Afghanistan

The Taliban has provided Tajik militants based along the border with Tajikistan with new military vehicles, weaponry, and other equipment over the past two weeks, security sources in Tajikistan and northeastern Afghanistan say, amid an ongoing military buildup on both sides of the frontier. The sources also told RFE/RL on …

The Financial Times reported last week that numerous Afghan opposition leaders such as the famous Panjshir Valley commander Ahmad Massoud have fled to neighbouring Tajikistan and that they hope to use this safe haven as a base to fight the Taliban. But experts caution that the prospects are poor for …

The most worrying concerns, though, about the Taliban’s ability to rein in the activities of Islamist terror groups stem from the composition of the new Afghan government which, far from reflecting the Taliban’s claim that it is pursuing a “moderate” agenda, is packed with hardliners and includes no women, minorities …

Now that the United States has withdrawn its last remaining troops from Afghanistan, many expect the result will draw in regional powers, each seeking to cultivate proxy forces to work through. Iran, Pakistan, Russia, and China all have their own designs for the future of Afghanistan, and each have specific …

Government shutdown? No. Votes in the House? Not until at least 9 p.m. tonight. And on the Senate side, as Marianne LeVine wrote, “Democrats are desperately trying to make lemonade out of the bag of lemons Joe Manchin handed them today. Senate Democrats spun away Manchin’s utter rejection of their …

On September 25, 2021, Afghanistan’s Economy Minister Qari Din Mohammad Hanif said that his government does not want “help and cooperation from the world like the previous government. The old system was supported by the international community for 20 years but still failed.” It is fair to say that Hanif …

The fall of Kabul was inevitable and the only surprising element was the speed of Taliban’s advance. On the part of India, it was a strategic failure and stinging humiliation. India had invested almost $3bn in construction of dams, power lines, schools, roads and training of Afghan soldiers. India even …

The one clear advantage of the Taliban sweeping into power last month essentially unopposed was they seemed to spare Afghanistan more unnecessary bloodshed. But just as the Taliban ceased their own fighting, another brutal jihadi group began to unleash mayhem across the country. The Islamic State-Khorasan, the Islamic State’s Afghan …

The Taliban and China called Wednesday for the United States to stop flying drones over Afghanistan’s airspace, saying such actions were in breach of Afghanistan’s sovereignty and a mutual agreement. “We recently saw [the] United States violating all international rights, law and …commitments [made] to the Islamic Emirate [the Taliban] …

Tehran used to continuously assure the West that the danger did not lie in Shia Islam to global peace, and the episode of 9/11 occurred on the right time for the Iranians to prove their claim. Though Irans then President Mohammad Khatami provided intelligence to the United States and IRGC-QFs …