The lightning-quick advance by the Taliban rapidly overran Afghanistan and led to the absolute collapse of the Afghan army and security forces. As the Taliban were posing for pictures inside the presidential palace, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani was fleeing the country to Uzbekistan even before the United States could withdraw …

“You’re all going to die,” the diminutive, senior U.S. intelligence official observed in matter-of-fact fashion to her stunned Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) hosts. Her rather blunt appraisal was uncharacteristic of the engagement to which the senior Pakistani officials had grown accustomed and cut to the chase: the consequences of decades …

Tehran’s policy toward the Afghan Taliban has created new clashes within Iranian government circles. These clashes recently escalated as influential hard-line media and associates of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) made public efforts to portray the Taliban in a positive light. In one of the most controversial cases, the …

“This marks the end of a historic chapter — an intense deployment that has challenged and shaped us,” wrote German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer on June 29. The occasion was the homecoming of the last German troops deployed in Afghanistan. Over the past 20 years, around 150,000 German troops served …

One of the doctrinal principles behind U.S. corporate-imperial news coverage and commentary and mainstream US politics is that the United States is a fundamentally benevolent force for good facing difficulties created by evil others and challenging situations not of Washington’s own making. Debate is permissible on immediate strategy and tactics …

The victory of the Taliban in Afghanistan is looking unstoppable as they capture the big provincial cities of Kandahar, Herat and Ghazni without meeting effective resistance from Afghan government forces. Afghan soldiers and security forces are fleeing, surrendering or changing sides as they see no point in dying for a …

President Biden put a popular flag-waving wrapping on America’s forced withdrawal from Afghanistan in his 4 PM speech on Monday. It was as if all this was following Biden’s own intentions, not a demonstration of the totally incompetent assurances by the CIA and State Department as recently as last Friday …

Bahrain will initiate consultations with the other Gulf Arab monarchies regarding the situation in Afghanistan in its capacity as current chair of the Gulf Cooperation Council, the kingdom’s government media office said on Monday. “The council of ministers has tasked the foreign minister to coordinate and consult with the GCC …

Turkey is in talks with all parties in Afghanistan, including the Taliban, and views positively the messages the Islamist militants have sent since taking control of the country, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday. Cavusoglu was speaking a day after Turkish security sources said Ankara had dropped plans to …

After the sudden collapse of the Afghan government and military and the victory of the Taliban, some experts have warned of the danger of a failed state run by a Salafi-jihadi group closely allied with Al-Qaeda. Perhaps a bigger concern may be the danger of a not-failed state, possibly even …