South East Asia

Afghanistan’s infamous Pul-e-Charkhi Prison, which once housed thousands of Islamic Emirate forces and Daesh fighters in its sprawling compound on the outskirts of Kabul, today stands virtually empty, except for the remnants of prisoners’ belongings and discarded documents.

On August 15, as the Islamic Emirate drove into Kabul following the fall of the previous government, the gates to the prison were flung open – ending in some cases years of incarceration for many detainees.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi has urged Pakistan to accept a new influx of refugees from Afghanistan.

If sent back due to the lack of documentation, the new Afghan refugees could be at risk, warned the top UNHCR official.

Much is still uncertain about the new AUKUS ‘enhanced trilateral security partnership’. The deal for at least eight nuclear submarines to be built in Australia is described as a ‘first initiative’ but the partnership’s aims, and whether there will be a governing treaty, are not yet clear.

One of the clauses of the February 2020 agreement between the Taliban and the United States (U.S.) made it obligatory on the insurgents to prevent the soil of Afghanistan from being used by global terror groups like the al Qaeda against the U.S. and its allies. Just like the Trump administration, the Biden administration too reiterated that decimating al Qaeda was the primary objective of the U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Votaries of the drawdown of troops, hence, argued that since al Qaeda has been weakened and the Taliban have promised to prevent the group from reviving, the U.S. troops can return home from the forever war. Ground level situation and recent developments in Afghanistan, however, underline that this logic is deeply flawed. Under the new Taliban government, global terrorism is all set to flourish, with a devastating impact on the region and beyond.

Assassiné par Al-Qaïda deux jours avant les attentats du 11 septembre 2001, le commandant Massoud avait alerté les Occidentaux des dangers du terrorisme islamiste, sans être écouté. Il jouit d’une bonne image chez nous. Pourtant, dans un pays terriblement rétrograde et en guerre, la plupart des Afghans gardent un souvenir mitigé de lui.

Diplomate, Jean-Yves Berthault a été en poste à l’ambassade de France à Kaboul entre 1979 et 1981. Conseiller politique de la mission spéciale de l’ONU en Afghanistan en 1997, il a dirigé la mission diplomatique française à Kaboul de 1998 à 2001. Il est l’auteur de Déjeuners avec les Talibans, Révélations d’un diplomate.

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.

Afghanistan’s new acting Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi has called for sanctions to be lifted against the Islamic Emirate and said urgent global help is needed to help deal with the “major humanitarian crisis” currently gripping the country.

A group of Afghan pilots are expected to be transferred to a US military base from Uzbekistan this weekend, under a new agreement between the US and Uzbek governments, The Wall Street Journal reports citing people familiar with the matter.