Khaama: On Thursday morning, residents of Afghanistan’s western Herat province were abruptly shaken awake as yet another earthquake, measuring 4.1 on the Richter scale, struck, further amplifying their apprehensions and highlighting the ongoing seismic challenges faced by the region. The epicentre of this recent seismic event was pinpointed in the Qara Bagh area, situated approximately 30 kilometres away from Herat City, the provincial capital. Click here to read more (external link).
Related
Ariana: Ahmad Vahid, the Minister of Interior of Iran, said on Wednesday that illegal Afghan immigrants should leave Iran. “We organize those who are legal and have visas,” Ahmad Vahidi added. He also said that creating differences between Iranians and Afghan immigrants is the work of hypocrites. “Iran helped these people and gave them facilities so that their students could go to schools. But some people are trying to turn the good relations between the people of the two countries into a challenge, and this is definitely the design of the enemies of the two countries,” he said, but did not actually name any country. Click here to read more (external link).
Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada
Akmal Dawi
VOA News
October 18, 2023
Amid heightened tensions in the Middle East, the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, has been notably quiet on the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza — in sharp contrast to the fervent, daily anti-Israel comments from neighboring Iran.
While Akhundzada has no public-facing digital accounts, his edicts and statements often reverberate across the Taliban’s online platforms via other channels.
Akhundzada’s second in command, Mullah Mohammad Hassan, and his trio of deputies have also been reticent. The only senior Taliban official who has broken the silence so far is Sirajuddin Haqqani, the acting interior minister, who remains on the United States’ most-wanted list with a $10 million reward offered for information leading to his arrest.
“We do not interfere in others’ internal affairs,” Haqqani said in terse remarks at an event last week, “but we have faith-based sympathy with Muslims.”
‘Comparable’ messaging
Last week, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s chief spokesperson, issued a statement in condemnation of Israel’s besieging of Gaza while calling on the international community to address the crisis.
“Official messaging from the Taliban has been comparable to what we’ve seen from other Muslim countries, with expressions of solidarity and support for the Palestinians,” Michael Kugelman, an expert at the Wilson Center, told VOA.
According to Javid Ahmad, a former Afghan ambassador and a fellow at the Atlantic Council, the Taliban’s public comments, while sparse, are calculated to show support for the Palestinians alone, as the group has no formal diplomatic ties with Hamas.
“Senior Taliban figures evidently expect neighboring Arab countries to step up and find a solution to end the violence, rather than relying on non-Arab states to intervene,” Ahmad told VOA.
This measured approach from a regime that boasts divine support in defeating a superpower and its NATO allies may be surprising for some.
A day after Hamas attacked Israel, Michael McCaul, chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he had seen “indications that the Taliban want to come to ‘liberate Jerusalem,’ in their words, to “fight the Zionists.”
The Taliban rejected the allegations.
Some Afghans have criticized the Taliban’s largely muted response. Ata Mohammad Noor, a former Afghan governor and a known anti-Taliban militia leader, posted an audio file Tuesday on X, formerly Twitter, calling on the Taliban to speak out in defense of Gaza.
Titled “Message of a sister from Palestine to the people of Afghanistan,” the audio clip runs Dari texts over the voice of a female speaking in Arabic begging for Afghans to help the Palestinians.
Mariam Solaimankhil, a former female member of the Afghan parliament, posted a statement on X calling the Taliban response “hollow.” “Where is your action?” she commented under the post of a Taliban spokesperson.
Doha deal
The Taliban have committed to forbid any security threats to the United States and its allies from emerging in Afghanistan, according to a U.S.-Taliban agreement signed in Doha, Qatar, in February 2020.
But experts say any Taliban rhetoric supporting Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, doesn’t violate that agreement.
“The Doha agreement focuses on a very specific, narrowly defined stipulation: The Taliban cannot let its territory be used by terrorist groups that threaten the U.S. and its allies. Pro-Hamas protests, or any type of anti-Israel activism in Afghanistan, do not come close to violating that stipulation,” said Kugelman.
Nearly a dozen other terrorist groups allegedly have sanctuaries in Afghanistan that could, if not prevented, pose regional and even global security threats.
So far, the response from such groups within Afghanistan to the war in Gaza remains “curiously muted and unusually restrained,” according to Ahmad of the Atlantic Council.
Despite keeping a firm control over all Afghanistan for more than two years, the Taliban have seen the Islamic State Khorasan or IS-K, challenging their writ with terrorist attacks all over the country.
IS-K has not supported Hamas because of its ties to Iran, a majority-Shiite country the terrorist group considers to have deviated from Islam.
“There is the risk that IS-K, or any active terror group in Afghanistan, could react by trying to stage its own attacks in Afghanistan, either as a gesture of solidarity with Hamas or as a competitive tactic to one-up what Hamas did in Israel,” said Kugelman.
8am: In the past two years, the Taliban have established hundreds of bases in Panjshir province. This group has employed over 500 workers for the construction of their security bases. Local sources now report that the wages of these workers have not been paid by the Taliban-affiliated contractor. Sources have stated that the contractor has close ties to the Taliban and has deprived these workers of their rights for over a year. These sources have accused the Taliban governor of Abshar District of financial corruption, claiming that this Taliban member has embezzled a total of 310,000 Afghanis. Click here to read more (external link).
By Naqiba Barekzai
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
October 18, 2023
For decades, millions of Afghans fleeing war, persecution, and poverty have sought refuge in neighboring Iran.
Now, many of them face deportation after Tehran recently vowed to expel the 5 million Afghans it said were living “illegally” in the Islamic republic.
Afghan refugees and migrants say the September 27 announcement has triggered a surge in abuse against members of the sizeable Afghan community in Iran, including harassment and assault.
On October 6, a video posted on social media appeared to show a group of Iranian men and boys armed with sticks attacking the homes of Afghans in the northern city of Ghazvin. The authorities said 19 of the alleged attackers were arrested.
Other videos released in recent weeks, which RFE/RL was unable to verify, purportedly show groups of Iranian civilians beating up Afghans.
“We are worried that the situation in Iran has turned very hostile against Afghans,” Parwana, an Afghan refugee who lives with her family in Tehran, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi. “They are throwing stones at the windows of houses where Afghans live. They shout, ‘Afghans should leave our country and return to their homeland,'” added Parwana, who only gave her first name.
Sweta, another refugee who lives in the Iranian capital, says she has also observed a recent surge in the number of physical and verbal attacks against Afghans. “I witnessed Iranians beating young Afghan boys publicly even when they hadn’t done anything wrong,” Sweta, who also only gave her first name, told Radio Azadi.
History Of Abuse
For years, human rights groups have documented widespread violations against Afghan refugees and migrants in Iran, including physical abuse, detention in unsanitary and inhumane conditions, forced payment for transportation and accommodation in deportation camps, forced labor, and forced separation of families.
Mired in an economic crisis amid skyrocketing inflation and rising food prices, Iran has often expressed alarm at the number of undocumented Afghans on its soil. Officials have often blamed Afghans for insecurity and unemployment in Iran.
Tehran has also complained that it has received little financial help from the international community, despite hosting millions of Afghans since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
Iran’s plans to deport undocumented Afghans also come amid its worsening ties with Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers. Taliban militants have engaged in deadly clashes with Iranian border guards in recent months amid a dispute over cross-border water resources.
In a statement released on October 14, some 500 Iranian activists urged the authorities “not to exploit the country’s current problems and drag us into the abyss of racism and hatred.”
“Let’s not allow people to sow seeds of hatred, violence, discrimination, and xenophobia,” it said.
An estimated 3.6 million Afghans have fled their homeland since the Taliban seized power in 2021, with many fleeing persecution and the devastating humanitarian and economic crises plaguing the war-torn country.
Around 70 percent of them have moved to Iran, according to the United Nations, although hundreds of thousands have been deported.
The United Nations has said that more than 3 million Afghans live in Iran. Out of them, around 1.3 million have visas or refugee status. Tehran has claimed that a significantly higher number of Afghans live in the country.
Last week, Tehran said more than 1 million Afghan refugees registered for new biometric cards, giving them access to banking services and SIM cards.
Deportations
Iran has intensified the deportations of Afghans since announcing its plan to expel all undocumented migrants.
Local Taliban officials in Afghanistan’s southwestern province of Nimroz say that Tehran has deported over 150,000 Afghans in the past three months.
Afghans who were recently deported told Radio Azadi that they were mistreated and harassed by Iranian border guards. “They did not give us bread or water during the two days that they imprisoned us,” said Abdul Salam, who illegally entered Iran two months ago and found a job as a laborer in the southeastern city of Zahedan.
“They held us in a room and then took us outside,” he added. “They left us in the scorching sun from morning to evening. We couldn’t get up. When we stood up, they kicked us in the back.”
Afghans who still reside in Iran say they live in constant fear of deportation or violence.
“I’m afraid to leave my home because many Afghans have been subjected to beatings in the markets and on the streets,” an Afghan refugee who requested anonymity due to fears of retribution told Radio Azadi.
Written by Abubakar Siddique based on reporting by Naqiba Barekzai of RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
Lisa Schlein
VOA News
October 18, 2023
GENEVA — U.N. aid officials said Tuesday that they are racing against time to provide lifesaving humanitarian assistance to tens of thousands of earthquake survivors in western Afghanistan, north of the city of Herat, before winter sets in and people whose houses have been destroyed are exposed to freezing temperatures.
“Most of the people, even inhabitants of Herat, that has almost a million population — most of these people stay outside their homes, especially at night,” said Daniel Endres, humanitarian coordinator for Afghanistan, speaking in Kabul.
“This is a region that is not at all used to earthquakes. Therefore, the type of construction was done in a way that was very fragile.” He noted that most of the dwellings were made of mud, which collapsed easily.
“So, you see the roads of Herat are lined with tents and that, of course, requires a huge amount of support of all kinds of shelter materials,” he said.
The first of three magnitude 6.3 earthquakes struck Herat province October 7, followed by earthquakes on October 11 and 15.
According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, more than 66,000 people have been affected, with numbers continuing to rise. It says about 1,500 people have died, around 2,000 others are injured and at least 3,700 homes are destroyed, with thousands more severely or moderately damaged.
“So this means, of course, a lot of requirements on the reconstruction,” said Endres.
“Another serious issue is, of course, the damage to infrastructure.” He said many people now do not have access to clean water and are at risk of “diseases because the water is going to be contaminated.”
OCHA launched a Herat Response Plan for $93.6 million Monday to support 114,000 earthquake-affected people over the coming six months.
“There are about 500 villages in Herat province and around 289 villages that have been severely or moderately affected,” said Kate Carey, deputy head of the OCHA office, speaking in Kabul.
“Temperatures are beginning to fall … it will get cold very, very quickly and we already have thousands of people who are living in makeshift shelters and also residing in open areas and they remain obviously our priority,” she said.
The U.N. children’s fund, UNICEF, says women and children comprise 90 percent of the people reportedly killed by the earthquakes. Last week, the agency appealed for $20 million to provide lifesaving humanitarian assistance over the coming three months for more than 200,000 people, including 96,000 children, living in the most devastated, vulnerable areas of Herat province.
“Even before the earthquake, these communities were already suffering the effects of conflict and insecurity, migration, drought, displacement, and poverty,” said Rushnan Murtaza, acting UNICEF representative in Afghanistan.
He said, “These deprivations have now collided, creating an unprecedented humanitarian emergency for children,” which required additional support so children can receive “the health care, protection, and clean water they desperately need.”
In hopes of reassuring donors that the money they provide for Afghan relief will be well spent, humanitarian coordinator Endres told journalists in Geneva that the U.N. collaboration with the Taliban, the de-facto authority in Afghanistan, has been positive.
“They have virtually not restricted us in the outreach to the people and doing the assessments. That includes access to women by women,” he said. “As you know, especially in the medical field, the work of women is permitted. And so the women are, of course, treated by female medical personnel. And that is happening.”
Margaret Harris, a spokeswoman for the World Health Organization, said that the WHO has sent a team of 11 midwives and 10 medical doctors, including one who specializes in obstetrics and gynecology.
“We did this specifically so that there would be women doctors on the ground able to work with women and children specifically because of the restrictive issues,” she said.
“A dedicated team of women doctors and midwives have been sent for that very reason.”
Roshan Noorzai
VOA News
October 18, 2023
WASHINGTON — This week, China’s Belt and Road forum in Beijing was not only a chance for Russian President Vladimir Putin to hold meetings with world leaders, it also was a rare opportunity for the Taliban, which has yet to be recognized by any country.
The Taliban’s attendance at the meeting, which marks the 10th anniversary of China’s Belt and Road Initiative or BRI, was the highest-profile multilateral meeting the group has attended since its takeover of Afghanistan in 2021.
Experts say the Taliban’s invitation BRI forum signals the continuation of China’s policy of engagement with the group.
According to Taliban spokesperson Akhundzada Abdul Salam Jawad, acting minister of industry and commerce, Nooruddin Aziz, led the delegation to Beijing to attend the two-day meeting.
“In general, the minister of industry and commerce’s goals are to strengthen economic, trade and transit relations with China,” Jawad said in a video sent to media on the WhatsApp messaging platform on Monday.
In a joint statement in May, China and Pakistan announced that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a flagship of the BRI, would be extended to Afghanistan, a major diplomatic win for the Taliban who took power in August 2021.
Raffaello Pantucci, a senior fellow at Britain’s Royal United Services Institute and a visiting senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, told VOA that inviting the Taliban to the forum is “a continuation of the Chinese approach to the Taliban.”
“The Chinese have, since the Taliban had taken over, been very forward in their engagement with the Taliban, treating them very much like a sort of government in Afghanistan,” said Pantucci.
‘Close Relationship’
In September, China became the first country to send an ambassador to Afghanistan since the Taliban took power two years ago.
However, China has not officially recognized the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan.
“They don’t want to be the first one to do it,” said Pantucci.
No country has yet recognized the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan, with most demanding that the group first form a more inclusive government, respect the rights of women, and ensure their territory is not used for attacks on other countries.
Nevertheless, China has a “close relationship with the Taliban,” said Zafar Iqbal Yousafzai, author and researcher at the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington think tank.
Yousafzai told VOA that besides economic and security considerations, China’s engagement with the Taliban is motivated in part by its rivalry with the U.S.
The invitation to the forum “is a signal to the U.S. that as the U.S. wants to isolate the Taliban, China wants to build its relationship with them,” said Yousafzai.
‘Boost Morale’
“The Taliban are in isolation at the moment,” Yousafzai added. “So, in such a situation, the Taliban need someone just to engage with them whether it is economically, politically, strategically or in any form.”
Javid Ahmad Qaem, the former Afghan ambassador to China, told VOA that participation in the forum gives Taliban officials a chance to engage not only with Chinese officials but also those from other countries.
“China wants to provide a platform to the Taliban to negotiate with other international players,” said Qaem.
China Investment
The Taliban also wants China to invest in Afghanistan, Qaem said.
Chinese private companies have shown interest in investing in Afghanistan and have signed some contracts with the Taliban in recent months, but Qaem said Beijing has not committed to investing in major infrastructure projects.
He added, if the Taliban can convince China to invest in Afghanistan, “that will be a major achievement.”
“I doubt that,” said Qaem. “There are pledges but I don’t see it on the ground.”
China has voiced concerns over issues related to terrorism in Afghanistan.
“Security is the foundation and prerequisite of development,” stated China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement about its position on Afghanistan.
Noshaba Ashna of VOA’s Afghan Service contributed to this story, which originated in VOA’s Afghan Service.
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
October 18, 2023
ISLAMABAD — A new survey finds that most American adults perceive Afghanistan as an adversary rather than an ally of the United States, and two-thirds believe the nearly 20-year Afghan war was not worth fighting.
The nationwide poll’s findings from the Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research come two years after the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in August 2021 and the return of the Taliban to power. The U.S. had invaded the South Asian nation to punish the then-Taliban rulers for harboring al-Qaida leaders who planned the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Many of those surveyed were skeptical about how successfully the U.S. achieved its key objectives, such as eliminating the threat from extremists or improving opportunities for women in Afghanistan.
While 46% of adults believed the war successfully captured or killed those responsible for the 9/11 terror strikes on the U.S., only 16% said that Washington had succeeded in developing a functioning Afghan government. Less than a quarter of adults, or 22%, said the U.S. successfully improved opportunities for women in Afghanistan.
“The findings show that few think the U.S. succeeded during the war in improving opportunities for Afghan women, but most still view advancing the rights of Afghan women as an important foreign policy goal,” said Sheila Kohanteb, Forum Executive Director at The Pearson Institute for Study and Resolution of Global Conflict.
“The public clearly believes the U.S. should try to help improve the situation of Afghan women, and many continue to hear about the restrictions being placed on women in Afghanistan,” Kohanteb added.
The Taliban have imposed their strict interpretation of Islamic law across the impoverished country since reclaiming power and installing their men-only government in Kabul. They have restricted women’s rights to education and work. Women are forbidden from visiting public places, such as parks and gyms, and undertaking long road trips without a close male guardian.
The U.S. survey reveals that 41% of adults think Afghanistan is an enemy, and another 42% say it is unfriendly, while only 14% report it is an ally or friendly nation.
Regarding current foreign U.S. policy goals in Afghanistan, 77% of adults say it is at least somewhat important to eliminate the threat of Islamic extremists taking shelter in the country, and 74% support advancing the rights of women and girls.
The survey indicated that 59% were unaware of the Taliban retaking control in 2021, and 64% had not heard about the restrictions on women.
The poll showed that 68% of U.S. adults had heard at least something about the U.S. troop withdrawal, but fewer had heard about the treatment by the Taliban of Afghan citizens who worked with the United States during the war. Only 52% had heard a lot or some information, while 47% said they had heard little or nothing.
While withdrawing its troops in August 2021, the U.S. also airlifted tens of thousands of Afghans from Kabul airport, who worked closely with international troops during their two-decade-long presence in Afghanistan. But many more are still trying to flee the country, fearing retribution from the Taliban and urging Washington to meet what they say is its moral responsibility to ensure their safety.
Ariana: The Afghanistan side will look to carry forward the lessons from their England triumph into Chennai, where they will meet a strong New Zealand outfit in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 on Wednesday, October 18. Afghanistan’s win over England brought a new sense of enthusiasm to the 2023 Cricket World Cup. Besides shaking up the points table, Afghanistan have shown that they can beat any side in the tournament on their day. Click here to read more (external link).