By Frud Bezhan Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty September 16, 2020 The Taliban’s burgeoning financial might could make the militant group immune to pressure from the international community as it negotiates a role in postwar Afghanistan, according to a confidential report commissioned by NATO and obtained by RFE/RL. The Taliban “has achieved, or is close to achieving,
By Ayaz Gul VOA News September 14, 2020 ISLAMABAD – America’s peace envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, visited Pakistan on Monday and conveyed Washington’s gratitude for the “important role” Islamabad has played in easing the start of reconciliation talks between warring Afghan parties, officials said. The historic, intra-Afghan negotiations began last Saturday in Doha, Qatar, where
By Frud Bezhan Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty September 10, 2020 Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai spent years lying low in Pakistan’s southwestern city of Quetta, where the Afghan Taliban leadership has been based since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 toppled the extremist group from power in neighboring Afghanistan. A hard-line cleric, Ishaqzai until recently ran an Islamic madrasah,
By Roshan Noorzai VOA News August 28, 2020 WASHINGTON – As Afghanistan’s warring sides prepare to hold long-awaited negotiations next week to establish peace, Pakistan is trying to push the Taliban to come to the table in a move that experts say is an attempt by Islamabad to increase its influence in postwar Afghanistan and counter
Ayaz Gul VOA News August 26, 2020 ISLAMABAD – Pakistan said Tuesday it was “hopeful” about prospects of U.S.-backed peace talks between Afghanistan’s warring parties to end the country’s long conflict. The optimism stemmed from a meeting Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi held Tuesday with a visiting Afghan Taliban delegation led by the insurgent
RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal August 24, 2020 A Taliban political team arrived in Pakistan on August 24 amid ongoing efforts to start negotiations between the Afghan government and the militants. The talks, envisaged under a landmark peace agreement signed in February between Washington and the Taliban, had been expected to start earlier this month but were stymied by
Tolo News: Government forces in border areas of the country said foreign fighters, particularly Pakistani citizens, are fighting against them with the Taliban, adding that they have found many dead fighters with Pakistani identity cards. Click here to read more (external link). More on the Taliban Key Taliban commander arrested in outlying area of Kabul
Ayaz Gul VOA News August 18, 2020 ISLAMABAD – An alliance of militant groups waging attacks in Pakistan has said several breakaway and new factions have rejoined its ranks in an effort to consolidate their violent campaign, a move critics warned could threaten the country’s counterterrorism gains. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), commonly referred to as the Pakistani Taliban, announced on
ANI: Pakistan continues to focus on countering Indian influence in Afghanistan and harbours the Taliban and groups such as the Haqqani Network, which have the ability to engage in violence on Afghan soil, according to a new Pentagon report. Click here to read more (external link).
Frud Bezhan Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty March 23, 2020 In the mid-1990s, U.S. oil company Unocal attempted to secure a gas-pipeline deal with the Taliban, which had seized control of the Afghan capital, Kabul, after a devastating civil war. It was the United States’ first attempt to forge a partnership with the fundamentalist Taliban regime,