Ankara calls on EU to help Afghanistan’s neighbors

Turkey’s president told German President Steinmeier that the EU member states should provide swift assistance to Afghanistan’s neighbors to cope with irregular migration.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan renewed a call to the European Union to help Afghanistan’s neighbors cope with the Afghan refugee influx, warning against reliving the 2015 Syrian refugee wave.

China’s Jiangxi Copper to develop Mes Aynak when situation allows

Members of the Islamic Emirate were seen on Monday touring the Mes Aynak copper mine, which two Chinese companies had been developing.

China’s Jiangxi Copper Co Ltd said that it and the Metallurgical Corp of China (MCC) were monitoring the situation in Afghanistan and would push forward with the development of the Mes Aynak copper mine when they could.

Arab Journalists, Columnists: Taliban, Al-Qaeda, Muslim Brotherhood And Hizbullah Share A Similar Ideology

Following the Taliban’s recent rise to power in Afghanistan, articles in the Arab press, especially the Saudi and Emirati press, claimed that the Taliban shares many similarities with other extremist organizations in the Arab and Muslim world, including Al-Qaeda, ISIS, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), Hamas and Hizbullah. The articles claimed that the MB’s ideology, shaped by its ideologue Sayyid Qutb and its founder Hassan Al-Banna, which involves directing accusations of heresy against all Muslims who are not MB members, gave rise to the ideologies of other extremist Islamist organizations that emerged in later periods. This includes Al-Qaeda, whose leaders Osama Bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri were influenced by the writings of Sayyid Qutb.

The Taliban’s Comeback Is a Conundrum for Iran

No one in the Iranian government was sad to see U.S. and NATO troops leave Afghanistan. In fact, Tehran would prefer to have the Taliban next-door than often-hostile Western powers. But Shiite-majority Iran has also been a target of attacks in the past from the Sunni Islamist Taliban, and it worries that if Afghanistan descends into chaos, it could negatively affect Iran’s ability to exert influence and trade with its neighbor—or worse, that the volatility could spill over into Iran. Tehran will have to pull off a delicate balancing act if it’s to benefit from the U.S. and NATO withdrawal.

Afghanistan: Taliban responsible for brutal massacre of Hazara men – new investigation

Taliban fighters massacred nine ethnic Hazara men after taking control of Afghanistan’s Ghazni province last month, Amnesty International said today.

On-the-ground researchers spoke to eyewitnesses who gave harrowing accounts of the killings, which took place between 4-6 July in the village of Mundarakht, Malistan district. Six of the men were shot and three were tortured to death, including one man who was strangled with his own scarf and had his arm muscles sliced off.

Resurgent Taliban And Implications For Central Asia – Analysis

The dramatic siege of Afghanistan by the Taliban has posed serious questions about the stability, security, geostrategy, and geopolitics of the Central Asia Republics (CARs). A recent UN report highlights the presence of over 10,000 foreign fighters from the neighbouring countries of Central Asia, Pakistan, and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of China in Afghanistan, most of whom are in the ranks of the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and the Islamic State in the Khorasan Province (ISKP). In addition, the presence of Central Asian terrorist groups like the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), Islamic Jihad Union (IJU), Jamaat Ansarullah, and others in Afghanistan have heightened the fears of the current turmoil in Afghanistan spilling over into the CARs.