The foreign minister in Afghanistan’s new Taliban-run Cabinet said the government remains committed to its promises not to allow militants to use its territory to attack others, The Associated Press reported.
In his first press conference since the Taliban formed an interim government a week ago, Molavi Amir Khan Muttaqi would not give a timeframe for how long the government would be in place or whether it would eventually be opened up to other factions, minorities or women.
When asked about the possibility of elections, Muttaqi demanded other countries not interfere in Afghanistan’s internal issues.
The European Union has no option but to talk to Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers and Brussels will try to coordinate with member governments to organise a diplomatic presence in Kabul, the top EU diplomat said on Tuesday.
“The Afghan crisis is not over,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told the European Parliament in Strasbourg. “To have any chance of influencing events, we have no other option but to engage with the Taliban.”
“Maybe it’s a pure oxymoron to talk about human rights but this is what we have to ask them,” he said. (REUTERS)
Real estate buyers in Kabul have said that there has been a significant drop in house rents and selling prices, TOLO news agency reported.
On the other hand, Kabul residents say that despite the fall of the previous government and the withdrawal of foreign troops, many families in Kabul have fled their modern homes and towns due to economic problems.
Mohammad Yusuf has been running a transaction guidance office in Kabul for the past five years. He moved us to a two-story house in Kabul’s 10th District, where a family lived for 5,000 afghanis and has now left.
The rent of this house has been reduced to 6,000 afghanis. But still no one has done the same.
The Taliban on Tuesday expressed appreciation to the countries that pledged humanitarian support to Afghanistan and said that the group will coordinate with them, TOLO news reported.
Speaking at a press conference in Kabul, the Taliban government’s acting foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi said, “We want to have good relations with the world’s countries, but want them not to pressure Afghanistan, because pressure does not work and does not benefit Afghanistan or world countries.”
The outgoing Afghanistan government’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva said on Tuesday that the Taliban have already broken their promises to safeguard women and protect human rights, and the international community must hold them to account, Reuters reported.
“The Taliban have vowed to respect women’s rights but women’s rights are disappearing from the landscape,” Nasir Ahmad Andisha, who remains accredited at U.N. bodies despite the collapse of the government he represents, told the Human Rights Council.
He accused the Taliban of carrying out “widespread atrocities” in the Panjshir valley, the last major part of the country to hold out against them, and said they were conducting targeted killings and extrajudicial executions, including of young boys.
Afghanistan’s National Assembly, which comprises two houses the lower house of representatives called the Wolesi Jirga and the upper house of senators called the Meshrano Jirga has not resumed activities after the collapse of the former government on August 15. The fate of the assembly remains unknown, TOLO news agency quoted Fazl Hadi Muslimyar, the speaker of the senate, as saying.
Muslimyar said there have been no documents released so far about the dissolution of the National Assembly, and neither house has held a meeting since.
However, he further maintained that the world countries’ parliaments in a joint meeting on September 6 in Austria announced their readiness to work with the current parliament of Afghanistan. “The current parliament will continue working with the world’s parliaments until a new parliament is formed,” Muslimyar said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday vigorously defended the decision of the Biden administration to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, which has resulted in the Taliban recapturing power in the war-torn country and the collapse of the US-backed democratically elected regime. “There’s no evidence that staying longer would have made the Afghan security forces or the Afghan government any more resilient or self-sustaining. If 20 years and hundreds of billions of dollars in support, equipment, and training did not suffice, why would another year, or five, or ten, make a difference?” Blinken told lawmakers during a Congressional hearing on Afghanistan.
The Taliban now run Pul-e-Charkhi Prison, a sprawling complex on Kabul’s eastern outskirts. After capturing the city, the fighters freed all the inmates there, the government guards fled, and now dozens of Taliban fighters are running the facility. It was a sign of the sudden and startling new order in Afghanistan after the Taliban swept into Kabul nearly a month ago and threw out the crumbling, US-backed government it had fought for 20 years, reports AP.