DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The ruling emir of Qatar, whose nation has played a pivotal role in Afghanistan in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal, urged world leaders gathered at the United Nations on Tuesday against turning their backs on the country’s Taliban rulers.
Speaking from the podium of the U.N. General Assembly, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani stressed “the necessity of continuing dialogue with Taliban because boycott only leads to polarization and reactions, whereas dialogue could bring in positive results.”
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers said on Tuesday there was no evidence of Islamic State or al Qaeda militants being in the country, days after Islamic State claimed responsibility for bomb attacks in the eastern city of Jalalabad.
Since toppling the Western-backed government in Kabul last month, the Taliban have faced pressure from the international community to renounce ties with al Qaeda, the group behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
AHMEDABAD, Sept 21 (Reuters) – Indian officials said on Tuesday they had seized nearly three tonnes of heroin originating from Afghanistan worth an estimated 200 billion rupees ($2.72 billion) amid the chaos following last month’s takeover of the country by the Taliban.
Afghanistan is the world’s biggest illicit opiate supplier, but since taking power, the Islamist Taliban have said they plan to ban the drug trade, without giving details on how.
UNITED NATIONS — Pakistan’s foreign minister says Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers should understand that if they want recognition and assistance in rebuilding the war-battered country “they have to be more sensitive and more receptive to international opinion and norms.”
Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Monday evening that countries are watching to see how things evolve in Afghanistan before considering recognition. He says, “I don’t think anyone is in a rush to recognize at this stage.”
WASHINGTON — Top U.S. national security officials on Tuesday said they were concerned about the threat posed by foreign terrorist groups following American military forces’ chaotic exit last month from Afghanistan.
National Counterterrorism Center Director Christine Abizaid testified before Congress that the Taliban’s reemergence and takeover of Afghanistan could set the stage for terrorist groups to rebuild there. The Taliban sheltered Al Qaeda as the group planned the Sept. 11 attacks.
After the evacuation mission has stopped Australia has not announced any specific programs or schemes for resettling Afghans. Instead the existing programs for visa applications should be used where Afghan applicants who fulfill certain criteria are prioritised.
ROME — The West’s war in Afghanistan is far from over.
That was the central message from Afghanistan’s ambassador to Italy, Khaled Ahmad Zekriya, during a recent interview at the country’s embassy in Rome.
Western forces may have pulled out of the country, he said, but that has only created a new set of issues that U.S. President Joe Biden and others will now be forced to deal with.
“I’m going to be very clear,” Zekriya said. “Contrary to what Biden says, America’s war has not ended — a very complex war has started.”
Mawlawi Mohammad Shebani is officially in charge of policing morals throughout Kandahar, the Taliban heartland of southern Afghanistan.
He is newly appointed head of the provincial office for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice, a title which strikes fear into many Afghans old enough to remember its previous incarnation under Taliban rule in the 1990s.
At least three people have been killed and more than 18 people injured in three explosions in Jalalabad in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province.
It is reported that the intended target may have been a passing convoy of the Taliban in the provincial capital. It is the first attack in the province since the Taliban came into power in mid-August.
The US mistakenly targeted and killed an innocent aid worker for an American company in a drone strike in Afghanistan, the New York Times suggested in an investigation into the country’s final military action of the recently concluded 20-year war.
