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  • China turns into first to call new Afghan ambassador below Taliban

    China turned the primary nation on Wednesday to formally title a brand new ambassador to Afghanistan because the Taliban takeover, after its envoy offered credentials at a ceremony in Kabul.

    The Taliban haven’t been formally recognised by any overseas authorities, and Beijing didn’t point out whether or not Wednesday’s appointment signalled any wider steps in direction of formal recognition of the Taliban.

    “This is the normal rotation of China’s ambassador to Afghanistan, and is intended to continue advancing dialogue and cooperation between China and Afghanistan,” China’s overseas ministry mentioned in a press release. “China’s policy towards Afghanistan is clear and consistent.”

    A Taliban administration overseas ministry spokesman instructed Reuters new envoy Zhao Xing was the primary ambassador from any nation to take up the put up since August 2021, when the Taliban took over as U.S.-led overseas forces withdrew after 20 years.

    Mohammad Hassan Akhund, performing prime minister within the Taliban administration, had accepted the brand new envoy’s credentials in a ceremony, the Taliban administration’s deputy spokesman, Bilal Karimi, mentioned in a press release.

    The Taliban administration spokesperson’s workplace printed pictures of a ceremony at Afghanistan’s presidential palace on Wednesday at which the ambassador was acquired by officers, together with Akhund and the performing overseas minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi.

    China’s earlier ambassador to Afghanistan, Wang Yu, took up the function in 2019 and completed his tenure final month.

    There are different diplomats in Kabul with the title of ambassador, however all of them took up their posts earlier than the Taliban takeover.

    Other international locations and our bodies, reminiscent of Pakistan and the European Union, have since despatched senior diplomats to guide diplomatic missions utilizing the title ‘cost d’affaires’, which doesn’t require presenting ambassadorial credentials to the host nation.

    The Taliban entered the capital on Aug. 15, 2021, because the Afghan safety forces, arrange with years of Western assist, disintegrated and U.S.-backed President Ashraf Ghani fled.

    Edited By:

    Sudeep Lavania

    Published On:

    Sep 13, 2023

  • Year later, Afghan media struggles to outlive: ‘no law, only restrictions’

    Sadiqa Shirazi knew what the Taliban considered her journalism effectively earlier than their takeover of Afghanistan. From 2008, as Shirazi, then working a TV and radio station in Kunduz, focussed on tales about home violence, ladies’s rights and their training, she and her husband began getting loss of life threats. In 2015, in the course of the 5 temporary days that Taliban entered Kunduz, her tv and radio station was destroyed, and stripped of all tools.

    Shirazi, who had fled to the Afghanistan capital on the time, determined to battle again. With funding assist from donors, and a principally ladies staff of 15, she restarted Roshani radio, broadcasting programmes from 6 am to 2 am, together with reside Q&As with listeners.

    In 2021, Shirazi, her husband and eight-year-old daughter had already left for Kabul when the Taliban took over Kunduz. “They were calling my husband repeatedly, asking us to return, saying that they would not harm us,” she mentioned. But this time, Shirazi mentioned, she knew there was no going again.

    “They always accused us of pushing an American agenda… There is no way to work as a journalist in Kunduz now,” Shirazi instructed The Indian Express from Canada, the place she is now attempting to begin life anew together with her household. Her feminine staff members have dispersed too, to Canada and Pakistan.

    The handful of males who have been in Shirazi’s staff are nonetheless working the radio station. “They have to go by the Taliban agenda. They have only Islamic programmes now,” she mentioned.

    According to a report by the International Federation of Journalists which companions with the Afghan National Journalists Union, within the speedy aftermath of the Taliban takeover, of 400 media organisations, over 160 have needed to shut down, of which practically 100 are radio stations. For these which can be open, the bottom guidelines of what can and can’t be broadcast are laid down by the brand new rulers. Two TV channels run by ladies for feminine audiences are amongst those who have shut down.

    From 2003 to 2021, as Afghanistan tried to search out its democratic centre at the same time as international forces and Taliban fought for management, aside from the training of girls, the explosion of media was one of many extra noticeable achievements. Many ladies joined journalism because it was thought of respectable work.

    Since final yr, with so many media homes now not useful, greater than 2,000 journalists are out of labor, 70 per cent of them ladies, based on surveys by journalist associations, amid draconian guidelines for ladies at work. Many of those ladies have been the one incomes members of their household. A focused assault in July 2021 in opposition to three ladies tv journalists, killing them on the spot, set the stage for ladies to stop their jobs en masse when the Taliban took over in August.

    There have been 120 detentions of journalists, 48 of them in Kabul alone. Newspapers are now not printed and have all gone on-line.

    “Afghans have no access to information on their own. We are mostly following our news through western media,” mentioned a journalist. “The national media is doing self-censorship and the Taliban are monitoring everything.”

    He mentioned that beneath the Constitution that was in operation till the Taliban took over, there was freedom of speech. “Based on that, there was a media law, and our own access to information law, and an oversight body to monitor access to information. It was the best in this region. But the Taliban scrapped all that as soon as they came. Now there is no law. Only a lot of restrictions,” the journalist mentioned.

    Hundreds of journalists have fled to neighbouring Pakistan, hoping to get a visa to any third nation from there, as most embassies in Kabul are nonetheless shut.

    Tolo News of the Moby group, Afghanistan’s most well-known channel, is likely one of the few media organisations that has stayed afloat. Khpolwak Sapai, director of the channel, mentioned it had not been stopped from doing any tales.

    “The Taliban have said they support free media with some conditions, such as not to do any stories against Islamic values, or national values. These can have wide interpretations, and it is creating a lot of confusion. We have conveyed to them that we need to have a media law, otherwise it will be difficult to define the boundaries,” mentioned Sapai.

    On the day of the Taliban takeover on August 15, 2021, Sapai recalled that he had no anchors within the studio by 4 pm as everybody had left in panic. For many of the day, the TV channel put out repackaged variations of yesterday’s information.

    “Around 3 pm, we learnt (President) Ashraf Ghani had left the country. I had to be every careful with my editorial decision because of the panic that had already taken over Kabul due to the presence of Taliban in the western part of the city, and the fear of armed criminals in Kabul,” mentioned Sapai, who studied journalism in Kabul University within the Sixties, and described the final 20 years as one of the best years for journalism in Afghanistan.

    A male presenter lastly agreed to return to workplace, and the station broke the information that the President had fled. The channel bought Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid to talk reside and reassure the people who it might be a peaceable transition and no legal components could be allowed to benefit from the confusion.

    But over the subsequent few days, Tolo misplaced 90 per cent of its workers as each female and male workers stop, a few of them to go overseas, some as a result of their members of the family didn’t enable them to go away dwelling. “As the only person here, I had to keep the channel on, and I had to hire new colleagues,” he mentioned.

    It was a chance to inject recent blood, Sapai mentioned. The channel has recruited extra ladies than it had earlier. It has 20 provincial correspondents, of whom eight are ladies, and 20 ladies in Kabul, working as reporters, presenters and camerapersons.

    Looking again, Sapai mentioned the primary few weeks beneath the Taliban have been maybe simpler. One Taliban spokesman even agreed to go on tv with girl presenter Beheshta Arghand, which Sapai mentioned had made him hopeful. The picture made waves internationally. But then the Taliban imposed a strict costume code, together with a face cowl for ladies presenters. For just a few days, Tolo’s male presenters additionally wore a face masks on air as a mark of protest.

    Waheeda Hassan, a reporter on the information channel who was employed in Tolo’s latest recruitment drive, mentioned she works to be able to inspire different ladies to do the identical. “The Taliban want to remove women from society. Going on television is a way to give the message that Afghan women still exist, and to give women the confidence that they can also come out of their homes,” Hassan mentioned.

    Still, mentioned Hassan, life had turn into unpredictable beneath the Taliban, particularly for ladies. Being a journalist who must be out and about, was to run the gauntlet on daily basis.

    “We don’t know what firmaan they are going to come up with next. If you are by yourself in a car, they ask where’s your mehram? If you are with a male colleague, how are you related to him? Each day, a different rule. One day, they might say a woman’s voice is not halal,” mentioned Hassan.

    “My family tells me it’s a dangerous job, they don’t want me to do this. But who will raise a voice for women if all women stay at home and become silent,” she mentioned.

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    At a provincial radio station, an revolutionary younger broadcaster, who didn’t wish to be recognized, mentioned she had discovered a approach to discuss ladies’s rights by invoking faith originally of every programme.

    Despite the fightback, the senior journalist mentioned Afghan journalism was now affected by a triple whammy — monetary insecurity, bodily safety, and lack of capability. “Many of the leaders in Afghan journalism have left the country. Those who are left behind are in panic, and are feeling demotivated,” he mentioned.

  • Now silent beneath Taliban, a Kabul cinema awaits its destiny

    The cool Nineteen Sixties-style traces of the Ariana Cinema’s marquee stand out over a traffic-clogged roundabout in downtown Kabul. For many years, the historic cinema has entertained Afghans and borne witness to Afghanistan’s wars, hopes and cultural shifts.
    Now the marquee is stripped of the posters of Bollywood films and American motion flicks that used to adorn it. The gates are closed.
    After recapturing energy three months in the past, the Taliban ordered the Ariana and different cinemas to cease working. The Islamic militant guerrillas-turned-rulers say they’ve but to resolve whether or not they are going to permit films in Afghanistan.
    Like the remainder of the nation, the Ariana is in a wierd limbo, ready to see how the Taliban will rule.
    Empty seats are seen contained in the Ariana Cinema in Kabul, Afghanistan on Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021. After seizing energy three months in the past, the Taliban ordered cinemas to cease working. (AP Photo)
    The cinema’s practically 20 staff, all males, nonetheless present up at work, logging of their attendance in hopes they are going to ultimately receives a commission. The landmark Ariana, one among solely 4 cinemas within the capital, is owned by the Kabul municipality, so its staff are authorities employees and stay on the payroll.
    The males whereas away the hours. They hand around in the deserted ticket sales space or stroll the Ariana’s curving corridors. Rows of plush purple seats sit in silent darkness.
    The Ariana’s director, Asita Ferdous, the primary girl within the publish, shouldn’t be even allowed to enter the cinema. The Taliban ordered feminine authorities staff to avoid their workplaces in order that they don’t combine with males, till they decide whether or not they are going to be allowed to work.
    Asita Ferdous sits inside her house in Kabul, Afghanistan on Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021. She is the director of the Ariana Cinema however shouldn’t be allowed to enter the cinema because the Taliban ordered feminine authorities staff to avoid their workplaces. (AP Photo)
    The 26-year-old Ferdous is a part of a post-2001 technology of younger Afghans decided to carve out a higher house for girls’s rights. The Taliban takeover has wrecked their hopes. Also a painter and sculptor, she now stays at house.
    “I spend time doing sketches, drawing, just to keep practicing,” she mentioned. “I can’t do exhibitions anymore.”
    During their earlier time in energy from 1996-2001, the Taliban imposed a radical interpretation of Islamic regulation forbidding girls from working or going to highschool — and even leaving house in lots of circumstances — and forcing males to develop beards and attend prayers. They banned music and different artwork, together with films and cinema.
    Under worldwide stress, the Taliban now say they’ve modified. But they’ve been imprecise about what they are going to or gained’t permit. That has put many Afghans’ lives — and livelihoods — on maintain.
    Staff members sit contained in the ticket workplace of the Ariana Cinema in Kabul, Afghanistan on Monday, Nov. 8, 2021. They nonetheless present up at work daily hoping they are going to ultimately receives a commission, regardless of the Taliban’s orders to cease working. (AP Photo)
    For the Ariana, it’s one other chapter in a tumultuous six-decade historical past.
    The Ariana opened in 1963. Its smooth structure mirrored the modernizing spirit that the then-ruling monarchy was attempting to convey to the deeply conventional nation.
    Kabul resident Ziba Niazai recalled going to the Ariana within the late Nineteen Eighties, through the rule of Soviet-backed President Najibullah, when there have been greater than 30 cinemas across the nation.
    For her, it was an entry to a unique world. She had simply married, and her new husband introduced her from their house village within the mountains to Kabul, the place he had a job within the Finance Ministry. She was alone in the home all day whereas he was on the workplace.
    But when he acquired off work, they typically went collectively to the Ariana for a Bollywood film.
    After years of communist rule, it was a extra secular period than current many years, not less than for a slender city elite.
    Gul Mohammed, who works as a number within the Ariana Cinema, poses for {a photograph} in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021. After seizing energy three months in the past, the Taliban ordered cinemas to cease working.(AP Photo)
    “We had no hijab at that time,” mentioned Niazai, now in her late 50s, referring to the headband. Many {couples} went to the cinema, and “there wasn’t even a separate section, you could sit wherever you wanted.”
    At the time, warfare raged throughout the nation as Najibullah’s authorities battled an American-backed coalition of warlords and Islamic militants. The mujahedeen toppled him in 1992. Then they turned on one another in a battle for energy that demolished Kabul and killed hundreds of individuals caught within the crossfire.
    The Ariana was closely broken, together with many of the surrounding neighborhood, within the frequent bombardments and gunbattles.
    It lay deserted in ruins for years, because the Taliban drove out the mujahedeen and took over Kabul in 1996. Whatever cinemas survived round Kabul have been shuttered.
    Rahmatullah Ezati performs again a movie roll within the projectionist room of the Ariana Cinema in Kabul, Afghanistan on Monday, Nov. 8, 2021. (AP Photo)
    The Ariana’s revival got here after the Taliban’s ouster within the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. The French authorities helped rebuild the cinema in 2004, a part of the flood of billions of {dollars} of worldwide support that tried to reshape Afghanistan over the following 20 years.
    With the Taliban gone, cinema noticed a brand new burst of recognition.
    Indian films have been at all times the largest draw on the Ariana, as have been motion films, notably these that includes Jean-Claude Van Damme, mentioned Abdul Malik Wahidi, in command of tickets. As Afghanistan’s home movie business revived, the Ariana performed the handful of Afghan films produced every year.
    They had three showings a day, ending within the mid-afternoon, at 50 afghanis a ticket — about 50 cents. Audiences have been overwhelmingly males. In Afghanistan’s conservative society, cinemas have been seen as a male house, and few girls attended.
    Abdul Malik Wahidi, who sells tickets at Ariana Cinema, browses via unsold tickets in Kabul, Afghanistan on Saturday, Nov. 6, 2021.
    Wahidi recalled how he and different staffers needed to preview all international movies to weed out these with scenes thought-about too racy — with {couples} kissing or girls displaying an excessive amount of pores and skin, for instance.
    Letting one thing slip via might convey the wrath of some movie-goers. Offended audiences have been recognized to hurl objects on the display, although it didn’t occur on the Ariana, Wahidi mentioned. He remembered one patron on the Ariana, outraged by a scene, storming out and shouting at him, “How can you show pornography?”
    Ferdous was appointed because the Ariana’s director simply over a 12 months in the past. She beforehand led the Kabul municipality’s Gender Equality division, the place she had labored to achieve equal pay for girls staff and set up girls as senior officers within the capital’s district police departments.
    When she got here to the Ariana, the male workers have been stunned, “but they have been very cooperative and have worked well with me.”
    She centered on making the cinema extra welcoming to girls. They devoted one facet of the auditorium for {couples} and households the place girls might sit. Those coming into the cinema needed to be patted down by guards as a safety measure, and Ferdous introduced in a feminine guard so girls patrons would really feel extra snug.
    Rahmatullah Ezati seems to be out to the theatre of the Ariana Cinema from the projection room in Kabul, Afghanistan on Saturday, Nov. 6, 2021. (AP Photo)
    Couples started coming repeatedly, she mentioned. In March 2021, the cinema hosted a pageant of Afghan movies that proved highly regarded, attended by Afghan actors who held talks with the audiences.
    Now it has all been dropped at a halt, and the Ariana’s workers is left not figuring out their destiny. The male staff have acquired a part of their salaries because the Taliban takeover. Ferdous mentioned she has acquired no wage in any respect.
    “It is women who suffer the most. Women are just asking for their right to work,” she mentioned. “If they are not allowed, their economic situation will only get worse.”
    A workers member walks within the hallways of the Ariana Cinema on Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021. The cinema’s workers nonetheless present up at work daily hoping they are going to ultimately receives a commission, regardless of the Taliban’s orders to cease working. (AP Photo)
    Inanullah Amany, the final director of the Kabul Municipality’s cultural division, mentioned that if the Taliban do ban films, the Ariana’s staff may very well be transferred to different municipal jobs. Or they may very well be dismissed.
    The workers mentioned they couldn’t even guess what the Taliban will resolve, however none held out a lot hope they might permit films.
    That can be a loss, mentioned Rahmatullah Ezati, the Ariana’s chief projectionist.
    “If a country doesn’t have cinema, then there’s no culture. Through cinema, we’ve seen other countries like Europe, U.S. and India.”

  • Taliban says US will present humanitarian support to Afghanistan

    The US has agreed to supply humanitarian support to a desperately poor Afghanistan getting ready to an financial catastrophe, whereas refusing to provide political recognition to the nation’s new Taliban rulers, the Taliban stated.
    The assertion got here on the finish of the primary direct talks between the previous foes because the chaotic withdrawal of US troops on the finish of August.
    The US assertion was much less definitive, saying solely that the 2 sides “discussed the United States’ provision of robust humanitarian assistance, directly to the Afghan people.” The Taliban stated on Sunday that the talks held in Doha, Qatar, “went well,” with Washington releasing up humanitarian support to Afghanistan after agreeing to not hyperlink such help to formal recognition of the Taliban.

    The United States made it clear that the talks had been by no means a preamble to recognition of the Taliban, who swept into energy Aug. 15 after the US-allied authorities collapsed.
    State Department spokesman Ned Price referred to as the discussions “candid and professional,” with the US facet reiterating that the Taliban will probably be judged on their actions, not solely their phrases.
    “The US delegation focused on security and terrorism concerns and safe passage for US citizens, other foreign nationals and our Afghan partners, as well as on human rights, including the meaningful participation of women and girls in all aspects of Afghan society,” he stated in an announcement.
    Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen additionally informed The Associated Press that the motion’s interim international minister assured the US throughout the talks that the Taliban are dedicated to seeing that Afghan soil is just not utilized by extremists to launch assaults towards different nations.
    On Saturday, nevertheless, the Taliban dominated out cooperation with Washington on containing the more and more energetic Islamic State group in Afghanistan.
    IS, an enemy of the Taliban, has claimed duty for a variety of current assaults, together with Friday’s suicide bombing that killed 46 minority Shiite Muslims. Washington considers IS its best terrorist risk emanating from Afghanistan.
    “We are able to tackle Daesh independently,” Shaheen stated when requested whether or not the Taliban would work with the US to include the Islamic State affiliate. He used an Arabic acronym for IS.
    Bill Roggio, a senior fellow on the Foundation for Defense of Democracies who tracks militant teams, agreed the Taliban don’t want Washington’s assist to search out and destroy Afghanistan’s IS affiliate, generally known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province, or ISKP.
    The Taliban “fought 20 years to eject the US, and the last thing it needs is the return of the US. It also doesn’t need US help,” stated Roggio, who additionally produces the muse’s Long War Journal. “The Taliban has to conduct the difficult and time-consuming task of rooting out ISKP cells and its limited infrastructure. It has all the knowledge and tools it needs to do it.” The IS affiliate doesn’t have the benefit of protected havens in Pakistan and Iran that the Taliban had in its battle towards the United States, Roggio stated. However, he warned that the Taliban’s longtime help for al-Qaida make them unreliable as counterterrorism companions with the United States.
    The Taliban gave refuge to al-Qaida earlier than it carried out the 9/11 assaults. That prompted the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan that drove the Taliban from energy.
    “It is insane for the US to think the Taliban can be a reliable counterterrorism partner, given the Taliban’s enduring support for al-Qaida,” Roggio stated.
    During the assembly, US officers had been anticipated to press the Taliban to permit Americans and others to go away Afghanistan. In their assertion, the Taliban stated with out elaborating that they might “facilitate principled movement of foreign nationals.”

  • Afghanistan Taliban highlights right this moment: Taliban appointments add to all-male authorities group

    Afghanistan Taliban Crisis LIVE Updates: The Taliban have doubled down on their hard-line trajectory in a 3rd spherical of Afghanistan authorities appointments that encompassed a number of males named to deputy positions.
    Among the brand new appointments was a political deputy for the prime minister, deputy ministers, and deputy head of the Afghan Red Crescent Society. Most of the positions consisted of military and protection ministry commanders and deputies throughout Afghanistan’s provinces together with Kabul, Helmand, Herat and Kandahar.
    Here are extra updates:
    Taliban appointments add to all-male Afghan authorities group
    The Taliban doubled down on their hard-line trajectory Monday in a 3rd spherical of Afghanistan authorities appointments that encompassed a number of males named to deputy positions, a spokesman mentioned. None of the 38 new appointments introduced by chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid included ladies. They had been comprised of members drawn completely from the Taliban with little illustration of minority teams. Also included had been postings to humanitarian organisations.
    US resumes Afghan refugee flights after measles photographs
    Afghan refugees will quickly be arriving once more within the US after an enormous marketing campaign to vaccinate them in opposition to measles following a small outbreak that brought about a three-week pause in evacuations, officers mentioned Monday. The measles outbreak, detected in 24 individuals, had placed on maintain one of many largest refugee resettlement efforts in US historical past, dubbed Operation Allies Welcome. It additionally stranded about 15,000 at abroad transit factors.

  • Afghanistan Taliban highlights right this moment: Legislation in US Senate seeks report on Pakistan’s function in Taliban offensive

    Afghanistan Taliban Crisis LIVE Updates: A laws has been launched within the US Senate in search of a report from the Secretary of State about his evaluation of Pakistan’s function within the Taliban offensive that led to the toppling of the US-backed Afghan authorities and its help for Taliban offensive in Panjshir Valley, prompting Islamabad to time period the transfer as “unwarranted”.
    The ‘Afghanistan Counterterrorism, Oversight and Accountability Act’ seeks a report from the Secretary of State about his evaluation of Pakistan’s function in supporting the Taliban from 2001-2020; within the offensive that led to the toppling of the Government of Afghanistan and the trying into the Pakistan help for Taliban offensive towards Panjshir Valley and Afghan resistance.
    Here are extra updates:

    Pentagon management needs to debate ISI’s ties with Taliban inside closed doorways
    US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin together with two of his prime generals have informed Senators that the ties that Pakistan and its spy company ISI have with the Taliban can solely be mentioned inside closed doorways. In the general public area they’ll solely say that the connection between the 2 goes to grow to be more and more advanced publish withdrawal.
    “An in-depth conversation about Pakistan probably would be better suited in a closed hearing here so,” Austin informed members of the Senate Armed Services Committee when Senators requested pointed questions on latest information reviews of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the intelligence wing of Pakistan Army, and its ties with the Taliban. (PTI)
    Afghan collapse rooted in 2020 take care of Taliban, says US normal
    Senior Pentagon officers stated Wednesday the collapse of the Afghan authorities and its safety forces in August might be traced to a 2020 US settlement with the Taliban that promised a whole US troop withdrawal.
    Gen. Frank McKenzie, the pinnacle of Central Command, informed the House Armed Services Committee that when the US troop presence was pushed under 2,500 as a part of President Joe Biden’s choice in April to finish a complete withdrawal by September, the unraveling of the US-backed Afghan authorities accelerated. “The signing of the Doha agreement had a really pernicious effect on the government of Afghanistan and on its military — psychological more than anything else, but we set a date-certain for when we were going to leave and when they could expect all assistance to end,” McKenzie stated.
     
     
     

  • Taliban appoint hardline battlefield commanders to key Afghan posts

    Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers introduced a number of senior appointments on Tuesday, naming two veteran battlefield commanders from the motion’s southern heartlands as deputies in necessary ministries.
    Main Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid mentioned Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir will likely be deputy defence minister, whereas Sadr Ibrahim was named deputy minister for the inside. Both males had been anticipated to take main positions within the new authorities however neither was named in the principle checklist of ministers introduced this month.
    The two have been recognized in U.N. experiences as being amongst battlefield commanders loyal to the previous Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour who have been urgent the management to step up the battle towards the Western-backed authorities.

    The appointments add to the roster of hardliners in the principle group of ministers, which included figures like Sirajuddin Haqqani, head of the militant Haqqani community, blamed for a string of assaults on civilian targets.
    But the appointments additionally seem to replicate concern throughout the Taliban to safe unity by balancing the regional and private variations which have surfaced because the motion transitions from a wartime guerrilla drive to a peacetime administration.
    According to a U.N. Security Council report from June, each Zakir and Sadr commanded vital forces of their very own, referred to as mahaz, that historically operated throughout a number of provinces.

    They have been thought of so highly effective and unbiased that there have been considerations throughout the management that this might stoke rigidity over the loyalties of sure teams, notably within the south and southwest of the nation.

    Zakir, a former detainee within the U.S. navy jail at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, was a detailed affiliate of late Taliban founder Mullah Omar. He was captured when U.S.-led forces swept by way of in Afghanistan in 2001 and was incarcerated in Guantanamo till 2007, in keeping with media experiences.
    He was launched and handed over to the Afghan authorities and was broadly tipped to turn out to be defence minister within the new authorities earlier than Mullah Omar’s son, Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, was appointed to the publish.
    Sadr, a former head of the Taliban navy fee from the southern province of Helmand, will likely be deputy to Sirajuddin Haqqani, whose household comes from the japanese borderlands with Pakistan.

  • Taliban says US drone strike in Kabul additionally killed civilians

    A Taliban spokesman mentioned a US drone strike concentrating on a suspected suicide bomber in Kabul on Sunday resulted in civilian casualties, and condemned the United States for failing to tell the Taliban earlier than ordering the strike.
    Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid informed China’s state tv CGTN on Monday that seven folks have been killed within the drone assault, describing the US motion on overseas soil as illegal.
    “If there was any potential threat in Afghanistan, it should have been reported to us, not an arbitrary attack that has resulted in civilian casualties,” Mujahid mentioned in a written response to CGTN.

    Pentagon officers mentioned the suicide automobile bomber had been making ready to assault the airport in Kabul, the place US troops have been within the last phases of a withdrawal from Afghanistan, on behalf of ISIS-Okay, an area affiliate of Islamic State that’s an enemy of each the West and the Taliban.
    US Central Command mentioned it was investigating reviews of civilian casualties from Sunday’s drone strike.

    “We know that there were substantial and powerful subsequent explosions resulting from the destruction of the vehicle, indicating a large amount of explosive material inside that may have caused additional casualties,” it mentioned.
    Mujahid had issued an identical condemnation of a US drone strike on Saturday that killed two Islamic State militants within the jap province of Nangarhar. He mentioned two ladies and a toddler have been wounded in that assault.

  • First outreach sign: UNSC drops Taliban reference in line on terror

    LESS than two weeks because the Taliban captured energy in Afghanistan, the United Nations Security Council has dropped a reference to it from a paragraph in its assertion that referred to as on Afghan teams to not assist terrorists “operating on the territory of any other country”.
    India, which is the President of the UNSC for the month of August, signed off on the assertion and issued it in its capability because the chair for this month.
    Essentially, that is the primary sign by the worldwide neighborhood that the Taliban might not be a world outcaste.
    On August 16, a day after Taliban’s takeover of Kabul, the Permanent Representative of India on the UN, T S Tirumurti, issued an announcement on behalf of the UNSC, which included this para: “The members of the Security Council reaffirmed the importance of combating terrorism in Afghanistan to ensure the territory of Afghanistan should not be used to threaten or attack any country, and that neither the Taliban nor any other Afghan group or individual should support terrorists operating on the territory of any other country.”
    On August 27, a day after the Kabul airport bombings that killed greater than 100 individuals together with 12 US troops, Tirumurti — once more as President of UNSC, and on behalf of the Council — issued an announcement that condemned the “deplorable attacks”.
    However, the August 16 para was reproduced on this assertion with one telling change: “The members of the Security Council reiterated the importance of combating terrorism in Afghanistan to ensure the territory of Afghanistan should not be used to threaten or attack any country, and that no Afghan group or individual should support terrorists operating on the territory of any country.”
    The reference to the Taliban was omitted indicating that the Taliban was maybe being seen as a state actor by the UNSC members, together with India.
    Former India’s Permanent Representative to India on the UN, Syed Akbaruddin, who pointed this out on Twitter, mentioned, “In diplomacy…a fortnight is a long time…The ‘T’ word is gone.”
    Officials mentioned that the choice to log off on the assertion has been taken in view of fixing “ground realities”. The Taliban has been answerable for a lot of the evacuation of foreigners and Afghans-at-risk.
    While the US says it has evacuated greater than 1 lakh individuals since August 15, the complete Indian Embassy was evacuated on August 17 — a day after the primary UNSC assertion was issued.

    According to information shared by the federal government, 565 individuals have been evacuated to this point: 175 Embassy personnel, 263 different Indian nationals, 112 Afghan nationals together with Hindus and Sikhs, and 15 third-country nationals.
    This, officers right here consider, together with the secure passage to these being airlifted wouldn’t have been attainable had the Taliban not cooperated.
    Officials mentioned that whereas India hasn’t engaged with the Taliban within the method as different UNSC members have, signing off on this assertion is a sign that opens up the likelihood to interact with the hardline group.
    The August 27 assertion had sturdy phrases on terror however didn’t maintain the Taliban accountable.
    “The attacks, which were claimed by Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP), an entity affiliated with Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh), resulted in the death and injuries of dozens of civilians, including children, and military personnel,” the assertion mentioned. It added: “The members of the Security Council reaffirmed that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security. Deliberately targeting civilians and personnel assisting in the evacuation of civilians is especially abhorrent and must be condemned.”

    Sources mentioned the assertion places India’s issues on terrorism on the frontburner: “The members of the Security Council underlined the need to hold perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice. They urged all States, in accordance with their obligations under international law and relevant Security Council resolutions, to cooperate actively with all relevant authorities in this regard.”

  • The right-wingers who admire the Taliban

    As the Taliban swept by Afghanistan this month, a Gen Z alt-right group ran a Twitter account dedicated to celebrating their progress. Tweets in Pashto juxtaposed two laughing Taliban fighters with photos meant to signify American effeminacy. Another mentioned, the phrases auto-translated into English, “Liberalism did not fail in Afghanistan because it was Afghanistan, it failed because it was not true. It failed America, Europe and the world see it.”
    The account, now suspended, was only one instance of the open admiration for the Taliban that’s developed inside elements of the American proper. The influential younger white supremacist Nick Fuentes — an ally of Arizona Republican congressman Paul Gosar’s and anti-immigrant pundit Michelle Malkin’s — wrote on the encrypted app Telegram: “The Taliban is a conservative, religious force, the U.S. is godless and liberal. The defeat of the U.S. government in Afghanistan is unequivocally a positive development.” An account linked to the Proud Boys expressed respect for the best way the Taliban “took back their national religion as law, and executed dissenters.”
    “The far right, the alt-right, are all sort of galvanized by the Taliban essentially running roughshod through Afghanistan, and us leaving underneath a Democratic president,” mentioned Moustafa Ayad, govt director for Africa, the Middle East and Asia on the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a assume tank dedicated to countering violent extremism. They’re Afghanistan, he mentioned, “from a standpoint of us getting ‘owned,’ in the parlance of the internet.”
    This will not be the primary time that right-wing American extremists have been impressed by Muslim militants; a number of white supremacists lauded al-Qaida’s assaults on Sept. 11. The distinction now’s that the far proper has grown, and the space between the kind of right-wingers who cheer for the Taliban and conservative energy facilities has shrunk.
    Florida Republican Matt Gaetz could also be a clown, however he’s additionally a congressman who was near the earlier president. On Twitter this month, Gaetz described the Taliban, like Trump, as “more legitimate than the last government in Afghanistan or the current government here.”
    Twenty years in the past, within the aftermath of Sept. 11, the United States launched into a battle that might, in time, promote itself as a battle for democracy. Back then, liberal democracy was virtually universally honored in America, which is one purpose we had the hubris to assume we may export it by drive. Many, particularly on the fitting, nervous concerning the risk that jihadism posed to a contemporary, open society. The tragic journey of the previous 20 years started with the loudest voices on the fitting braying for battle with Islamism and ended with a right-wing vanguard envying it.
    At least earlier than Thursday’s devastating terrorist assaults, there was a subtler type of satisfaction with the Taliban’s takeover amongst extra respectable nationalist conservatives. They don’t sympathize with barbarism however had been happy to see liberal internationalism lose. “The humiliation of Afghanistan will have been worth it if it pries the old paradigm loose and lets new thoughts in,” Yoram Hazony, an influential nationalist mental whose conferences function figures similar to Josh Hawley and Peter Thiel, tweeted this month.
    What outdated paradigm? Well, a number of days later, he tweeted, “What went wrong in Iraq and Afghanistan was, first and foremost, the ideas in the heads of the people running the show. Say its name: Liberalism.”
    Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, a very powerful nationalist voice in America, appeared to sympathize with the gender politics of Taliban-supporting Afghans. “They don’t hate their own masculinity,” he mentioned shortly after the autumn of Kabul. “They don’t think it’s toxic. They like the patriarchy. Some of their women like it too. So now they’re getting it all back. So maybe it’s possible that we failed in Afghanistan because the entire neoliberal program is grotesque.” (By “neoliberalism,” he appears to imply social liberalism, not austerity economics.)
    It seems that when the federal government deceptively invokes liberal democracy to justify a battle, liberal democracy may be discredited by a grueling defeat. In his new ebook, “Reign of Terror,” nationwide safety journalist Spencer Ackerman attracts a direct line between our stalemated post-9/11 wars and the rise of Donald Trump. “Trump was able to safely voice the reality of the war by articulating what about it most offended right-wing exceptionalists: humiliation,” he wrote.
    Humiliation is a risky emotion. Many have written about its position in motivating al-Qaida. Perhaps it’s not stunning that elements of the fitting would reply to humiliation by figuring out with photographs of brutal masculinity.
    Some of this identification would possibly simply be for shock worth; the alt-right is adept at utilizing irony to occlude its intentions. But a few of it’s lethal earnest.

    “We’ve come across a lot of content that’s US-based extreme far-right websites saying how good the Taliban victory is, and why it’s good for their cause,” mentioned Adam Hadley, director of Tech Against Terrorism, a U.N.-supported venture that screens extremists on-line. One neo-Nazi web site has a tract hailing the Taliban victory partly for displaying {that a} small band of armed fundamentalists can defeat the American empire.
    As for the remainder of the pro-Taliban proper, the Proud Boys and incels and MAGA splinter factions, a few of them are in all probability simply trolling. But as teams similar to QAnon and the civil war-hungry Boogaloo Bois present, a motion can appear absurd and nonetheless be a supply of actual radicalization. “The classic response to any of this is, ‘Ah, they’re just a fringe group,’ and then when that metastasizes, a lot of people eat their words,” mentioned Ayad.
    If there’s one lesson of latest American historical past, it’s that there’s no such factor as one thing too ridiculous to be harmful.