Gulf states are having to reconsider their alliances and especially whether they can still trust the US, says senior sourceThe Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan is a shattering earthquake that will shape the Middle East for many years, a senior Gulf of…
Pen Farthing ‘so happy’ after Afghan staff left behind escape to Pakistan
Former Royal marine says campaign to get workers and animals from the Nowzad shelter out of the country ‘complete success’Former Royal marine Pen Farthing has said he is “so bloody happy” that his staff who worked at an animal shelter have made it out…
‘They will kill you’: a future leader of Afghanistan on the price he paid for freedom
Mohammad Zaman Khadimi was forced to make an impossible choice as he fled the Taliban for sanctuary in AustraliaOn an August morning, Mohammad Zaman Khadimi walked out of class and into a world entirely changed.“I heard the news that the Taliban were c…
20 years later, unchecked data collection is part of 9/11’s legacy
Twenty years from now, will we look back on this decade as a turning point in protecting and upholding individuals’ right to privacy, or will we still be saying, “Never again,” again and again?
‘Tomorrow they will kill me’: Afghan female police officers live in fear of Taliban reprisals
With at least four women, including a pregnant mother, targeted and killed by Taliban fighters, female ex-officers feel abandoned by the worldNegar Masumi, a female police officer with 15 years of experience, was determined not to flee when the Taliban…
The lesson we failed to learn from 9/11: peace is impossible if we don’t talk to our enemies | Jonathan Powell
We should have engaged with the Taliban 20 years ago, but we thought the winner takes all. It undermined our own armed forcesJonathan Powell was Tony Blair’s chief of staff from 1995 to 2007The fall of Kabul 20 years after 9/11 represents not just the …
Taliban to allow 200 foreigners to leave on charter flights
Departures will be among first international flights to take off from Kabul airport since end of US-led evacuationTwo hundred Americans and other foreigners who remain in Afghanistan were expected to depart the country on charter flights from Kabul on …
The Taliban takeover must not mean the end of international aid to Afghanistan | Christopher de Bellaigue
A humanitarian crisis looms unless Americans and Europeans continue to fund the projects keeping Afghans from oblivionLeaving is the easy bit. It’s the looking back that hurts. There was – as Joe Biden pointed out when announcing America’s defeat at th…
‘Blacklisting’ terrorist groups: the post-9/11 strategy that only serves to prolong wars | Sophie Haspeslagh
The blunt-edged, security-oriented approach allows little space to tackle the root causes of violence and find resolutionSophie Haspeslagh is an assistant professor in political science at the American University in CairoIn the wake of the 9/11 attacks…
US-led meeting to set out framework for Taliban cooperation
Talks involving up to 20 nations come as militants ignore calls to form inclusive government in AfghanistanThe US is convening an expanded group of western nations to set a framework for cooperation with the new Taliban government, amid fears that isol…