Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban’s interior minister, said in Khost on Friday that a government which rules people through “fear and force” is not a real government. He implicitly acknowledged that the Taliban relies on humiliation, violence and intimidation in its governance.
Germany’s Interior Ministry has announced that it will not relocate a number of Afghan refugees currently in Pakistan, reversing earlier commitments.
Hanif Atmar, Afghanistan’s former foreign minister, says he travelled to Pakistan 10 times to secure the release of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, now the Taliban deputy prime minister.
Richard Bennett, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, said the Taliban’s treatment of women amounts to “crimes against humanity” and should be described as a system of gender apartheid.
Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said on Friday, 12 December, that his country will not recognise the Taliban, stressing that the group’s government is not legitimate.
In August 2007, a Pakistani helicopter transferred about 27 detainees to Dera Ismail Khan before proceeding to Wana. One of the detainees on board was Khalil-ur-Rahman Haqqani.
Mohammad Reza Bahrami, director general for South Asia at Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has said the purpose of an upcoming regional meeting on Afghanistan in Tehran is to facilitate an exchange of views among the special representatives of participating countries.
At a gathering of religious clerics in Kabul, Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said that, according to decisions and fatwas issued by the assembly, Afghans must not engage in military activity outside Afghanistan.
The Taliban flogged 215 people including 44 women and 171 men across Afghanistan between 1 August and 31 October this year, according to a UN report presented to the Security Council on Wednesday.
Following the Taliban religious scholars’ gathering in Kabul, Tahir Andrabi, spokesperson for Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry, said the resolution from the meeting has not yet reached Islamabad.
Albert Khorev, Russia’s ambassador to Pakistan, has said Moscow is concerned about escalating tensions between Pakistan and the Taliban. The Russian diplomat noted that Moscow hopes both sides will resolve their differences through diplomatic means.
A people’s tribunal examining abuses against Afghan women is set to deliver its final judgment on Thursday regarding the Taliban’s repression of women and girls.
The Afghanistan Freedom Front (AFF) has issued a statement calling for an international political process to end Taliban rule and pave the way for establishing a “democratic system based on the people’s vote” in Afghanistan.
Australia’s special envoy for Afghanistan has welcomed the announcement of unity and coordination among political parties and groups opposing the Taliban.
Valery Semrikov, deputy secretary-general of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), has announced that the bloc will supply military equipment to Tajikistan, saying the quantity designated for delivery has already been approved.
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has warned that women and girls in Afghanistan continue to face severe and persistent restrictions, saying the conditions undermine their fundamental rights as well as the country’s future.
The Taliban’s embassy in Qatar says Suhail Shaheen has met in Doha with the United Kingdom’s special envoy for Afghanistan, a senior adviser to the European Institute of Peace and the UN secretary-general’s representative for children and armed conflict.
The Taliban Supreme Court has announced that four men and three women were publicly flogged in the Gospandi district of Sar-e Pol province and the Behsud district of Maidan Wardak on charges described as illicit relationships.
US President Donald Trump has compared countries such as Afghanistan, Haiti and Somalia to “hellholes,” reiterating that he has halted immigration from what he described as “third-world countries.”
Gilles Bertrand, the European Union’s special envoy for Afghanistan, has travelled to Kabul for talks with Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban’s foreign minister.
A number of Afghan political figures, including Ahmad Massoud, Abdul Rashid Dostum, Ismail Khan, Hanif Atmar, Mohammad Mohaqiq and Atta Mohammad Noor, have called for a UN-supervised intra-Afghan peace talks.
Abdullah Qarluq, spokesperson for the National Resistance Council for Salvation of Afghanistan, says three major political movements opposing the Taliban have reached an agreement and are speaking with a unified voice to address the current crisis.