Karzai
BBC: The former president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, has described the Taliban as his “brothers” in an exclusive interview. The BBC’s Yalda Hakim also questioned Mr Karzai on when girls and women would be able to return to education and work. He said he had had conversations about this and that the Taliban has agreed they should go back. Click here for more (external link).
Aamaj: The US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) reports that Taliban have beaten male doctors who have treated female patients. SIGAR reports that health-care services for women have significantly reduced in Afghanistan, and Taliban have ordered that female patients must be treated by female doctors. Click here to read more (external link).
8am: The crisis in Afghanistan is so deep-rooted that even by freeing up foreign exchange reserves and providing cash assistance, it cannot be prevented. The Taliban’s policies are exacerbating the crisis and collapse in Afghanistan, the report stated. Click here to read more (external link).
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Ariana: The Emergency Hospital in Kabul has confirmed four people were wounded in an IED explosion in Salim Karwan square in PD4 around midday Thursday. The hospital said a child was among the injured adding the incident was caused by a magnetic IED attached to a vehicle. Click here to read more (external link).
Taliban Sohail Shaheen
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
December 2, 2021
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN — Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban criticized the United Nations Thursday for postponing a decision on who would represent the country at the world body.
“This decision is not based on legal rules and justice because they have deprived the people of Afghanistan of their legitimate right,” Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban’s permanent representative-designate to the U.N., said in a statement posted on Twitter.
“We hope that this right is handed over to the representative of the government of Afghanistan in the near future so that we can be in a position to resolve issues of the people of Afghanistan effectively and efficiently and maintain positive interaction with the world,” Shaheen wrote.
The U.N. Credentials Committee, which approves each member state’s representation, held closed-door discussions Wednesday on the requests by the Taliban and military junta ruling Myanmar to replace the envoys of the governments they had ousted.
“The committee has decided to defer its decision of the credentials in these two situations,” Swedish U.N. Ambassador Anna Karin Enestrom, who heads the nine-member committee, told reporters following members’ closed-door discussions.
The decision means the Taliban and Myanmar’s junta will not be allowed to represent their countries for now at the United Nations.
The Islamist Taliban seized power in mid-August from the Western-backed previous Afghan government as the United States and allied troops withdrew from the country after two decades of war.
Myanmar’s military junta seized power in a coup in February.
Neither regime has received international recognition as both are considered pariahs by the world at large.
The international community is pressing the Taliban to install an inclusive government and protect rights of women as well as Afghan minorities.
The interim all-male Taliban government mostly consists of members of the hardline group and some of them are on U.N. sanctions lists. The hardline group dismisses criticism of its government as unjust and calls it representative of all Afghans.
The United States and European countries imposed stringent economic sanctions on the Taliban after they took control of the country and blocked the group’s access to billions of dollars in Afghan foreign assets.
The punitive action has plunged Afghanistan into economic upheavals, worsening a humanitarian crisis that stems from years of war, poverty and a prolonged drought.
The lack of legitimacy recognition of the Taliban government is hampering global efforts to send urgently needed humanitarian assistance to the country where the U.N. estimates nearly 23 million Afghans will suffer from acute hunger this winter.
Radio Farda
December 1, 2021
Iran’s border guards and the Taliban ended clashes along a segment of the border in what Iranian state media reported was a “misunderstanding” from the Afghan side.
The skirmishes “ended with the intervention and negotiation of security forces, and the situation in the area is now calm,” Iranian state media IRNA reported on December 1.
Unverified videos posted by Afghanistan’s Aamaj news agency showed Iranian border guards and Taliban fighters exchanging fire along a border wall near the Afghan province of Nimroz.
A local source in Nimroz told RFE/RL that Iranian forces also used artillery.
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency, citing an unnamed source, said that initial reports claiming the Taliban had captured Iranian border posts were false.
There was no mention of casualties by either side.
Iranian state media said the clashes erupted over confusion by the Taliban about the official border line.
Tasnim said Iran erected a border wall a few hundred meters from the official border with Afghanistan to stop smugglers.
Iranian farmers reportedly crossed to the other side of the wall to use the land inside Iran’s borders, but because of the walls the Taliban thought Afghanistan’s borders had been violated.
Al Jazeera: Afghanistan’s elected government was in charge of the pavilion. But after the Taliban takeover of the country in August, the fate of the pavilion became uncertain. Following the fall of the government in Kabul, the pavilion remained empty when Expo 2020 opened on October 1. Click here to read more (external link).
8am: The Foreign Ministry of the Taliban says that a Saudi diplomatic team has arrived in Kabul. The purpose of the Saudi government’s diplomatic team is to resume diplomatic activities in Kabul, tweeted Abdul Qahar Balkhi the Foreign Ministry spokesman today Wednesday, December 1. Click here to read more (external link).
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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
December 1, 2021
The United Nations refugee agency is urging Afghanistan’s neighbors to open their borders to Afghans seeking to flee their war-torn country — even if they don’t have documentation.
Afghanistan’s land borders with Pakistan and Iran are currently open “almost solely” to Afghans with the required passports and visas, while the borders of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are “closed entirely” to them, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement on December 1.
The UNHCR “is profoundly concerned by escalating risks faced by Afghans seeking to flee” into neighboring states as the situation within their country “continues to deteriorate” following the takeover in August by Taliban militants.
The agency reported restrictions on girls’ education, the women’s movement and the ability to work, the targeting of religious and ethnic minorities, as well as the intimidation and killing of human rights activists, as hinderances to the day-to-day lives of up to half the Afghan population, and barriers to humanitarian assistance.
As deportations have “escalated” from Pakistan, Iran, and Tajikistan since the Taliban takeover, the UNHCR called on the authorities of all countries to cease the forced return of Afghans, noting that many of them may be in need of refugee protection.
It estimates that Iran has deported an average of 3,000 Afghans daily between August and November, while some 1,800 deportations from Pakistan were reported in September and October. It also cited the deportation of 23 Afghan asylum-seekers, including women and children, from Tajikistan over the past month.
UNHCR warned that “economic deterioration and widespread hunger in Afghanistan may compel thousands more to leave the country to survive.”
Afghanistan is on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe, with more than half of its population at risk of not having enough to eat during the winter, according to the UN.