The Russian president has asked the United States and its allies to bear the lion’s share of funding Afghanistan’s reconstruction. Vladimir Putin made the remarks during a meeting with his Turkmen counterpart Serdar Berdimuhamedov in Moscow on Friday. The state-run TASS news agency quoted the Russian leaser as stressing that the main obligations for the reconstruction of Afghanistan should be […]

Ariana Afghan Airlines says its revenue has increased in the past few months and that it is now looking to buy four more planes. The company’s officials said that procurement of one new plane is almost complete. “It was agreed that we would provide them with a bank guarantee and they would bring the aircraft to Sharjah,” Rahmatullah Agha, head […]

Abdullah Abdullah, the former chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, returned to Afghanistan on Saturday after spending six weeks in India visiting family. On his arrival, Abdullah urged the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) to provide a peaceful life for the people. “I hope that the people of Afghanistan live under justice and prosperity in this country,” he […]

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) finances appear to be in much better shape than expected, The Economist magazine said in an article published Wednesday. The British media outlet said that when the IEA seized power, it seemed obvious that they would struggle to administer a country of 40 million, especially for lack of money. “Yet the new government’s finances […]

The United States and its allies should assume the main obligations for the post-war reconstruction of Afghanistan, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday. “According to our firm conviction, the main obligations for the reconstruction of Afghanistan, first of all financial, should be undertaken by the United States and its allies, whose twenty-year presence has brought this country to the […]

The future of Afghanistan remains deeply uncertain – mostly because the Taliban have not decided what path they will chart for their new government, as Crisis Group expert Graeme Smith discovered in Kabul. The Taliban are still finding their way around Kabul, the capital they took with the rest of Afghanistan last summer, and some of the former insurgents look […]

An international human rights defender is urging the United Nations to “reconceptualize” its travel ban on the leadership of Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban to pressure them into respecting rights of all Afghans, particularly women and girls. Human Rights Watch said in a statement Thursday that “a grave human rights crisis has been unfolding” in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over the […]

Pakistan continues to reel from uncertainty as its political transition — ill-timed during a period of domestic and global economic tumult — has yet to consolidate. Political volatility during the new governing coalition’s first two months in power has led to policy paralysis. But this paralysis has begun to ease as the army has signaled support for the government and […]

Qatar’s National Security Adviser Mohammed bin Ahmed Al-Misnad reaffirmed Doha’s commitment to cooperate with Afghanistan in political, economic and social areas as he visited Kabul on Thursday. In his meeting with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, deputy prime minister of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), Al-Misnad expressed his satisfaction over the rule of IEA in Afghanistan, according to an IEA […]

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, has thanked Russia for maintaining “friendly relations” with IEA over the past two decades. Speaking in a ceremony held on the occasion of the National Day of the Russian Federation at the Russian Embassy in Kabul, Stanikzai also suggested that Russia’s political support for the […]