8am: The purpose of this short piece is to challenge these deceptive and populist portrayals and to encourage my fellow citizens not to accept or internalize these misleading narratives. In what follows, I aim to dissect the Taliban’s security claims and untangle the knots of misinformation that have clouded public understanding. Click here to read
Japan Times: Pakistan’s relationship with Afghanistan has become strategic quicksand. So deep is the quagmire that, under growing public pressure, segments of Pakistan’s government have suggested turning to the United States for assistance and even offering drone bases to the US to target militants in Afghanistan. The idea that sophisticated US drones and other weapons
8am: Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban’s foreign minister, recently voiced his opposition to “intra-Afghan” negotiations, stating that the group has no desire to repeat what he called a “bitter experience.” Yet, in the same breath, he affirmed that “Afghanistan is the shared home of all Afghans.” If that is true, why can Afghans not engage
The Spectator: This month Pakistan has expelled more than 80,000 Afghans in what the government has labelled its Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan. In total, since September 2023 the United Nations estimates that approximately 910,000 Afghans have reluctantly returned to their country. Many of these are holders of Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC), which were given to
Michael Hughes: As relations between Iran and Afghanistan grow warmer, the U.S. has put efforts to boost ties with the Taliban into overdrive. The FBI removed Haqqani Network bounties and diplomatic rapprochement is in full swing. Ex-envoy Zalmay Khalilzad is suddenly back on the scene – no doubt in a bid to ensure the radical
Fazelminallah Qazizai via News Line Mag: The caption identified him as Afghan national Mohammad Sharifullah (also known as Jafar), arrested in Pakistan and handed over to the U.S. as a “top terrorist” mastermind behind the August 2021 Kabul airport bombing that killed more than 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. troops. But here, in the alleys
Michael Hughes: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif admitted Pakistan’s ties to the Afghan Taliban have come back to haunt Islamabad. Although, for many, this is like saying the sky is blue, it is quite a development when such a statement emanates from a Pakistani official. The timing of the admission, of course, is too little, too
Michael Hughes: Trump 2.0 and Taliban 2.0 were likely destined to clash, but who knew the unlikely bedfellows would kill their marriage within weeks of the Dealmaker-In-Chief reentering the Oval Office. We knew Trump would go after the $7 billion in military aid the U.S. left behind in Afghanistan, but less foreseeable was the radical
8am: In recent months, the Taliban regime has intensified its crackdown on dissenting clerics. These clerics have protested against the monopolization of power by the Kandahari faction of the Taliban and have called for the formation of an “inclusive government” a demand that has been repeatedly voiced over the past three and a half years
Michael Hughes: According to realist theorist Hans Morgenthau, all politics is a struggle for power – a theory based on the darkest views of human nature; and one that is, unfortunately, applicable to the state of politics in most capitals worldwide. The power struggles do not only occur between reigning and opposition factions. Those who