, Afghanistan now tops the list of countries over which the global community has expressed deep humanitarian concerns.

Despite rising humanitarian needs, the reduction in aid has left millions of Afghan families facing severe economic and humanitarian challenges.

Mohammad Javid, a resident of Kabul, said: “If there were aid, we could manage. Even without work, we somehow got by. But when there is work, we don’t need aid. There are plenty of street carts, and they distribute cards to people but we don’t have any connections to get one.”

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Economy says it has launched programs to fight poverty and unemployment, which, if implemented, could help improve the overall situation.

Abdul Rahman Habib, spokesperson for the Ministry of Economy, stated: “Simply distributing food aid cannot fully address the needs of our people. Instead, lifting economic sanctions and international support for programs that strengthen families, create jobs, and enhance purchasing power can lead to real economic improvement.”

Unemployment, reduced foreign aid, natural disasters, and lack of access to adequate health and education services are among the key drivers of poverty and malnutrition in Afghanistan challenges that have forced families into displacement and pushed children into hard labor.

UN Resolution on Afghanistan: Islamic Emirate and Global Reactions

July 8, 2025 Current News Articles

TOLOnews

TV Network

8 July 2025

Russia, maintaining formal relations with the interim Afghan government, criticized the Western-centric approach to resolving Afghanistan’s issues.

The Islamic Emirate’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced that it will review the recently adopted UN General Assembly resolution on Afghanistan in accordance with Islamic principles and national interests. While acknowledging that some humanitarian realities in Afghanistan were overlooked, the Ministry emphasized its commitment to assessing the resolution’s recommendations within the framework of Islamic guidelines and national priorities.

In response to the resolution, Zia Ahmad Takal, head of public relations at the Ministry, said: “Despite this, the Islamic Emirate will evaluate the stated demands and suggestions in this resolution within the framework of the guidance of the noble religion of Islam and national interests, and will determine areas where cooperation is possible.”

The resolution, passed with 116 votes in favor, 2 against (the United States and Israel), and 12 abstentions (including Russia, China, India, and Iran), calls on Afghanistan’s ruling authorities to reverse oppressive policies against women and girls and to dismantle terrorist organizations operating within the country.

Russia, maintaining formal relations with the interim Afghan government, criticized the Western-centric approach to resolving Afghanistan’s issues and emphasized constructive engagement with the interim authorities.

“We are disappointed by the open refusal of some Western colleagues to even mention the role of certain regional mechanisms in the section on regional cooperation that was created specifically for this purpose, even though these mechanisms remain the only platform for regional interaction on a wide range of issues,” said Anna Evstigneeva, Russia’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN.

China reiterated its support for the interim government while encouraging the formation of an inclusive political structure. Geng Shuang, China’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, stated: “We encourage the interim government of Afghanistan to establish an inclusive political structure and a moderate administration, emphasizing dialogue and consultation to achieve national reconciliation and internal unity.”

Qatar and Saudi Arabia also emphasized in the UN General Assembly the importance of coordinated international efforts on Afghanistan and support for political stability in the country.

Sheikha Alya Ahmed bin Saif Al-Thani, Qatar’s Representative to the UN, said: “The State of Qatar stresses the importance of solidarity and joint international efforts so that the people of Afghanistan can build a country governed by peace, stability, and development.”

Abdulaziz Al-Wasel, Saudi Arabia’s Permanent Representative to the UN, also said: “Saudi Arabia reaffirms its commitment to continue supporting political, humanitarian, and developmental efforts aimed at stabilizing Afghanistan and again urges the international community not to abandon Afghanistan.”

On the other hand, the European Union and Germany have called for the appointment of a UN Special Envoy for Afghanistan and support for the UN-led Doha process.

The United States, which has yet to take a clear stance on the caretaker government, appears dissatisfied with the ongoing efforts to resolve Afghan issues.

Stavros Lambrinidis, EU Representative to the UN, said: “The EU also calls for the appointment of a UN Special Envoy for Afghanistan, in line with UNSC resolution 2721, to facilitate international coordination, promote a peaceful resolution to the conflict, and support the implementation of the Comprehensive Approach roadmap.”

Antje Leendertse, Germany’s UN Representative, said: “As many others, Germany acknowledges that there is no alternative to engagement with the Taliban, and we will continue to actively contribute to the UN-led Doha process.”

“With regard to international cooperation and the UN-led Doha process, it too has yielded few sustainable results. The United States is deeply skeptical about the Taliban’s willingness to participate in good faith. When they are willing to engage, it is only on their terms and to the detriment of our interests,” said Jonathan Shrier, U.S. Representative to the UN Economic and Social Council.

The UN General Assembly’s discussion on Afghanistan once again highlighted that nearly four years on, the international community has not reached a comprehensive agreement on the issue. The outcomes of future meetings on Afghanistan remain to be seen.

Recognition of the Islamic Emirate a Bilateral Matter: UN

July 8, 2025 Current News Articles

By TOLOnews

TV Network

8 July 2025

UN Secretary-General’s spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, emphasized that the UN’s position on the issue remains unchanged.

The United Nations has said that Russia’s recognition of the caretaker government in Afghanistan is a bilateral matter between Kabul and Moscow.

ICC issues warrants for Taliban leaders over alleged persecution of women

July 8, 2025 Current News Articles

Judges say Taliban officials have ‘severely deprived’ girls and women of human rights, including education.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for two top Taliban leaders in Afghanistan on charges of abuses against women and girls.

ICC judges on Tuesday said there were “reasonable grounds” to suspect Taliban Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhunzada and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani of committing gender-based persecution.

“While the Taliban have imposed certain rules and prohibitions on the population as a whole, they have specifically targeted girls and women by reason of their gender, depriving them of fundamental rights and freedoms,” the court said in a statement.

The Taliban has “severely deprived” girls and women of the rights to education, privacy, family life and the freedoms of movement, expression, thought, conscience and religion, ICC judges said.

“In addition, other persons were targeted because certain expressions of sexuality and/or gender identity were regarded as inconsistent with the Taliban’s policy on gender,” the court added.

The Taliban was quick to reject the warrants as “baseless rhetoric”, saying that it does not recognise the ICC’s authority and invoking the court’s failure to protect the “hundreds of women and children being killed daily” in Gaza.

“The leadership and officials of the Islamic Emirate have established unparalleled justice in Afghanistan based on the sacred laws of Islamic Sharia,” Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesperson for the Taliban government, said in a statement.

Late in 2022, several Muslim-majority countries – including Turkiye, Saudi Arabia and Qatar – condemned the Taliban’s decision to restrict education for women.

The ICC said on Tuesday that the alleged crimes were committed from August 15, 2021, when the Taliban seized power after the withdrawal of United States forces, and continued until at least January 20 of this year.

The court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, sought the warrants in January, saying that “Afghan women and girls as well as the LGBTQI+ community are facing an unprecedented, unconscionable and ongoing persecution by the Taliban”.

Last year, the United Nations accused the Taliban government of barring at least 1.4 million girls from their right to an education during its time in power.

Taking into account the number of girls not going to school before the group came to power, the UN said 80 percent of Afghan school-age girls – a total of 2.5 million – were being denied their right to an education.

Authorities also imposed restrictions on women working for nongovernmental groups and other jobs.

Beauty salons have been closed and women blocked from visiting public parks and gyms as well as travelling long distances without a male chaperone.

A “vice and virtue” law announced a year ago ordered women not to sing or recite poetry in public and for their voices and bodies to be “concealed” outside the home.

The rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) welcomed the ICC warrants on Tuesday.

“The announcement is an important development that gives hope, inside and outside the country, to Afghan women, girls, as well as those persecuted on the basis of gender identity or expression,” Amnesty International chief Agnes Callamard said in a statement.

“This is a crucial step to hold accountable all those allegedly responsible for the gender-based deprivation of fundamental rights to education, to free movement and free expression, to private and family life, to free assembly, and to physical integrity and autonomy.”

For its part, HRW called on the international community to “fully back the ICC in its critical work in Afghanistan and globally, including through concerted efforts to enforce the court’s warrants”.

Last year, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant over war crime charges in Gaza, including using starvation as a weapon of war.

But several Western members of the court have refused to commit to enforcing the warrants. Earlier this year, Poland said it would allow Netanyahu to visit the country, and Hungary hosted the Israeli prime minister and withdrew from the Rome Statute that established the ICC.

For its part, the US – which is not a member of the court – imposed sanctions on ICC officials over the prosecution of Netanyahu.

The ICC, based in The Hague, was set up to rule on the world’s worst crimes, such as war crimes and crimes against humanity. It has no police force of its own, and relies on member states to carry out its arrest warrants.

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies

UN adopts resolution on Afghanistan’s Taliban rule over US objections

July 8, 2025 Current News Articles

By EDITH LEDERER

Associated Press

July 7, 2025

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution Monday over U.S. objections calling on Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to reverse their worsening oppression of women and girls and eliminate all terrorist organizations.

The 11-page resolution also emphasizes “the importance of creating opportunities for economic recovery, development and prosperity in Afghanistan,” and urges donors to address the country’s dire humanitarian and economic crisis.

The resolution is not legally binding but is seen as a reflection of world opinion. The vote was 116 in favor, with two — the United States and close ally Israel — opposed and 12 abstentions, including Russia, China, India and Iran.

Since returning to power in Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban have imposed harsh measures, banning women from public places and girls from attending school beyond the sixth grade. Last week, Russia became the first country to formally recognize the Taliban’s government.

Germany’s U.N. Ambassador Antje Leendertse, whose country sponsored the resolution, told the assembly before the vote that her country and many others remain gravely concerned about the dire human rights situation in Afghanistan, especially the Taliban’s “near-total erasure” of the rights of women and girls.

The core message of the resolution, she said, is to tell Afghan mothers holding sick and underfed children or mourning victims of terrorist attacks, as well as the millions of Afghan women and girls locked up at home, that they have not been forgotten.

U.S. minister-counselor Jonathan Shrier was critical of the resolution, which he said rewards “the Taliban’s failure with more engagement and more resources.” He said the Trump administration doubts they will ever pursue policies “in accordance with the expectations of the international community.”

“For decades we shouldered the burden of supporting the Afghan people with time, money and, most important, American lives,” he said. “It is the time for the Taliban to step up. The United States will no longer enable their heinous behavior.”

Last month, the Trump administration banned Afghans hoping to resettle in the U.S. permanently and those seeking to come temporarily, with exceptions.

The resolution expresses appreciation to governments hosting Afghan refugees, singling out the two countries that have taken the most: Iran and Pakistan. Shrier also objected to this, accusing Iran of executing Afghans “at an alarming rate without due process” and forcibly conscripting Afghans into its militias.

While the resolution notes improvements in Afghanistan’s overall security situation, it reiterates concern about attacks by al-Qaida and Islamic State militants and their affiliates. It calls upon Afghanistan “to take active measures to tackle, dismantle and eliminate all terrorist organizations equally and without discrimination.”

The General Assembly also encouraged U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to appoint a coordinator to facilitate “a more coherent, coordinated and structured approach” to its international engagements on Afghanistan.

The World Food Programme (WFP) has once again raised concerns about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Afghanistan.

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