Washington Examiner: American taxpayers have spent more than $1 billion in Afghanistan since the botched withdrawal, yet the Biden administration is refusing to give an accounting of the funds to a government watchdog. Specifically, SIGAR said it wanted information on the collapse of the Afghan government, risks to the population, U.S. compliance on prohibiting the
Ariana: Hekmatyar said that the sides have already started talks and achieved some progress. Limiting airstrikes, printing of new afghani banknotes and increasing cash aid are likely to be part of the agreement between the two sides. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: A member of the Afghanistan Trust Fund, Shah Mohammad Mehrabi, said that the Polish Security Printing Works (PWPW) is due to deliver new Afghani banknotes to Afghanistan within one month. This comes as a spokesman for the US Department of State, Ned Price, said at a press conference that the US and its
Tolo News: He made the remarks while speaking about the Afghan frozen funds in a Zoom conference. “So I am very pleased to say that in the past 24 hours, we finally have seen the conclusion of currency transaction… this will mean that new printed Afghani will replace banknotes that … are virtually disintegrating in
Al Jazeera: The United States has assured Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers that Washington will not fund any armed groups or non-state actors in the country, Taliban sources have told Al Jazeera. The assurances were welcomed by the Taliban as Tajik armed groups, which have been backed by the West in the past, continue to challenge the
Daily Beast: “Noorzai isn’t the first drug smuggler the US [had] released; about 50 other drug traffickers were released after the Doha deal, but he is certainly the most prominent,” the official said. “All of them [released prisoners] have gone back to their narcotic business again, as will Noorzai. The Taliban continue to depend on
8am: Taliban officials have called the release of Haji Bashir Ahmad Noorzai, known as Haji Bashar, as a sign of American goodwill and a “new chapter in the relations” between the Taliban and the United States. Haji Bashar is known in the media and political circles as the godfather of Afghanistan’s drug mafia. It is
NPR: Yaqoob is part of the second generation of Taliban leadership. He is a son of Mullah Muhammad Omar, the cleric who led the Taliban during their first time in power from 1996-2001. Asked if he wanted better relations with the United States, Yaqoob laughed. “This is obvious,” he said, adding that recognition of the
Ariana: US and Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) [Taliban] officials have exchanged proposals for the release of billions of dollars from Afghan central bank reserves held abroad into a trust fund, three sources familiar with the talks told Reuters. Some $9 billion in reserves have been held outside Afghanistan, including $7 billion in the US.
Ariana: In a discussion released on Saturday by US-based investment bank and financial services company Goldman Sachs, Khalilzad said that parts of the US deal with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) have not been implemented. “Parts of it were implemented, parts are not,” Khalilzad said. “We need to go back and tell the Talibs