Ariana: Anas Haqqani said this week that the Haqqani Network never existed and that when he was arrested in Qatar, he had been a harmless student on holiday. In 2014, when he was 20, Haqqani was arrested in Qatar, tried in Kabul and sentenced to death. According information obtained by Der Spiegel, the only reason
Michael Hughes: Islamabad had waited patiently for more than two decades for the Taliban to recapture Kabul and ensure Afghanistan would serve as “strategic depth” if Pakistan needed territory and resources in a war against India. The Pakistanis assumed the Taliban regime would take a hostile posture toward New Delhi, especially given India’s past support
By Abubakar Siddique Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty June 2, 2022 During its nearly 20-year insurgency, the Taliban remained a largely coherent fighting force despite succession crises, competition from Islamic State-Khorasan, and a deadly war against foreign and Afghan forces. But as the Taliban has attempted to transform from a guerrilla force into a functional government after
Ayaz Gul VOA News May 30, 2022 ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s direct peace talks with an outlawed alliance of insurgent groups, being mediated and hosted by Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers, have reportedly made progress, with both sides agreeing to pause the process for internal deliberations and return to the negotiating table by mid-June. The several days of discussions
Foreign Affairs: For the last two decades, conventional wisdom in Pakistan held that an Afghanistan ruled by the Taliban would be a boon to Pakistan’s security. Islamabad has long supported the Taliban with the understanding that the militants could help deny India—which many Pakistani officials see as an existential threat—any influence in Afghanistan. But since
Michael Hughes AOPNEWS May 21, 2022 Although intense infighting has complicated Taliban efforts to quash the resistance in northern Afghanistan, the fragmented opposition will be hard-pressed to expand nationwide without more external assistance, especially as Pakistan steps up support for the radical movement, experts told Afghan Online Press. The Taliban 2.0, in power now for
Fair Observer: Two rival theological notions of leadership within the Taliban pose equal threats to Afghanistan and to global peace. The Kandahari-led Taliban are orthodox Hanafi Muslims with a tribal mentality whose ultimate aim is to establish an Islamic state in Afghanistan, dominated and governed by Pashtuns. The Haqqani group, on the other hand, follow
VOA News May 18, 2022 He regularly meets foreign diplomats and speaks in public but is also the FBI’s most wanted man in Afghanistan. Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban’s acting interior minister, even appeared on CNN on Tuesday with a conciliatory message for Americans. “In the future, we would like to have good relations with the
In an exclusive interview, Taliban dep. leader & Afghan Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani indicates reopening of girls’ secondary schools depends on dress codes: “We must establish the conditions, so that we can ensure their honor and security. We are acting to ensure this.” pic.twitter.com/yxuuV4oXrU — Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) May 16, 2022 Ayaz Gul VOA News
Jason Criss Howk: This week I spoke with numerous anti-Taliban groups about their approaches to liberating Afghanistan from the Haqqani-Taliban terror regime. The echoes of Fall 2001 are easy to see, but will these efforts come to fruition? That most likely depends on two major factors. First, can the Afghans unite and build a nationwide