Taliban And Their Claim Of Providing Security: Robberies Keep Nimruz Residents Awake

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8am: Some residents of Nimruz province report that armed robberies have increased dramatically in recent times, with thieves brazenly stealing people’s property. They emphasize that thieves, under cover of night, forcibly take people’s belongings near Taliban checkpoints and security zones. According to them, despite the Taliban’s claim of ensuring overall security and improving the economic situation, no action has been taken in Zaranj City, and the trend of armed theft continues to rise. Click here to read more (external link).

Taliban push for prisoner exchange with US

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Zabihullah Mujahid

Ayaz Gul
VOA News
July 3, 2024

ISLAMABAD — The Taliban government in Afghanistan indicated Wednesday that it would consider releasing two U.S. prisoners in exchange for Afghans held in the United States.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the chief Taliban spokesman, told reporters in Kabul that the idea of a prisoner release was discussed in his meeting with U.S. officials in Doha, Qatar this week, just as the two sides brought it up it in their previous meetings.

“Afghanistan’s conditions must be met. We have our citizens who are imprisoned in the U.S. and Guantanamo,” Mujahid stated. “We should free our prisoners in exchange for them. Just as their prisoners are important to America, Afghans are equally important to us,” he added.

The spokesman did not share any details about Afghan detainees, including those being held at the U.S.-run Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.

Mujahid spoke in the Afghan capital shortly after returning from Doha, where he led a Taliban delegation at a rare two-day U.N.-hosted meeting with international envoys on Afghanistan, which ended on Monday.

U.S. officials also attended the U.N. conference in the Qatari capital.

On Tuesday, a State Department spokesperson in Washington confirmed that U.S. special envoys on Afghanistan Thomas West and Rina Amiri met Taliban representatives in Doha.

“So during these meetings, special representative West pressed for the immediate and unconditional release of U.S. citizens unjustly detained in Afghanistan, noting that these detentions impede progress in the Taliban’s own desire for international recognition,” Vedant Patel told reporters.

The Taliban say the two Americans are among “several foreign nationals” currently imprisoned in Afghanistan for allegedly violating local immigration and other laws.

U.S. officials and relatives have identified one of the detainees as Ryan Corbett, while the identity of the second person has not been disclosed.

Corbett was taken into custody in August 2022, a year after the fundamentalist Taliban returned to power in Kabul following the withdrawal of U.S.-led Western troops after nearly 20 years of involvement in the Afghan war.

Corbett’s family and U.S. lawmakers have repeatedly urged U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration to do more to secure his safe and early release. Since his detention, Corbett has been able to call his wife and their three children.

Corbett and his family had lived in Afghanistan for years before being evacuated during the August 2021 Taliban takeover. He ran and supervised humanitarian projects for nongovernmental organizations, focusing on health and education.

Corbett returned to Afghanistan twice in 2022 and was detained by the Taliban on his second trip but has not been charged with any crimes, according to his family.

Relatives and activists say a third U.S. national, Mahmood Habibi, is also among foreigners in custody, but the Taliban refuse to acknowledge that they are holding him.

In March, a resolution was submitted to the U.S. House of Representatives calling for Habibi’s immediate release. The resolution, which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, stated that Habibi was arrested in August 2022 outside his home while in the country for business.

He was detained by the Taliban intelligence agency on suspicion of being involved in a U.S. drone strike that killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, the fugitive al-Qaida network chief, in Kabul.

The Taliban protested the strike, saying it was a breach of the 2020 Doha agreement they signed with the U.S., which paved the way for Washington to withdraw from the longest U.S. war in history.

The former insurgent group also pledged in line with the terms of the agreement not to harbor transnational militant groups, including al-Qaida, seeking to attack America and its allies.

No country has recognized the Taliban government, citing human rights concerns and bans on Afghan women’s access to education and work.

The U.N. meeting in Doha was aimed at increasing, facilitating, and coordinating the world’s engagement with the Taliban in the wake of deepening economic and humanitarian troubles facing war-torn, impoverished Afghanistan.

The two-day session ended without the Taliban making any pledges to remove their restrictions on women or winning concessions from the international community.

“Afghanistan cannot return to the international fold or fully develop economically and socially if it is deprived of the contributions and potential of half its population,” Rosemary DiCarlo, U.N. undersecretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs, told reporters at the end of the meeting on Monday. She presided over the gathering on behalf of U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Mujahid, while speaking in Kabul Wednesday, reiterated that their rules about women are an internal Afghan matter and said foreign nations or organizations have nothing to do with it.

No bilateral cricket with Afghanistan till there’s ‘a level of progress’, says CA chief

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ESPN: Cricket Australia (CA) has reiterated that Australia will not play bilateral cricket with Afghanistan because of the Taliban government’s stance regarding the rights of women. CA chief executive Nick Hockley said that there has been “regular dialogue” with the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) on the matter, and hoped that the sides resume playing each other “sometime in the future”. Click here to read more (external link).

Residents of Takhar Province Complain About Taliban’s Lack of Supervision on Pharmacies

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8am: Residents of Takhar complain about the high cost of medicine in their province. They state that many pharmacies in health centers sell necessary medications at exorbitant prices, even contrary to the rate list set by the Taliban-led National Food and Drug Administration. Some residents of Taloqan City, the capital of Takhar province, criticize the Taliban’s Public Health Directorate for its lack of oversight over pharmacies, clinics, and private hospitals. They claim that some pharmacies in these clinics and hospitals set prices based on their desires, significantly burdening the people. Click here to read more (external link).

Former Afghan interior minister calls for UN to remove Otunbayeva and cleanse UNAMA

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Roza Otunbaeva

Khaama: The former Afghan Interior Minister described the Doha summit as “another example of the UN’s failure in managing the Taliban and Afghanistan.” Mohammad Omar Daudzai called on the UN Secretary-General to replace Roze Otunbayeva and cleanse UNAMA, stating that the Doha meeting was a waste of time and a deviation from its main purpose. Daudzai, on Monday, Jule 1st, wrote on his social media platform X that the Doha meeting was a waste of time and a deviation from the main path. He said; “It is time for the UN Secretary-General to introduce a new representative instead of Otunbayeva [UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Afghanistan] and cleanse UNAMA.” Mr. Daudzai did not provide further explanation for the reasons for proposing Otunbayeva’s dismissal. Several women and civil society activists had accused Roze Otunbayeva of “whitewashing” her record through a public statement. Click here to read more (external link).

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UN talks in Doha end; recognition remains distant dream for Taliban

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By Sarah Zaman
VOA News
July 1, 2024

DOHA, QATAR — The third round of U.N.-led talks to explore engagement with Afghanistan ended Monday without the Taliban making any reform pledges or winning concessions from the international community.

A few international organizations and special envoys for Afghanistan from nearly two dozen countries met with Taliban officials in Doha, Qatar, over two days. Rosemary DiCarlo, U.N. undersecretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs, who presided over the event, told reporters the talks were “constructive” and “useful.”

“This is the first time such a broad cross section of the international community and the de facto authorities have had the opportunity to hold such detailed discussions,” DiCarlo said at the news conference after the event. “The discussions were frank and, I believe, useful.”

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres initiated the “Doha process” a year ago.

While participants in the latest round of talks agreed to continue to engage, DiCarlo ruled out recognizing the de facto regime in Kabul unless the Taliban ended curbs on women’s education and participation in public life.

Individual decisions

“Afghanistan cannot return to the international fold, or fully develop economically and socially, if it is deprived of the contributions and potential of half its population,” the U.N. official said, adding that recognizing Taliban rule is also not the mandate of the global body but would be the decision of individual countries.

Although nearly 16 countries have embassies in Afghanistan, the global community has held back recognition of the Taliban government mainly because it is not inclusive and restricts the rights of women and girls in the country.

Though women’s rights were not part of the official agenda, DiCarlo said participants raised the issue throughout their discussions and highlighted the need for an inclusive government during the two-day talks that focused on developing a private business sector and helping the Taliban sustain anti-narcotics gains.

“Afghanistan’s messages reached all participant countries,” Taliban delegation head Zabihullah Mujahid said in a post on social media platform X after the talks, adding that his country needed international cooperation.

Speaking to VOA on background, a Western diplomat said the Afghan delegation members were “very competent” and their technical know-how was “impressive.”

Earlier, in a post on X, Mujahid, who is also the Taliban’s chief spokesperson, claimed success.

“It was pledged that restriction on banking and economic avenues should be lifted,” the post said.

While more than a hundred Taliban members face international sanctions, including financial sanctions, Afghanistan’s banks do not. Experts say the country is disconnected from the global banking system and the dominant SWIFT financial transaction network because Western banks are wary of doing business with Afghan banks and exposing themselves to the reputational and financial risks they pose.

No new policy was introduced by any country, the Western diplomat privy to the talks said.

Separately, the U.S. froze $9.5 billion in Afghan central bank funds after the Taliban took control of the country in August 2021. In 2022, the Biden administration put $3.5 billion of that money in a Switzerland-based trust account called “Fund for the Afghan People,” which a board oversees. The remaining money remains locked. China, Russia, Pakistan and Iran are among countries that support unfreezing the funds.

‘It was about understanding’

Speaking to reporters late Monday, Mujahid said the Taliban did not come expecting a breakthrough.

“It [the gathering] was about understanding each other’s views,” Mujahid said in response to a VOA question on the lack of progress on contentious issues between the Taliban and the West. “The achievement is that every country wants to support Afghanistan.”

The U.N. is under fire from rights activists for its decision to exclude Afghan civil society activists to ensure the Taliban’s participation in the global meeting. DiCarlo told reporters it was “a very tough, maybe impossible choice.”

“We have a mandate to support this process [of talks]. Our belief was to bring the de facto authorities and special envoys together for direct talks,” DiCarlo said. “Regrettably, the de facto authorities will not sit across the table with Afghan civil society in this format.”

When asked what concessions the global body would be willing to make in the future to bring the Taliban back to the table, DiCarlo said she could not predict what conditions the de facto rulers might place.

“I could not speculate on that. What I can say is that they did come today. They were very engaged,” she said.

At least three prominent Afghan women have declined the U.N.’s invitation to meet for talks in Doha on Tuesday.

“I respect their decision,” DiCarlo said. “We’re involved in a process now that is going to be a long-term process. This is not easy going forward. And we will continue to try to do the best we can. We won’t make everybody happy.”

Asked whether the Taliban would come back for more talks, Mujahid said it would depend on who and what were on the table.

“We will consider each meeting separately,” he said. ” We will look at its agenda and targets.”

No date has been set for the next round of U.N.-led talks on Afghanistan.

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The Taliban Host Terrorist Groups: Four New Settlements Built for Al-Qaeda and TTP

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8am: The Hasht-e Subh Daily has obtained information indicating that the Taliban are constructing a well-equipped base with residential houses for the al-Qaeda network in the Malekuddin area of Nawa district, Ghazni province. Additionally, they are building three settlements for the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in the Dasht-e Bagh-e Attar area of Qarabagh district, Dasht-e Kabuli area of Waghaz district, and Kotal-e Rouza on the outskirts of Ghazni city. These settlements, in addition to residential houses, also include large religious schools and equipped dormitories, with some nearing completion. One of the settlements that the Taliban have built for the TTP and al-Qaeda members is located in the Dasht-e Bagh-e Attar area of Qarabagh district, Ghazni. Sources report that the settlement has been constructed on Hazara-owned property, and the Taliban have ignored the requests and complaints of the Hazara residents in the area, continuing the construction for al-Qaeda and TTP. Click here to read more (external link).