Afghanistan Weekly Update (16th June – 23rd June)

16 June 2025

1. Local sources told Amu that Mohammad Saleh, secretary of the Faryab Provincial Council and Almar district governor in the previous government, was killed in an attack by unknown individuals on Sunday.
2. Pakistan’s Express Tribune newspaper reported that negotiations between customs officials and traders were successful, resulting in a temporary exemption from providing a “Certificate of Origin” document for imports from Afghanistan until June 30.
3. Robert Dixon, Chargé d’Affaires of the British Embassy in Afghanistan, met with Pakistan’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Mohammad Sadiq.
4. The Taliban Ministry of Encouraging Good and Forbidding Evil has issued new restrictions on social media users in a new statement.
5. A delegation led by Attaullah Omari, the Taliban’s Minister of Agriculture, travelled to St. Petersburg to attend the Russian Economic Conference 2025.
6. Taliban Minister of Commerce Nooruddin Azizi met with Per Albert Elsass, the Norwegian chargé d’affaires in Islamabad and responsible for Afghan affairs and called for an investigation into Afghanistan’s mines.
7. The Taliban’s Ministry of Borders, Tribes and Nations announced that Haibatullah Akhundzada, the group’s leader, has allocated one billion Afghanis for development projects in seven provinces bordering Pakistan.
8. The Afghan Freedom Front welcomed the recent report by Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Afghanistan, stating that the report presents an accurate picture of the Taliban’s oppressive system and structural discrimination.

 17 June 2025

1. The Taliban’s Ministry of Mines and Petroleum announced on Tuesday that it had terminated the 25-year Amu Darya oil field contract signed between the ministry and the Chinese oil and gas company Afcon.
2. Witnesses told Afghanistan International that the Kafalat office, which is responsible for issuing permits for Afghan citizens to travel from one city to another, has not issued exit permits to Afghans for the past five days.
3. The European Union reviewed the situation in Afghanistan at a two-day meeting in Brussels, warning that four years after the Taliban took power, the country remains in a severe socio-economic crisis.
4. Abdul Salam Hanafi, the administrative deputy to the Taliban Prime Minister, left for China to participate in the 9th China-South Asia Exhibition and Forum.
5. The senior officials’ meeting hosted by the European Union continues for the second consecutive day today, Tuesday, June 17, in Brussels, the capital of Belgium.
6. Andreas Papakonstantinou, European Commission President for the Middle East and Central Asia, said this morning that a new flight from the European Union Humanitarian Air Bridge arrived in Kabul.

18 June 2025

1. An exchange of fire took place between Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorists and Police in Katani Tal area of Dera Ghazi Khan District in Punjab on June 17, reports The Khorasan Diary.
2. The leaders of China, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan met in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, and discussed various regional issues.
3. The Director General of International Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Qatar, in a meeting in Brussels, stressed the importance of strengthening humanitarian efforts in Afghanistan and ensuring that aid reaches the most vulnerable people in the country.
4. Zalmay Khalilzad, former US ambassador to Afghanistan, said about the Pakistani army chief’s visit to the United States that Marshal Asim Munir is trying to convince the United States in Washington to hand over the responsibility of protecting the country’s interests and combating terrorism in Afghanistan to Pakistan.
5. The European Union has announced that it will provide 161 million euros in aid to Afghanistan this year.
6. Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for support for peace and development in Afghanistan at the China-Central Asia summit.
7. “NAI”, an organisation supporting free media in Afghanistan, has expressed concern about the situation of Afghan journalists trapped in Iran and called for their transfer to a third country.
8. The Central Bank of Afghanistan, under Taliban control, has announced that it will auction 15 million US dollars.

19 June 2025

1. The Taliban’s General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) held a high-level internal session on the possible escape of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and al-Qaeda members into Afghanistan, alongside a potential wave of Iranian refugees, Afghanistan International has learned.
2. Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi expressed concern about the current situation in the region during a meeting with Peer Albert Alsas, the Norwegian chargé d’affaires for Afghanistan
3. As military clashes between Iran and Israel intensify, reliable sources told Afghanistan International that Taliban intelligence held a high-level secret meeting yesterday and expressed concern about the possibility of the Islamic Republic’s collapse.
4. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, releasing his quarterly report on Afghanistan, announced that 2,299 security incidents were recorded in the country.
5. Local sources told Afghanistan International that residents of the city of Sharan in the centre of Khash district of Badakhshan protested against the Taliban for destroying poppy fields.
6. British Minister Hamish Faulkner says that half a million vulnerable Afghans are set to be covered by a new food security and nutrition program this year.

20 June 2025

1. During the Iran-Israel war, the Taliban’s agriculture minister announced that Afghanistan was in talks with Russia to import some food.
2. Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban’s interior minister, confirmed at a public gathering in Paktia Province on Friday that financial problems and internal disputes within the Taliban have delayed development projects.
3. Coinciding with World Refugee Day, Amnesty International warned that the continued process of forced deportation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan exposes them to serious human rights violations, including torture, extrajudicial executions, and gender-based harassment.
4. The Afghan Liberation Front has claimed to have killed two Taliban fighters in Kabul city. This front has issued a press release stating that its forces targeted a Taliban checkpoint at the Zourabad intersection, near Sarai Shamali in Kabul city
5. The British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office announced on Friday that Richard Steven Lindsay has been appointed as the British Special Envoy for Afghanistan.

21 June 2025

1. The British newspaper The Guardian has reported that thousands of Afghan citizens who sought refuge in the United States after the Taliban returned to power now face the risk of being forcibly returned to a country where they say they are not safe, with the revocation of their temporary protection status. https://amu.tv/fa/181767/
2. Local sources in Kandahar province confirmed on Saturday, June 21, that Fazal Bari Fazli, the relatively moderate head of the province’s Department of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock, has been removed from his position by the Taliban leadership and placed on suspension.
3. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has rejected UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ quarterly report on the situation in Afghanistan, calling it “false propaganda.”
4. Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi met with Syrian Foreign Minister Asad al-Shaibani on the sidelines of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Istanbul.
5. Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi travelled to Istanbul to participate in the 51st summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

22 June 2025

1. Attaullah Omari, the Taliban’s Minister of Agriculture, has called on Russia to cooperate with the group in building water dams in Afghanistan.
2. The Taliban Supreme Court announced that the group’s primary counter-narcotics court in Kabul had flogged 25 people on charges of selling and smuggling hashish and Zikab tablets.
3. At the meeting of foreign ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries in Istanbul, Pakistani Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar called on the Taliban to fulfil their commitments to combat terrorism and ensure women’s rights.
4. Despite the presence of Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban’s foreign minister, at the meeting of foreign ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul, he is not seen in the group photo of the foreign ministers of the member countries of the organisation.
5. The Deputy Foreign Minister of Turkmenistan, Ahmad Gurbanov, held talks with Paola Pampaloni, Director of the European External Action Service for Asia, about the situation in Afghanistan and regional security.