KABUL (Pajhwok): The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan says it is trying to establish good relations with the international community in cooperation with Qatar. The government, after being not invited to a meeting in Moscow, says it welcomes any huddle that benefits Afghanistan.
Major events last week
- Maulvi Abdul Kabir: We want to good ties with word through Doha mediation
- Kabulov: Kabul officials not invited to Moscow meeting on Afghanistan
- Mujahid: We welcome any meeting that benefits Afghanistan
- UK provides nearly $29m to Afghanistan through World Food Programme
- SIGAR says US blocks probe into $1.1 billion aid to Afghanistan
- ICC to resume probe into Afghan war crimes but US opposes the move
Casualties last week
Thirteen people were killed and 16 others were injured in various incidents of violence across the country last week.
Eight people were injured in a landmine blast in Kabul and two ‘kidnappers’ were killed during a series of operations in Bagrami district of Kabul, police said.
Last week, unidentified gunmen killed a businessman in southern Kandahar province, a girl child in Khost and a security person in northern Sari Pul province.
Three children and a woman were injured in a blast in Zabul and a girl accidentally shot herself with a Kalashnikov in Faryab, and a father killed his son in Nangarhar.
According to reports, five people, including a woman, were killed and two others were injured during a clash over a land dispute in Sari Pul province.
Residents tried to capture a man in Faryab province visiting a woman for their illicit relationship and the said person injured two people and father of the women killed her later.
The number of casualties is based on reports reaching Pajhwok and some incidents may have gone unreported or sources provided incorrect figures.
In the previous week, 62 people were killed and 31 others were injured in various incidents across the country.
Before the regime change in mid-August 2021, hundreds of civilians and people associated with the warring parties would get killed and wounded every week.
Afghanistan’s interaction with the world
Deputy Prime Minister Maulvi Abdul Kabir has said the caretaker government of Afghanistan wants to establish good relations with Muslim countries and the international community in cooperation with and through mediation of Qatar to attract more humanitarian aid.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who recently visited China, stressed the need for continued interaction with the Afghan caretaker government in order to help the Afghans and deal with humanitarian and economic crisis.
However, Russia special representative for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov on Thursday said no one from the Taliban government had been invited to attend a meeting on Afghanistan in Moscow. The meeting is scheduled to take place in mid-November in Moscow.
A similar meeting held in Russia on October 20 last year was attended by first deputy prime minister of Afghanistan Abdul Salam Hanafi.
Addressing a press conference in Kabul on Saturday, Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid regarding the Moscow meeting said they welcome any huddle that benefits Afghanistan whether they participate in it or not.
“Because we need coordination at the regional level. Meetings held in some countries recently stressed help with the current situation in Afghanistan to ensure lasting stability and security in the country”.
The Czech Republic is scheduled to close the country’s embassy permanently in Kabul from January 1, 2023, according to Czech media. The Czech Foreign Minister said that the country’s embassy will be closed due to continued instability in Afghanistan.
However, Taliban’s Qatar office spokesman Sohail Shaheen said it was not justifiable that the security situation in Afghanistan was not good. “Everyone knows security is ensured across Afghanistan with the arrival of the Islamic Emirate.”
Embassies of more than ten countries, including India, China, Uzbekistan, the European Union, Russia and the UAE, are active in Afghanistan. Some diplomats of the Islamic Emirate have been accepted by Russia, Uzbekistan, China, Iran and Pakistan, but these countries say it does not mean recognition of the caretaker government of Afghanistan.
What US, China, Iran and Uzbekistan say about Afghanistan?
Last week, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met Chinese President Xi Jinping and discussed with him regional issues, including the situation in Afghanistan.
US special representative for Afghanistan Thomas West and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah discussed the opening of girls’ schools above the sixth grade in Afghanistan. They stressed the need for a genuine intra-Afghan dialogue to solve the current problems and ensure overall stability in the country and emphasized on the strengthening of national unity and national partnership.
In addition, Iranian ambassador in Kabul Bahadur Aminian said during a meeting with Dr. Abdullah that his country stood by the people of Afghanistan as in the past.
According to reports, Uzbek Foreign Minister Vladimir Norov met with his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock in Tashkent.
Norov at the meeting said Tashkent wanted to strengthen peace in Afghanistan and would continue its assistance to the war-torn country.
US Chargé d’affaires for Afghanistan Karen Decker, met with some Afghan activists and journalists in Turkey and said the Afghans, wherever they are, have the right to participate in the future of their country.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price has said Washington and its allies will never allow Afghanistan to become a safe haven for terrorists.
Doha talks
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan has rejected reports that a delegation led by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar will meet with the US national security adviser and the CIA deputy director on some issues in Doha.
Hezb-i-Islami Afghanistan leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has said America wants to enter a new agreement with the caretaker government of Afghanistan through bilateral talks in Doha.
Continuation of humanitarian aid
A Turkish charity has announced it will spend $125,000 on construction of religious schools in five provinces.
The UK donated nearly 29 million dollars to Afghanistan through the World Food Program and last week two packages of 80 million US dollars arrived in Kabul as part of international humanitarian aid.
The UN says it delivered one billion dollars to Afghanistan to assist the Afghans during the past one year.
The United States Special Inspector General for Afghanistan (SIGAR) said the Biden administration has stonewalled inquiries about $1.1 billion in humanitarian aid spent “to support the Afghan people since the Taliban’s takeover.”
John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, said in a report issued late Tuesday night that his office “for the first time in its history is unable this quarter to provide Congress and the American people with a full accounting of this US government spending due to the noncooperation of several US government agencies.”
The International Committee of the Red Cross has expressed its concern about the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan ahead of winter, saying more than 700,000 people lost their jobs since last year.
Girls’ education
The academic year in Afghanistan began in March and the caretaker government ordered closure of girls middle schools and high schools until a plan in this regard is devised, something yet to happen.
A number of mothers of some girl students gathered in front of a school in Kabul and demanded the re-opening of girls’ schools above the sixth grade.
About 20 women held a protest meeting in Kabul and asked the government to provide them jobs according to their work skills.
Some female students of the Badakhshan University staged a protest after they were not allowed to enter their university for violating the dress code.
The Hague International Court
Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday ruled that prosecutor Karim Khan can resume his investigations into atrocities in Afghanistan, a probe that had been put on hold for more than two years.
According to the ruling, published by the ICC, the judges said the investigation could move forward as Kabul “is not presently carrying out genuine investigations” into the alleged crimes under the ICC’s jurisdiction, as it had earlier insisted.
In August, a year into Taliban rule, prosecutor Khan had urged judges to allow the probe to move forward and warned that crimes were continuing in Afghanistan.
However, the US opposed the investigation into alleged war crimes committed by its troops in Afghanistan during the past two decades.
Violence against journalists
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) says it has recorded more than 200 cases of violations of human rights of journalists in Afghanistan during the past one year.
However, the caretaker government rejected the mission’s claim and said not a single journalist has been killed since the Islamic Emirate’s takeover. The government said media representatives and journalists faced no security challenges.
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