Afghanistan

Be realistic. Show patience. Engage. And above all, don’t isolate. Those are the pillars of an approach emerging in Pakistan to deal with the fledgling government that is suddenly running the country next door once again — Afghanistan’s resurgent, often-volatile Taliban. Pakistan’s government is proposing that the international community develop …

On September 15, 2021, seven Army soldiers and five terrorists were killed during an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in the Asman Manza area of South Waziristan District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), in a statement, disclosed that the operation was launched on intelligence about the presence of …

The Taliban’s announcement earlier this month that it had formed an all-male “interim” Cabinet in Afghanistan comprising only the movement’s members—many of them veterans of the Taliban’s last stint in power in the 1990s—took many observers by surprise. Members of the notorious Haqqani network, which controls southeastern Afghanistan, were placed …

In an interview with Russian news agency Tass, former Afghan vice president Karim Khalili warned the Afghan Taliban that Shi’ite Muslims may join hands with other ethnic groups in Afghanistan to form a national resistance against the Taliban. Karim Khalili’s name has figured into the list of Afghan leaders likely …

With the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the rapid victory of the Taliban, some observers have pronounced the commencement of a new Chinese-led regional order. China, they say, will sweep in and develop road and rail infrastructure to extract Afghanistan’s vast mineral and rare earth wealth and thereby emerge as …

The images of desperate Afghan citizens trying to leave their country, beyond highlighting a massive human tragedy, may become a symbol of the so-called war on terror. Many of those Afghans already understand the feeling of abandoning their homes, because their families experienced it. They know what happens when foreign …

The return of Taliban rule over Afghanistan will have significant consequences for the region and international politics more broadly. For the Islamic Republic of Iran, Washington’s Afghanistan fiasco is about more than just the victory of the Taliban; it has been touted as confirmation that U.S. policy in the Islamic …

As resistance forces continue to battle the Taliban on Afghanistan’s last war front, residents who fled the province say there is no clear winner yet. Since the Taliban claimed “complete control” over the Panjshir Valley in Afghanistan’s northeast earlier this month, the group has been accused of “widespread atrocities”, forcing …

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says an ongoing “fight for power” among rival Taliban groups has complicated the situation in Afghanistan since the departure of U.S.-led international forces late last month and publicly pressed the hard-line militants now ruling the country to respect rights and avoid the country becoming a “safe …

The US withdrawal and return of the Taliban has shaken up relationships in the Gulf and South Asia. Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed met with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris Sept. 15. After their meeting, Macron praised the UAE’s role in the evacuations of foreign nationals from …