Islamic Emirate Reaffirms Support for Journalists Within Islamic Values

Other officials of the Islamic Emirate described access to information and support for the media as fundamental responsibilities of the current system.

Officials of the Islamic Emirate have emphasized support for journalists within the framework of journalistic principles and Islamic values.

In Kabul, a gathering titled “True Journalism, Informed Nation, and Healthy Society” was organized by the Ministry of Information and Culture and the Voice of the Afghan People Foundation.

During the program, Anwarul Haq Anwar, Director General of the Administrative Office, stressed that the Islamic Emirate supports media activities in line with journalistic principles and Islamic and ethical values. He added: “While practicing journalism, observing key journalistic principles is essential. God forbid, if one transgresses, then he is sinful and spreads corruption.”

Atiqullah Azizi, Deputy Minister of Culture and Arts at the Ministry of Information and Culture, highlighted the important role of the media in information dissemination, fostering unity in times of crisis, and contributing to social reform. He said: “Although the Islamic Emirate, particularly the Ministry of Information and Culture, may not have fully served you, under the circumstances you also witness, God willing, nothing has been withheld from you.”

Other officials of the Islamic Emirate described access to information and support for the media as fundamental responsibilities of the current system.

Abdul Latif Nazari, Deputy Minister of Economy, stated: “In the era we live in, soft warfare is highly significant. The battle of dialogue and propaganda shapes public opinion.”

Sibghatullah Wasil, Deputy Minister of Finance and Administration at the Ministry of Education, remarked: “Restrictions and censorship exist in every society. Even if we take America, or those countries that loudly claim freedom of expression, limitations still exist there.”

Abdul Mateen Qani, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior, said: “Our responsibility is shared. The media corridor is ours and yours alike. We stand shoulder to shoulder in service.”

Meanwhile, several journalists and media-support organizations emphasized the importance of finalizing the Law on Mass Media.

Islamic Emirate Reaffirms Support for Journalists Within Islamic Values
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Armed Clash in Bamyan Injures 10 People

 

An armed clash in Bamiyan’s Shibar district left 10 people injured, including a young woman, as authorities reported arrests and ongoing tensions in the area.

Local officials in Bamiyan province reported that ten people, including a young woman, were injured during an intra-community clash that broke out on Sunday night.

According to a statement released by the Bamiyan press office on Monday, September 22, the violence occurred in the Mohammad Kecha village of Shibar district.

Witnesses said firearms were used during the confrontation, escalating the severity of the clash and contributing to the number of injured, which included both men and women.

Authorities confirmed that six individuals have been arrested in connection with the incident, but the precise motive for the violent outbreak has not been disclosed.

While no official explanation was given, the incident comes amid heightened ethnic and tribal tensions in the region, which has previously experienced forced displacement and violence.

Earlier this year, armed Kuchi groups, reportedly supported by Taliban elements, forced villagers in Punjab district to abandon their homes, sparking widespread criticism and condemnation.

Armed Clash in Bamyan Injures 10 People
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Bagram: From Soviet Stronghold to U.S. Military Powerhouse in Afghanistan

Thousands of containers, barracks, restaurants, hospitals, shops, and even gyms were built within the base.

Bagram Air Base was first constructed in the 1950s with assistance from the Soviet Union.

During the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan between 1979 and 1989, the base became the primary hub for Soviet air operations, with thousands of combat missions launched from there against the Mujahideen.

After the fall of Dr. Najibullah’s government and the onset of the civil war, Bagram changed hands multiple times among various factions. It was eventually revitalized with the arrival of U.S. and NATO forces in 2001, becoming one of the most strategic military installations in the world.

Under U.S. control, Bagram evolved into a “military city,” featuring two runways over three kilometers long, capable of handling fighter jets, bombers, and massive transport aircraft.

Thousands of containers, barracks, restaurants, hospitals, shops, and even gyms were built within the base.

For many American soldiers, Bagram became a “second home,” though the concrete walls and barbed wire were constant reminders of the front lines.

Fazl Manallah Momtaz, a political analyst, stated: “Bagram Air Base was extremely important. Before the Americans, the Soviets focused heavily on it to maintain oversight over the region.”

Over the past two decades, three U.S. presidents — George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump — visited Bagram. Joe Biden also visited the base in 2011 while serving as Vice President.

In the summer of 2021, shortly before the return of the Islamic Emirate to power, U.S. forces abruptly abandoned Bagram during the night. By morning, Afghan soldiers and local residents arrived in disbelief at an empty base that had symbolized the international presence in Afghanistan for two decades.

Sayed Abdullah Sadeq, another political analyst, said: “Afghanistan is itself a strategic point, and Bagram was one of the largest and most significant airfields — seized by the Americans after their arrival.”

But Bagram was not just a military base; its infamous prison gained international notoriety. Hundreds of Afghans suspected of ties to the Islamic Emirate or al-Qaeda were detained and interrogated there.

Numerous reports of torture and harsh conditions turned Bagram into what many came to call “the Guantanamo of Afghanistan.”

Ahmad Khan Andar, a military analyst, remarked: “They built a prison within this base, where they brought Afghans labeled as supporters of al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and subjected them to brutal torture.”

Following the U.S. withdrawal, former President Donald Trump repeatedly — more than 20 times — insisted that the United States should never have relinquished Bagram. Nearly every time he mentioned the base, he immediately referenced China, claiming that Bagram had fallen into Beijing’s hands.

Bagram: From Soviet Stronghold to U.S. Military Powerhouse in Afghanistan
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Afghanistan Stripped of UN Voting Rights for Third Consecutive Year

Some political analysts warn that the continuation of this situation could isolate the country from global processes.

Afghanistan has been deprived of its voting rights at the United Nations for the third consecutive year.

Some political analysts warn that the continuation of this situation could isolate the country from global processes.

Sayed Hossein Seraj, an international relations expert, said: “When we have neither the right to vote nor a seat, we cannot express our views or raise our voices. A platform must be provided, and the right to vote must also be granted but to whoever holds authority in Afghanistan.”

Afghanistan has been a UN member since 1946. However, under Article 19 of the UN Charter, any country that fails to pay its annual membership dues for two years or more loses its right to vote in the General Assembly.

Afghanistan’s annual contribution is around $200,000. But in recent years, this amount has not been paid, and the country’s debt has now exceeded $900,000.

Torialai Zazai, a political affairs analyst, said: “In this matter, it is the world countries and the United Nations that are at fault they do not recognize Afghanistan, yet they still demand their money.”

International relations experts argue that Afghanistan’s loss of voting rights is not merely a technical issue in the UN’s administrative process but rather signifies the diminishing role of the country in global diplomacy.

While the world body makes decisions on humanitarian crises, international security, and sustainable development, Afghanistan’s lack of voting rights leaves its people — already facing poverty, migration, and social restrictions feeling even more voiceless.

Bilal Omar, an international relations expert, said: “Recognition of Afghanistan is the key that opens the way for the country to join international organizations and institutions. Until these prerequisites are fulfilled and Afghanistan is accepted, I don’t think many countries will recognize it.”

On the other hand, the Islamic Emirate has repeatedly emphasized that without official recognition and possession of Afghanistan’s UN seat, it is unable to directly pay the membership dues.

For this reason, the Islamic Emirate has repeatedly called for the transfer of the seat from the representative of the former government to its current representative.

Afghanistan Stripped of UN Voting Rights for Third Consecutive Year
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My three boys starved to death. I hope angels bring them home, says Afghan mother

Yogita Limaye
South Asia and Afghanistan correspondent
BBC News
21 Sept 2025
Aakriti Thapar/BBC Ghulam and Nazo stand with a desert landscape behind them. He has a white beard, a turban and a green scarf wrapped around his neck. She is covering most of her face in a black shawl which is wrapped around her body

Gusts of wind blew dust up off the ground as Ghulam Mohiddin and his wife Nazo walked towards the graveyard where all their children are buried.

They showed us the graves of the three boys they lost in the past two years – one-year-old Rahmat, seven-month-old Koatan and most recently, three-month-old Faisal Ahmad.

All three suffered from malnutrition, say Ghulam and Nazo.

“Can you imagine how painful it’s been for me to lose three children? One minute there’s a baby in your arms, the next minute they are empty,” says Nazo.

“I hope every day that angels would somehow put my babies back in our home.”

‘Three million children in peril’

There are days the couple go without food. They break walnut shells for a living in the Sheidaee settlement just outside the city of Herat in western Afghanistan and receive no help from the Taliban government or from NGOs.

“Watching helplessly as my children cried out of hunger, it felt like my body was erupting in flames. It felt like someone was cutting me into half with a saw from my head to my feet,” said Ghulam.

The deaths of their children are not recorded anywhere, but it’s evidence of a silent wave of mortality engulfing Afghanistan’s youngest, as the country is pushed into what the UN calls an unprecedented crisis of hunger.

“We started the year with the highest increase in child malnutrition ever recorded in Afghanistan. But things have got worse from there,” says John Aylieff, the World Food Programme’s country director.

“Food assistance kept a lid in this country on hunger and malnutrition, particularly for the bottom five million who really can’t cope without international support. That lid has now been lifted. The soaring of the malnutrition is placing the lives of more than three million children in peril.”

‘My wife died giving birth after Trump cut funding to our clinic’

Aid has sharply declined because the single largest donor, the US, stopped nearly all aid to Afghanistan earlier this year. But WFP says eight or nine other donors who funded them in the last two years have also stopped this year, and many others are giving much less than they were last year.

One reason is donors are responding to a number of crises around the world. But the Taliban government’s policies also affect how much the world is willing to help.

What are they doing to help their citizens?

“Those who are facing malnutrition, those who are facing hunger, it’s because of sanctions, because of aid cuts by international organisations. It’s not because of the government,” the head of the Taliban’s political office in Doha, Suhail Shaheen, told the BBC.

“The government has expanded its assistance to the people and is doing what is in its capacity, But our budget is based on internal revenues, and we are facing sanctions.”Aakriti Thapar/BBC

But the Taliban’s intransigence on women’s rights affects its bid for international recognition, and for the sanctions against it to be lifted. Other decisions, like the recent enforcement of a previously announced ban on Afghan women working for NGOs is putting the delivery of “life-saving humanitarian assistance at serious risk”, the UN says.

The malnutrition emergency is compounded by other factors too – a severe drought that has affected agricultural incomes in more than half of Afghanistan’s provinces, and the forced return of more than two million Afghans from Iran and Pakistan, reducing the remittances they send back.

‘Hungry all the time’

At the Sheidaee graveyard we found startling evidence of child deaths. There were no records of the people buried there, so we counted the graves ourselves. Roughly two-thirds of the hundreds of graves were of children – it was easy to tell the small graves from the bigger ones.

Villagers told us the graveyard is relatively new, between two to three years old. They also confirmed that it was not a specific graveyard for children.

As we walked through the settlement in Sheidaee, people came out carrying their children. Rahila was carrying Hibatullah who, at two, cannot stand up. Durkhanee brought out her son Mohammad Yusuf, who’s also nearly two and unable to stand.

Nearly half of all Afghan children under the age of five are stunted, the UN says.

In one of the mud and clay homes, Hanifa Sayedi’s one-year-old son Rafiullah could barely hold himself up, even while he’s sitting.

“I took him to a clinic where they told me he’s malnourished, but I don’t have the money to keep taking him there,” she says. She and her husband have two other children, and dry pieces of bread with Afghan green tea are the only meals the family can afford. Some days they don’t eat.

Rafiullah doesn’t have teeth yet, so Hanifa soaks the bread in the tea and feeds him.

“But it’s not enough and he’s hungry all the time. To make him sleep, I give him these medicines,” she says, pulling out two strips of tablets.

One is a strip of Lorazepam, an anti-anxiety medicine, the other is Propanolol, a drug that controls high blood pressure. One strip costs 10 Afghani ($0.15; £0.13) the same amount as one piece of bread. Hanifa says she bought them at a pharmacy, saying she wanted sleeping pills for herself.

“I feel so guilty that my children are going hungry and I can’t do much. I feel suffocated and like I should kill my children and myself,” she says.

Doctors say that when given to young children, drugs such as these can damage the child’s heart, kidneys and liver, and can even be life-threatening if given for a prolonged period of time.

Afghans sedating hungry children and selling organs

“It’s incredibly heartbreaking to be in this country and watch this unfold. WFP has a hotline. We’ve had to retrain our call operators because we’re getting a much higher proportion of calls from women threatening suicide because they’re desperate and they just don’t know how to feed their children any more,” says WFP’s John Aylieff.

The closure of food assistance to communities like those in Sheidaee and in other parts of Afghanistan has meant that more children are being pushed into severe acute malnutrition.

We’ve seen evidence of this in hospitals across Afghanistan.

In the malnutrition ward of the Badakhshan regional hospital in the north-east, there were 26 children in 12 beds.

Three-month-old Sana, the youngest baby on the ward, has malnutrition, acute diarrhoea and a cleft lip. She is her mother Zamira’s second baby. The first child, another baby girl, died when she was 20 days old.

“I’m scared this child might also meet the same fate. I’m tired of this life. It’s not worth living,” says Zamira, with a stricken look on her face.

As Zamira speaks, Sana’s hands and feet turn blue. Her tiny heart is not pumping enough blood. A nurse puts her on oxygen.

In another cot is five-month-old Musleha, who has malnutrition and measles. Her mother Karima says she’s hardly opened her eyes in the past few days.

“She’s in pain and I don’t know what to do. We are poor and don’t have access to nutritious food. That’s why she’s in this state,” says Karima.

In the cot next to Musleha, are twins Mutehara and Maziyan. The baby girls also have malnutrition and measles, and are half the weight they should be at 18 months. Mutehara lets out a feeble cry. It’s evident she’s in pain.

A week after we visited the hospital, we followed up with the families of the babies. We were told that Sana, Musleha and Mutehara had all died.

‘We simply cannot afford to feed them’

This isn’t the first time we’ve documented child deaths from malnutrition in Afghanistan, but this is the worst we’ve ever seen.

Within a span of a week, three babies from one ward became the latest casualties of Afghanistan’s crisis of hunger.

And it’s about to get worse.

“WFP’s humanitarian funding will run out in November. At the moment, we are starting to turn away malnourished women and children from the health centres because we simply cannot afford to feed them. In November, we will stop unless we get a further injection of funding,” says John Aylieff.

With winter approaching, it is hard to overstate the urgency of the disaster unfolding in Afghanistan.

Additional reporting Mahfouz Zubaide, Aakriti Thapar, Sanjay Ganguly

My three boys starved to death. I hope angels bring them home, says Afghan mother
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Taliban Bans Books by Women in Afghanistan’s Universities

The Taliban government is purging books written by women from Afghanistan’s male-only university system and outlawing gender studies courses, the latest blows in a campaign against women’s rights since the group returned to power four years ago.

Over 600 books, many of them written by women, were included in a 50-page list of banned works. The directive was announced in a letter to universities by the Taliban’s deputy higher education minister, dated to late August, and published by the Independent Persian on Thursday. The letter said the titles were in conflict with principles of Sharia, or Islamic law.

A member of the committee reviewing the books later clarified the Taliban’s position to BBC Afghan, that “all books authored by women are not allowed to be taught.”

The ban is “a criminal act,” said Rahela Sidiqi, the director of The Rahela Trust, a Britain-based group that works in Afghanistan to help women and girls access education. “It not only affects females. It also affects males. It affects society, because those books were part of the curriculums of those universities.”

“We know in the spring, there was a committee put together by the Ministry of Higher Education to do exactly this,” said Lauryn Oates, the executive director of Right to Learn Afghanistan, a group based in Canada that supports human rights and education for girls and women in Afghanistan. “This will give people the false idea that women don’t write books, or that women’s ideas are not worth consulting.”

The list of texts and subjects being stripped, Ms. Oates said, shows that “they really don’t like political science or international relations.” But she said it was also inconsistent, adding that much of it appeared to be coming from “individual members’ personal suspicion of the subjects.”

In 2022, Afghanistan’s higher education commission released a report after a review of school curriculum. Among the “deficiencies” outlined were the promotion of foreign cultural norms, “moral deficiencies” and the advancement of “un-Islamic customs and practices, such as music, television, democracy, etc.”

Because the Taliban has banned women and girls from secondary and higher education, the latest wave of censorship primarily affects the curriculums of male students. But Ms. Sidiqi said the step is reflective of a pattern of “restricting women from every part of life,” adding that the removal of women’s’ writing reflects an attempt to “destroy the history of their life.”

The move is part of a wider overhaul of higher education, which the Taliban has pursued since returning to power as it seeks to reshape Afghan society to conform to its hard line ideology. It has fired scores of university professors who it claims break from state values, stifled dissent on university campuses and restructured curriculums to augment the amount of religious education students are required to take.

Earlier this week, internet shutdowns hit several provinces of Afghanistan, to curb “misuse,” which had the effect of curtailing the ability to attend online classes and exchange information.

Pranav Baskar is an international reporter and a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers.

Taliban Bans Books by Women in Afghanistan’s Universities
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Taliban rejects Trump’s bid to take over Afghan air base that U.S. controlled for almost 20 years

The Taliban government on Sunday rejected U.S. President Trump’s bid to retake Bagram Air Base, four years after America’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan left the sprawling military facility in the Taliban’s hands.Mr. Trump on Saturday renewed his call to reestablish a U.S. presence at Bagram, even saying “we’re talking now to Afghanistan” about the matter. He did not offer further details about the purported conversations. Asked by a reporter if he’d consider deploying U.S. troops to take the base, the president demurred.

“We won’t talk about that,” Mr. Trump said. “We want it back, and we want it back right away. If they don’t do it, you’re going to find out what I’m going to do.”

Mr. Trump followed up with a social media post saying “If Afghanistan doesn’t give Bagram Airbase back to those that built it, the United States of America, BAD THINGS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN!!!”

On Sunday, chief Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid rejected Mr. Trump’s assertions and urged the U.S. to adopt a policy of “realism and rationality.”

Afghanistan had an economy-oriented foreign policy and sought constructive relations with all states on the basis of mutual and shared interests, Mujahid posted on X.

It had been consistently communicated to the U.S. in all bilateral negotiations that Afghanistan’s independence and territorial integrity were of the utmost importance, he said.

“It should be recalled that, under the Doha Agreement, the United States pledged that ‘it will not use or threaten force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Afghanistan, nor interfere in its internal affairs,'” he said. The U.S. needed to remain faithful to its commitments, he added.

Mujahid did not reply to questions from The Associated Press about conversations with the Trump administration regarding Bagram and why Mr. Trump believed the U.S. could retake it.

Earlier Sunday, the chief of staff at the Defense Ministry, Fasihuddin Fitrat, addressed Mr. Trump’s comments. “Ceding even an inch of our soil to anyone is out of the question and impossible,” he said during a speech broadcast by Afghan media.

In August last year, the Taliban celebrated the third anniversary of their takeover at Bagram with a grand military display of abandoned U.S. hardware, catching the eye of the White House. Mr. Trump has repeatedly criticized his predecessor, Joe Biden, for his “gross incompetence” during the withdrawal of U.S. forces after the country’s longest war.

Mr. Trump last week, during his state visit to the United Kingdom, hinted that the Taliban, who have struggled with an economic crisis, international legitimacy, internal rifts and rival militant groups since their return to power in 2021, could be game to allow the U.S. military to return.

“We’re trying to get it back because they need things from us,” Mr. Trump said of the Taliban. While the U.S. and the Taliban have no formal diplomatic ties, the sides have had hostage conversations. An American man who was abducted more than two years ago while traveling through Afghanistan as a tourist was released by the Taliban in March.

The Taliban also said they reached an agreement with U.S. envoys on an exchange of prisoners as part of an effort to normalize relations between the United States and Afghanistan.

They gave no details of the detainee swap, and the White House did not comment on the meeting in Kabul or the results described in a Taliban statement. The Taliban released photographs from their talks, showing their foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, with Mr. Trump’s special envoy for hostage response, Adam Boehler.

Taliban rejects Trump’s bid to take over Afghan air base that U.S. controlled for almost 20 years
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The Taliban are reaching out — and some countries are responding

By Rick Noack and Shaiq Hussain

The Washington Post

September 21, 2025

Anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe, concerns about militancy in Asia and acceptance that the Taliban regime is unlikely to collapse soon present a diplomatic opening.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Four years into its second stretch in power, Afghanistan’s Taliban government has been recognized by only one country: Russia.

But anti-immigrant sentiment, concerns about militant groups in Central Asia and a growing acceptance that the regime is unlikely to collapse anytime soon are allowing the Taliban to quietly make diplomatic inroads.

Many of Afghanistan’s neighbors, while not officially recognizing the regime, have found ways to work with it. White House counterterrorism director Sebastian Gorka described the regime last month as “moderately cooperative,” even as he acknowledged that “this sounds strange coming out of my mouth.” And Germany, home to Europe’s largest Afghan population, has accredited two Taliban Foreign Ministry officials to join representatives of the previous, Western-backed Afghan government as consular officials.

President Donald Trump on Thursday added a new dimension, saying that the United States is working to regain control of Afghanistan’s Bagram air base from the Taliban. “We’re trying to get it back because they need things from us,” he said, suggesting that the base, which the U.S. military left four years ago amid the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, is “an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons.”

comment and cited previous remarks that it would not tolerate a U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. But that such talks are taking place at all signals how some governments increasingly regard the Taliban as an unavoidable negotiating partner.

“The Taliban are being dealt with as the rulers of Afghanistan, even if recognition has not yet been formally extended,” said Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, a former Pakistani foreign secretary.

Each of the countries engaging with the Taliban has different motives. In Europe, a surge in support for anti-immigrant parties is stoking calls for deportations to Afghanistan, which require the Taliban’s approval. Many countries, including the United States, share a common enemy with the Taliban: the Islamic State, which has a presence in the Afghan-Pakistani border region as the Islamic State-Khorasan, or ISIS-K. For neighbors, Afghanistan is important as a transit hub and trading partner.

The emerging ties are “a significant strategic victory for the Taliban,” said Michael Kugelman, a senior fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.

The Taliban’s emergence from isolation remains tenuous. While some officials have sought more international outreach, hard-line leaders are pushing draconian restrictions on women’s and civil rights, limiting the extent to which Western governments can publicly engage with them. The regime’s sanctioned foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, was recently unable to visit Pakistan and India after a U.N. sanctions committee declined to issue the necessary travel waivers, according to two Pakistani officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Meanwhile, many embassies in Kabul remain closed as foreign governments hedge their bets. China has been slow to invest in infrastructure projects of the kind it has rolled out elsewhere in the region.

The Taliban want to be treated as an ordinary government, said Muhammad Amir Rana, a Pakistani political analyst, but the idea remains far-fetched. Among most countries now dealing with them, he said, “engagement is confined mainly to humanitarian aid and migration management.”

For diplomats who witnessed the negotiations that led to the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, the past four years have been a disappointment.

Mansoor Ahmad Khan, who was Pakistan’s ambassador to Kabul when the Taliban reclaimed power, said the group’s pledges to work on constitutional rule, good governance and human rights fueled “a sense of optimism.” Appointees to an initial cabinet were described as acting ministers. Early crackdowns on women’s rights were framed as temporary.

But in recent months, the regime has dropped the pretense. Hard-line Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada ordered his ministers last month to remove the “acting” designation from their titles.

Foreign diplomats are engaging with the regime anyway, analysts say, because they don’t view the Taliban as a cohesive group.

Few negotiate directly with the hard-liners in Kandahar. Instead, they interact primarily with members of the regime who are seen as more pragmatic, such as representatives of Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani and Defense Minister Mohammad Yaqoob.

Diplomats who have visited Kabul say interactions have been challenging. Asif Durrani, Pakistan’s former special representative for Afghanistan, said he encountered Taliban diplomats who largely stuck to prepared lines. “Professionally, they’re not sound,” he said.

Before Thursday’s comments by Trump, the U.S. appeared to focus primarily on counterterrorism cooperation and efforts to free Americans held in Afghanistan. When Adam Boehler, President Donald Trump’s envoy for hostage affairs, visited Kabul to secure the release of U.S. citizen George Glezmann in March, it was the highest-level publicly known contact since the Taliban takeover. Last week, Boehler made a second trip to Afghanistan.

China has stepped in when doing so suited its interests, such as brokering a deal between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Representatives from Kabul and Islamabad, meeting in Beijing in May, agreed to exchange ambassadors after years of deteriorating relations.

Negotiators were driven by a convergence of interests. Afghanistan, which was offered a trade deal as part of the agreement, wanted economic investment to help weather Western sanctions and global aid cutsPakistan has been beset by insurgencies, for which it blames the Taliban indirectly. China has grown increasingly frustrated by attacks linked to those insurgencies on its infrastructure projects in Pakistan.

Russia’s recognition of the Taliban regime in July was probably also linked to security concerns. “Everyone worries about ISK, but Russia really worries about it,” Kugelman said, referring to the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan. More than 130 people were killed when Islamic State gunmen attacked a concert hall in Moscow last year.

For the Kremlin, Kugelman said, recognizing the Taliban government might also have been strategic. “Russia wants to set itself apart from the U.S. and the West — it wants to blaze its own trail,” he said. “And I suspect that it also hopes that some of the other countries in the broader region, including China, would want to follow suit.”

It’s unlikely the Taliban will find a majority in the United Nations to grant it the recognition that would help unlock billions in frozen assets and give it a seat at international forums and donor conferences.

But in Europe, the Taliban are making significant inroads. Since their takeover, they’ve wrestled for control of Afghan consulates and embassies there, with growing success.

The United States oversaw the closure of the Afghan Embassy in Washington after the Taliban takeover. But many of Afghanistan’s missions in Europe have remained open, run by representatives of the pre-Taliban government.

Early last year, the basement of the Afghan Embassy in Paris was still bustling with Afghans renewing their passports and foreign workers for nongovernmental organizations applying for visas. That changed when the Taliban cut ties with many Afghan diplomatic missions in Europe that summer, saying they did not sufficiently cooperate.

Momentum has appeared to be shifting toward the Taliban in other ways, as well. More than 400,000 Afghans have lodged asylum claims in the European Union since 2020, and the rise of anti-immigrant parties on the continent is putting pressure on governments to deport some of them.

In Britain, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, whose party has been outpolling the ruling Labour and opposition Conservative parties for months, has threatened to deport all Afghan adults who enter the country undocumented.

Germany’s new conservative government welcomed the two Taliban representatives to help with the deportation of Afghans convicted of crimes.

Afghans in the country were shocked. “Germany claims that the basis for this action is to deliver justice,” human rights activist Zahra Mousawy said. “But in reality, it has invited war criminals.”

The German Foreign Ministry defends its interactions with the Taliban as being of a “technical” nature. “Like all countries worldwide, except Russia, the Federal Government does not recognize the Taliban’s de facto government in Afghanistan,” the ministry said in a statement.

Several diplomats who represented the previous Afghan government in Germany were recently let go on instructions from Kabul, according to one current and one former Afghan diplomat. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

While some Afghan diplomats have decided to cooperate with the Taliban, they said, the consulate in Bonn, Germany, is fighting for its independence.

The Bonn consulate is strategically important to the Taliban because it’s the administrative nerve center of all the Afghan missions in Europe that still resist the regime. It also houses the data center that stores the biometric and passport data of Afghans on the continent.

“With this data, it’s possible to trace your entire family back in Afghanistan: where you are from, your village, your district, your province,” the current diplomat said.

Lutfullah Lutfi, a former diplomat with the Afghan mission to the U.N. in New York, said he worries that many of his colleagues in Europe will soon share his fate.

But in early 2022, amid internal tensions over whether to collaborate with the Taliban, he was let go.

The most difficult part of the experience, he said, was that there was nobody left from whom he could seek help.

Haq Nawaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan; Wadud Salangi in Berlin; Ezzatullah Mehrdad in Louisville; and John Hudson in Washington contributed to this report.

The Taliban are reaching out — and some countries are responding
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Thousands of Pakistani Vehicles Stuck at Afghanistan Border After Dropping Migrants

By Fidel Rahmati

Nearly 18,000 Pakistani vehicles remain stranded in Spin Boldak after transporting Afghan migrants, as border restrictions and mass deportations worsen humanitarian and economic pressures.

Nearly 18,000 Pakistani vehicles that carried Afghan migrants to the border are now stranded in Spin Boldak, unable to return due to restrictions by Pakistani authorities.

Local sources report that the backlog has sent transport fares soaring, leaving deported families facing heavy financial strain as they attempt to rebuild their lives inside Afghanistan.

Drivers of these vehicles, commonly known in Pakistan as Artal, say they have been stuck on Afghanistan soil for weeks, unable to resume work.

Neither Taliban officials nor the Pakistani government have issued any formal response to the worsening gridlock or its growing humanitarian and economic consequences.

Pakistan has recently accelerated deportations of undocumented Afghans. According to the Taliban’s refugee commission, up to 6,000 people are expelled daily through crossings such as Spin Boldak.

The mass stranding of vehicles underscores the deepening fallout of Pakistan’s deportation campaign, with ripple effects for drivers, border communities, and returning Afghan families.

Unless urgent coordination is established between Islamabad and Kabul, the crisis risks worsening further, intensifying hardship on both sides of the border and destabilising local economies.

Thousands of Pakistani Vehicles Stuck at Afghanistan Border After Dropping Migrants
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Trump’s Dream of Retaking Bagram Could Resemble an Afghan Re-Invasion

Trump, speaking to reporters on Thursday during a trip to London, said “we want that base back” and cited what he called its strategic location near China.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s goal of re-occupying Bagram air base in Afghanistan might end up looking like a re-invasion of the country, requiring more than 10,000 troops as well as deployment of advanced air defenses, current and former U.S. officials say. (Reuters)

Trump, speaking to reporters on Thursday during a trip to London, said “we want that base back” and cited what he called its strategic location near China.

“It’s an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons,” Trump said.

The sprawling airfield was the main base for American forces in Afghanistan during the two decades of war that followed the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington by al Qaeda.

Trump, who has previously said he wants the United States to acquire territories and sites ranging from the Panama Canal to Greenland, has appeared focused on Bagram for years.

He hinted on Thursday that the U.S. could acquire the base with some kind of Islamic Emirate consent, but it was unclear what form such an agreement might take. It would be a remarkable turnaround for the Islamic Emirate, which fought to expel U.S. troops and retake the country from a U.S.-backed government.

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was no active planning to militarily take over Bagram air base, which the U.S. abandoned along with the rest of the country when it withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021.

The official said any effort to reclaim the base would be a significant undertaking.

The official said it would require tens of thousands of troops to take and hold Bagram air base, an expensive effort to repair the base, and a logistical headache to resupply the base — which would be an isolated U.S. enclave in a landlocked country.

Even after the U.S. military took control of the base, it would require a huge undertaking to clear and hold the massive perimeter around it to avoid the area from being used to launch rocket attacks against American forces inside.

“I don’t see how this can realistically happen,” the official said.

Experts say the sprawling air base would be difficult to secure initially and require massive manpower to operate and protect.

Even if the Islamic Emirate accepted the U.S. re-occupation of Bagram following negotiations, it would need to be defended from a host of threats including Islamic State and al Qaeda militants inside Afghanistan.

It could also be vulnerable to an advanced missile threat from Iran, which attacked a major U.S. air base in Qatar in June after the United States struck Iranian nuclear sites.

A former senior U.S. defense official played down the benefits of retaking the base, including the base’s proximity to China that was touted by Trump.

“I don’t think there’s a particular military advantage to being up there,” the former official said. “The risks sort of outweigh the advantages.”

In February, Trump complained that Biden had given up the base and said there had been a plan to keep a small U.S. force there, even though his February 2020 accord with the Taliban required a pullout of all U.S.-led international forces.

Trump’s comments came as the Pentagon is carrying out a review into the United States’ chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, which many policy leaders in his administration viewed as a distraction from bigger challenges facing the United States — like competition from China.

Meanwhile, The Second Political Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s intention to retake the Bagram airbase, stated that a military presence has never been accepted by Afghans throughout history. He emphasized that this possibility was completely rejected during the Doha talks and agreement.

Zakir Jalali wrote on his X page that Afghanistan and the United States need to engage with one another and can establish economic and political relations based on mutual respect and shared interests “without the United States maintaining any military presence in any part of Afghanistan.”

Trump’s Dream of Retaking Bagram Could Resemble an Afghan Re-Invasion
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