Source: Al Jazeera
Senior officials of Afghanistan’s neighbouring states have gathered in Iran’s capital for a one-day conference to discuss the situation in the Taliban-ruled country.
The foreign ministers of Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan met on Wednesday in Tehran, joined by their counterparts from China and Russia via video link.
Source: Forbes
As the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan was turning ugly, and the Taliban took province after province, the world watched as the concept of human rights disappeared overnight and a massive exodus began for those in fear for their lives. Reports of mass killings and the targeting of religious minorities, women and girls, human rights defenders and others, followed.
Source: The Northern Echo
MIDDLESBROUGH Council is currently supporting four families from Afghanistan.
Mayor Andy Preston has previously stated that Middlesbrough would take in up to fifteen Afghan families following the Taliban takeover in the country.
Source: AFP
The son of Taliban founder Mullah Omar appeared in public for the first time on Wednesday, as Afghanistan’s hardline rulers try to polish their media image.
The televised event saw Mohammad Yaqoob, Afghanistan’s new defence minister, appealing to local businessmen to invest in hospitals and clinics, signalling the Taliban are emerging from the shadows.
Source: The Economist
TWO MONTHS after the Taliban’s victory, civilians face a looming disaster. Will Western governments dig their heels in, or turn the aid taps back on? India’s government has increasingly turned to high-tech means for delivering government services. But its digital-first solutions are inaccessible to millions of citizens. And we look at the business of renting clothing, as Rent the Runway goes public with a sky-high valuation.
Source: The Moscow Times
In recent weeks, Tajikistan has hit the headlines for its hardline stance on Afghanistan, where the Taliban recently returned to power. It might seem that if anyone should be concerned about maintaining good relations with the Taliban, it’s Tajikistan. It has an extensive mountainous border with Afghanistan that is difficult to control, and the Tajik military is believed to be the weakest in Central Asia. Tajikistan is a transit stop for most of the drug traffic from Afghanistan to Russia and Europe, and the country has suffered numerous terrorist attacks in the last few years.
Source: TASS
CAIRO, October 25. /TASS/. The Taliban movement (outlawed in Russia) welcomes remarks by Russian President Vladimir Putin about possibility to exclude the group from the list of terrorist organizations, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, spokesperson of the Afghan Foreign Ministry in the interim government of the country, said on Sunday.
Source: Reuters
HARB-MAIDON TRAINING GROUND, Tajikistan, Oct 23 (Reuters) – A Russia-led military exercise held over six days near the Tajik-Afghan border, designed to demonstrate Moscow stands ready to protect Dushanbe in the event of an incursion from the south, reached its conclusion on Saturday.
Tajikistan’s relations with the Taliban leadership in Kabul have been strained from the start and reports of troop build-up on both sides of the border have alarmed Moscow, which operates a military base in the former Soviet republic.
Source: The New Arab
The United States did not put enough pressure on former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani to share power with the Taliban, Zalmay Khalilzad, who recently resigned as US envoy to Afghanistan, said in an interview broadcast Sunday on CBS.
Source: Sundaypost.com
They promised it would be different. As the Taliban gunmen surged into Kabul to seize power again, they said women had nothing to fear.
Few believed them then and, as each day passes, there are fewer still as people living in the capital say life is deteriorating under growing Taliban oppression and violence.