Afghanistan-Iran Water Treaty to Be Implemented: Official

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Tolo News: Two days after the complaint of Iran’s foreign ministry saying that Iran did not receive its share of water from Helmand River last year, officials from the Afghan Ministry of Energy and Water said Iran will receive its share based on the water treaty signed by the two countries in 1973. According to the treaty, Afghanistan committed to sharing the water from the Helmand River with Iran and will supply 26 cubic meters of water per second, or 850 million cubic meters per annum. Click here to read more (external link).

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Norway Says European Diplomats Made ‘Tangible Demands’ In Oslo Meeting With Taliban

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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
January 26, 2022

Western diplomats said they linked humanitarian aid to an improvement in human rights in Afghanistan during meetings with a Taliban delegation in Norway.

The 15-member delegation held talks behind closed doors with several Western diplomats on January 25, the final day of the Taliban’s first official trip to Europe since returning to power in August.

Norwegian State Secretary Henrik Thune said ahead of the meeting that it was “not the beginning of an…open-ended process.”

He told Norwegian news agency NTB ahead of the January 25 meeting that the Western diplomats would “place tangible demands” in front of the Taliban “that we can follow up on and see if they have been met.”

The demands were to include the possibility of providing humanitarian aid directly to the Afghan people, according to NTB.

Norway was also to call for human rights to be respected, in particular those of women and minorities, such as access to education and health services, the right to work, and freedom of movement.

The European Union’s special envoy to Afghanistan, Tomas Niklasson, said on Twitter he had “underlined the need for primary and secondary schools to be accessible for boys and girls throughout the country when the school year starts in March.”

Niklasson posted the tweet in response to the Afghan Foreign Ministry saying on Twitter that Niklasson had told the Taliban delegation that the EU would continue its humanitarian aid to Afghanistan and called for continued meetings.

The Taliban-led government’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi said Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, the leader of the delegation, “thanked them for their assistance and emphasized positive relations and cooperation.”

Afghanistan’s humanitarian situation has rapidly deteriorated since the Taliban returned to power in August. The UN has estimated 22.8 million people are suffering from acute food shortages and 8.7 million are near starvation.

Since August, international aid, which financed around 80 percent of the Afghan budget, has been suspended and the United States has frozen $9.5 billion in Afghan Central Bank assets. Unemployment has skyrocketed and civil servants’ salaries have not been paid for months.

The Taliban was expected to seek both financial aid and international recognition during the meeting.

No country has yet recognized Afghanistan’s new rulers, whom human rights defenders accuse of committing serious violations, particularly over the lack of rights of women to education, employment, and participation in political and social life.

At the United Nations in New York, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said the talks appeared to have been “serious” and “genuine.”

“We made clear we want to see girls back in school in March, also those above 12. We want to see humanitarian access,” he said.

Muttaqi said earlier this week that the opportunity to hold the talks was “an achievement in itself because we shared the stage with the world.”

“From these meetings we are sure of getting support for Afghanistan’s humanitarian, health, and education sectors,” he added.

Norway faced criticism for arranging the hosting the meeting but insisted the talks do not represent a legitimization or recognition of the Taliban.

Gahr Store defended the meeting, saying a large part of the Afghan population depends on humanitarian aid to survive and the world community could not simply stand by and watch people, particularly children, starve, he told NTB.

With reporting by AFP and dpa

Copyright (c) 2022. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

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US Bank Freezes Accounts of Afghanistan’s US Embassy

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Akmal Dawi
VOA News
January 25, 2022

Diplomats of the former Afghan government who have held on to their jobs in the U.S. are grappling with a new problem: their official bank accounts have been suspended.

Two senior Afghan diplomats, who did not want to be named because the issue is under discussion with U.S. officials, confirmed to VOA that the Citibank accounts of the embassy in Washington and two Afghan consulates in the U.S. have been suspended for more than a month.

The Afghan mission in Washington does not receive funds from Kabul, because the Afghan capital now under the control of the Taliban, and it has survived thus far through dwindling consular service fees.

The consulates have run out of new passports but continue to renew expired passports. Because checks issued to cover passport renewal can no longer be made out to the Afghanistan Embassy, the remaining staff members deposit blank money orders into personal bank accounts, then meet at the end of each month to tally embassy revenue.

“We’ve held talks with the Department of State, but so far there has been no breakthrough,” one Afghan diplomat said, adding that U.S. officials had advised the diplomats against discussing the matter publicly.

While the government they represented collapsed more than five months ago, about 90 Afghan diplomats remain in four diplomatic posts in the U.S., including the Afghanistan Permanent Representative at the United Nations in New York.

Suspension of their official bank accounts has adversely impacted the embassy’s financial transactions, including salaries, rent and health care insurance payments, the diplomats said.

When asked about the status of the mission’s accounts, a State Department spokesperson told VOA, “There has been no change in the accreditation status of Afghan mission members,” but declined to comment on the account suspensions.

A spokesman for Citibank also declined to comment.

Policy confusion?

The United States does not recognize the Taliban’s self-declared Islamic Emirate as the official government of Afghanistan, but U.S. officials have met with Taliban officials in Qatar, Norway and elsewhere.

“As we seek to address humanitarian crisis together with allies, partners, and relief [organizations],” U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan Thomas West said before holding talks with the Taliban foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, in Oslo on Sunday. “We will continue clear-eyed diplomacy with the Taliban regarding our concerns and our abiding interest in a stable, rights-respecting and inclusive Afghanistan.”

Analysts say the U.S. approach has led to confusion among Afghans who are trying to sort out visa and logistical issues, leaving them in legal limbo.

“Not thinking through the ramifications and implications of having these two parallel governance structures going at the same time is a completely flawed approach,” said Candace Rondeaux, an expert at the Washington-based New America think tank.

“I think the U.S. has been confused on Afghanistan for a long time,” said Jennifer Murtazashvili, an expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, adding that the U.S. will need a functioning Afghan mission to handle consular services for the tens of thousands of Afghans who are being brought to the U.S. since the collapse of the former Afghan government.

The loss of the bank accounts is the latest blow to the Afghan diplomatic mission, which has already been laboring under severe financial restrictions.

Calls to the embassy are directed to a voice message system as all local staff have been laid off, and diplomats say they have been working on-and-off on a voluntary basis and without pay for two months.

The embassy in Washington, like many other Afghanistan diplomatic missions around the world, has refused to work with the Taliban foreign ministry, and diplomats say they represent the former Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

Despite repeated Taliban pleas for recognition of the Islamic Emirate as the de facto government of Afghanistan, no country has yet officially taken steps to recognize the regime.

Diplomats seeking asylum

At least three Afghan diplomats who worked at the embassy in Washington have sought asylum in Canada and the rest are exploring long-term options, the two diplomats said.

“Obviously, we cannot return to Afghanistan,” one of the diplomats said, adding that his diplomatic visa is set to expire in December. “We are seeking a solution for the future of all our diplomats here.”

Anticipating their move, the U.S. Citizenship, Immigration and Customs agency has announced specific steps for the Afghan diplomats to change their status in the U.S.

“If you are an Afghan national who entered the United States as an A-1, A-2, G-1, or G-2 nonimmigrant; were performing duties that were diplomatic or semi-diplomatic on July 14, 2021; and are seeking a Green Card under Section 13, you may file Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, without a fee,” reads a public notice at the USCIS website.

State Department Bureau Chief Nike Ching contributed to this story.

Two-Day Clashes End Among Taliban and NRF Forces in Baghlan

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8am: Local sources in the Khost district of Baghlan province report the end of the clashes among the Taliban and the National Resistance Front (NRF) in the Charkh-e-Falak village of Khost Farang district of the province. The Taliban are arresting and harassing locals on charges of collaborating with the Resistance Front, the source claims. Click here to read more (external link).

Ex-Police Chief of Tywarah District Assassinated in Herat

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8am: Sources in Herat confirm that Habib-ur-Rahman Malikzada, the former police chief of Taywarah district in Ghor province, was assassinated in Herat city. Malikzada had earlier fought against the Taliban for several years in the Tywarah district of Ghor province and lived in Herat after the country fell to the Taliban. Click here to read more (external link).

Cash-Strapped Taliban Uses Foreign Aid Intended For Starving Afghans To Pay State Employees

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Taliban fighters (file photo)

By Ron Synovitz
RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
January

Like millions of other impoverished Afghans, day laborer Omaruddin and his family are facing starvation as the country’s economic crisis deepens under Taliban rule.

Omaruddin, a Kabul resident, has registered over 20 times with the Taliban regime in the hope of receiving wheat that was donated as humanitarian aid by foreign countries.

But the Taliban in October established a so-called “food for work” program that requires recipients to do manual labor on public-works projects to receive the humanitarian aid.

Omaruddin says only those with connections to the Taliban have received work under that program.

Now, in what the Taliban claims is an expansion of its “food for work” program, the cash-strapped regime has begun to use foreign wheat aid to pay the salaries of public sector workers.

That has contributed to already widespread allegations that the Taliban is misappropriating aid from foreign donors.

The Taliban’s controversial program has increased calls for international humanitarian organizations to distribute aid directly to the needy rather than funneling it through the militant group.

“Nobody hires us,” Omaruddin told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi. “The Taliban only take people that they know. You cannot find a job unless you know someone. They will not give you anything even if you work hard. There is no way that they are going to give out something for free.”

“I’ve gone 20 times to them to try to get food for work, but all I do is leave my identification number behind,” he adds. “It’s only the ones who have connections who get hired under this program. Nobody gives anything to the poor.”

Ghazni Gul, another day laborer, says he is struggling to even earn 50 afghanis for a full day of work — about half a U.S. dollar — since the Taliban seized power in August.

“There is no business at all,” Gul tells RFE/RL. “The aid is only given to those who have links or relationships with the Taliban. It does not go to the poor.”

Poor Afghan widows are being hit particularly hard. Despite their desperation, they do not qualify for foreign aid being distributed by the Taliban because the militant group does not allow women to work.

“The aid that comes from other countries around the world is meant to be given to the poor,” says Fatima, a widow in Kabul. “Those of us who do not have any male family members in our homes are desperate. At least the Taliban give wheat to some men in exchange for work.”

With the United Nations estimating that 23 million Afghans now face extreme hunger, those allowed by the Taliban to work in exchange for humanitarian assistance are seen as the lucky few.

Abdul Rahman, a cobbler by trade, says he is unable to feed his family of eight without assistance.

“The aid that is coming to Afghanistan does not reach us,” Rahman tells RFE/RL. “I’m poor, but there is no one to help us. Aid must be distributed to the poor directly” rather than through the Taliban.

“[The Taliban] say we will be given wheat if we come and work,” Rahman continues. “I have gone to them several times. They’ve taken my identification number, my phone number, and a photocopy of my identification card. But they refused to give us anything and said there is no wheat to give out.”

The UN this month issued a call for $4.4 billion in fresh humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan. But there are strict international rules against sending money to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

The United States and other foreign donors cut their financial assistance to Afghanistan when the Taliban seized Kabul on August 15.

Washington also froze some $9 billion in Afghan central bank reserves held in the United States.

Critics argue that the Taliban could use that money to fund terrorism. They also maintain that allowing the Taliban to receive those funds would reward and legitimize a regime that took power by force and has committed gross human rights violations.

In December, the United States and the UN Security Council approved exemptions for deliveries of food aid and medicine to Afghanistan to alleviate the country’s growing humanitarian crisis.

Under those exemptions, most food aid is distributed directly to needy Afghans by UN organizations and nongovernmental groups.

The Taliban’s “food for work” program relies on grain reserves that had been donated to Afghanistan’s previous government by India.

Since the Taliban’s takeover, more donated wheat has arrived from neighboring Pakistan and China along with smaller shipments from Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

The Taliban’s Agriculture Ministry says Islamabad has delivered 18 tons of wheat and promised to send another 37 tons.

Fazel Bari Fazli, the ministry’s deputy chief of administration and finance, says the Taliban is also in talks with India about another 55-ton shipment of wheat.

He says about 40,000 workers now receive a 10-kilogram bag of wheat in exchange for a full day of labor.

In a statement to Radio Azadi, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied allegations that the regime is only distributing aid to its supporters.

But the Taliban’s use of humanitarian aid for government purposes, such as paying the salaries of public-sector workers, has raised questions among foreign donors.

Critics within the international community say widespread allegations of the Taliban misappropriating food aid donations are the best argument for keeping in place the strict international restrictions on financial flows into Afghanistan.

Strong doubts also remain among many Afghans about whether the Taliban can be trusted to distribute humanitarian aid fairly — particularly among those from ethnic and religious communities that have fought against the Taliban for years.

Written by Ron Synovitz in Prague with reporting by RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi

Copyright (c) 2022. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

Four Taliban and One NRF Forces Killed in Baghlan

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8am: Taliban have carried out aggressive attacks from several points on the strongholds of the National Resistance Front (NRF) in Baghlan province, local sources say. According to the sources, clashes are currently taking place among Taliban and (NRF) forces in Darah Charkh-e-Falak village of Khost Farang district of Baghlan province. Click here to read more (external link).