8am: Mr. Khalilzad says there is a need to negotiate to form a government in Afghanistan and adopt a formula to avoid the mistakes of the past 40 years. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said Sunday that Chinese companies have been scouting ways to access Afghanistan’s lithium and copper mines. According to SIGAR’s tweet, “Afghanistan’s lithium deposits could be among the largest in the world, rivaling those of Bolivia.” Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: Pakistan has recently cleared a legal mechanism to provide barter trade with Iran and Afghanistan as the former is under US sanctions and the latter’s bank’s reserves have been frozen by the US. Pakistan’s Dawn News reported on Friday that the decision was taken by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet
Ayaz Gul VOA News February 21, 2022 Afghanistan’s Taliban Monday strongly defended their government against fresh criticism by the United States that the male-only leadership in Kabul is “dominated by one ethnicity” and lacks inclusivity. “This is invalid and we reject it,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told VOA when asked for his reaction to the
8am: The US Department of State has announced that it has authorized the Cultural Property Advisory Committee (CPAC) to prevent the looting and smuggling of archaeological and ethnographic materials. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: The Afghan ambassador in Washington has stepped down from her post, a senior official at the embassy said, calling the new restrictions imposed by the US Department of State on the embassy the reason for her resignation. Adela Raz is the third senior Afghan diplomat who stepped down from her position within the
8am: The United States aims to open a new center in Northern Virginia to receive additional Afghan evacuees, Reuters reported. The center is scheduled to open as the government closes down the last of eight sites on military bases that have contained tens of thousands of people evacuated from Afghanistan since August. Click here to
Tolo News: The US special envoy for Afghanistan, Thomas West said at an event on Monday that Washington is not backing “organized armed opposition” to the Islamic Emirate and that it would “discourage other powers from doing so as well.” Click here to read more (external link).
Jeff Seldin VOA News February 15, 2022 WASHINGTON — Despite lingering concerns among some officials in Washington that Afghanistan is on its way to once again becoming a terrorist haven, recent U.S. defense and intelligence assessments seem to indicate that at least for now, groups like Islamic State and al-Qaida are not ready to use the
Michael Hughes: The U.S. government has violated several commitments outlined in the Doha accords including promises to cooperate with the Taliban on reconstruction efforts, Acting Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said in an interview. The comments come as donor states struggle with a no-win situation in facing current distribution requirements in Afghanistan, which include: