Afghanistan

CIA Director Reportedly Met With Taliban Leadership – What Does This Mean?

Yesterday morning, a report emerged from The Washington Post that CIA Director William Burns met with Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar in Kabul. This meeting reportedly happened on Monday, August 23. The Post article lists the source for this information as “U.S officials familiar with the matter who spoke on …

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Implications of Taliban takeover for the United States

America has reached the peak of its loss of power and authority, a decline that started on Sep. 11, 2001, and that has culminated in the Taliban’s recent takeover of Afghanistan. After this process, it is now a question of how the balance of power in the world will shift …

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CIA Director Secretly Met With Taliban Leader In Kabul

CIA Director William Burns held a secret meeting with the Taliban head Abdul Ghani Baradar in Kabul on Monday, the Washington Post reported. According to the WP, this is the first face-to-face meeting between the Taliban and Biden administration since Kabul’s fall on August 15, 2021. President Biden’s decision to …

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NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg Participates In G7 Meeting On Afghanistan

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg took part in the virtual summit of the Group of Seven (G7) on Afghanistan on Tuesday (24 August 2021). He stressed the importance of keeping Kabul airport open in order to continue evacuations. Stoltenberg said that several hundred NATO staff and contractors have been providing …

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The Afghanistan Withdrawal: Military And Defense Implications – Analysis

After a rapid Taliban campaign to capture cities and territories formerly controlled by the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIRoA), on August 15, 2021, the Taliban took Kabul and the President of GIRoA, Ashraf Ghani, fled the country. Information regarding the situation on the ground in Afghanistan and …

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Taliban retakes power, but it faces mounting challenges ahead

The Taliban took control of Afghanistan last week, 20 years after it was removed from power in a US-led military invasion. Winning that war might just turn out to be the easy part, as maintaining peace and governing the conflict-wracked and impoverished country will be a tough nut to crack, …

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The history of the Taliban

On Sunday, the Taliban swept to power in Afghanistan after a few weeks of stunning military victories. The armed group had been toppled in a US-led invasion in 2001 following the September 11 attacks on US soil, but it gradually regained strength, carrying out numerous attacks on foreign as well …

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Afghans need to accept Taliban rule, says Hashmat Ghani

Hashmat Ghani, whose brother – former President Ashraf Ghani – fled the country last week, tells Al Jazeera that it is necessary to accept the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan to avoid instability. Hashmat Ghani, brother of Afghanistan’s deposed President Ashraf Ghani, says he has accepted the Taliban’s takeover of the …

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Voice of jihad: Taliban spokesman in spotlight after shadowy fight

For years the Taliban’s top spokesman shunned the public eye, even as he amassed hundreds of thousands of followers online where he live-tweeted the insurgency. But days after the Taliban captured Kabul following the collapse of the US-backed government, Zabihullah Mujahid presented himself to the public for the first time …

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Shia Clerics: Taliban Must Ensure Equal Role for All

The Shia Ulema Council at a press conference on Tuesday urged the Taliban to ensure that they will treat all faiths and ethnicities with equality and justice. They said the next government should ensure the participation of all religions and ethnicities. The clerics called on the Taliban to ensure the …

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