Afghanistan

Cost of Trans-Afghan railway project estimated at $7 billion

Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan estimate the cost of construction of the Trans-Afghan railway at almost $7 billion, Kun.uz News Agency reported on Thursday. Recently, the head of the Ministry of Transport, Ilkhom Mahkamov, held negotiations in Pakistan with local industry departments and large transport and logistics companies NLC-Logistics and TCS, …

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Iran says Mossad drone attack foiled, 3 ‘agents’ arrested

Iran said on Sunday that it foiled a Mossad drone attack in eastern Iran after arresting three local agents of the Israeli spy agency in a joint operation with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) near its eastern borders with Afghanistan. Iran’s Intelligence Ministry in cooperation with Afghanistan’s IEA “neutralized …

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Taliban Leaders Conspicuously Silent on Israel-Hamas War in Gaza

Amid heightened tensions in the Middle East, the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, has been notably quiet on the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza — in sharp contrast to the fervent, daily anti-Israel comments from neighboring Iran. While Akhundzada has no public-facing digital accounts, his edicts and statements …

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Learning from Failed Peace Efforts in Afghanistan

The United States should be applying lessons for when and how to negotiate with adversaries to other conflicts — starting with Ukraine. Over the course of 20 years, the United States made strategic mistakes in its war with the Taliban that helped fuel the insurgency and likely precluded an earlier …

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China Courts The Taliban – Analysis

On September 13, China’s newly appointed ambassador to Afghanistan, Zhao Xing, arrived at the presidential palace in Kabul to present his credentials to the acting prime minister of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Mohammad Hassan Akhund. Uniformed Taliban members welcomed him to the palace in a grand theatrical ceremony. While …

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Beijing And Kabul Sans Islamabad – Analysis

Right from the inception of Pakistan, it has had the insatiable desire to keep Afghanistan under its tacit control; anything and everything for Afghanistan should go through Pakistan. Pakistan, from the 1980s, increasingly meddled in the affairs of Afghanistan. From training and nurturing the Taliban in the early 1990s to …

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Two Years Under the Taliban: Is Afghanistan a Terrorist Safe Haven Once Again?

The Taliban have enabled some terrorist groups and reined in others, elevating longstanding concerns for U.S. policy. Two years into Taliban rule, the question of whether Afghanistan would once again become a safe haven for international terrorism remains alive. Longstanding fears were affirmed a little over a year ago, when …

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Russia’s Growing Ties With Afghanistan Are More Symbolism Than Substance

As Russia’s relationship with the West has deteriorated, the Kremlin’s view of the Taliban has changed. But substantive economic cooperation will be hard to achieve. Russia is one of just a handful of states in the world actively seeking to strengthen its relationship with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. While …

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Russia’s Growing Ties With Afghanistan Are More Symbolism Than Substance

As Russia’s relationship with the West has deteriorated, the Kremlin’s view of the Taliban has changed. But substantive economic cooperation will be hard to achieve. Russia is one of just a handful of states in the world actively seeking to strengthen its relationship with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. While …

Read More »

Russia’s Growing Ties With Afghanistan Are More Symbolism Than Substance

As Russia’s relationship with the West has deteriorated, the Kremlin’s view of the Taliban has changed. But substantive economic cooperation will be hard to achieve.Russia is one of just a handful of states in the world actively seeking to strengthen its relationship with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. While Afghanistan’s …

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