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Afghanistan, US, Russia hold trilateral meeting on Afghan peace process
The Acting Foreign Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar held a trilateral meeting with US Special Peace Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and Russian Special Representative for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov via video teleconference Monday.
The three countries have reiterated their strong commitment to an Afghan-owned peace process and support for safeguarding Afghanistan’s achievements over the past 19 years, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
According to the statement, all sides agreed as follow:
- The Russian and the US Governments welcome the Afghan Government’s commitment and progress towards releasing of the Taliban prisoners as a necessary step towards the early start of the intra-Afghan negotiations. The parties call on the Taliban to reciprocate the Afghan Government’s move by releasing all Afghan Government prisoners held by them consistent with their commitment in the Doha Agreement.
- Recognizing the importance of ensuring a positive atmosphere for the impending negotiations, the parties call for a significant reduction in violence as a confidence-building measure. The Afghan Government’s proposal concerning the establishment of a monitoring mechanism for compliance with ‘Reduction in Violence (RiV) measures and to ensure mutual accountability overall through the peace process is a positive contribution.
- The parties welcome the readiness of both sides to the intra-Afghan negotiations for an early start of the negotiations and expect that an initial meeting between the negotiating teams must be held immediately to agree on the agenda and next steps. Consistent with the Doha Agreement, the parties expect that achieving a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire will be included in the agenda of the intra-Afghan negotiations at the outset.
- The parties agree on the importance of regional and international cooperation as key to sustaining the intra-Afghan negotiations and ultimately to the success of the peace process. In this context, the parties call for further consultations through existing or new inclusive regional and international mechanisms aimed at further strengthening regional and international consensus in support of the peace process.
- The parties agree to meet again in this Trilateral format to discuss the progress made in the intra-Afghan negotiation process. The schedule and details of the next meeting are to be determined through diplomatic channels.
On the other hand, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, described the situation in Afghanistan as “challenging” and said, “NATO will continue to adjust our presence in support of the peace process. But for the peace to succeed, the Taliban must live up to their commitments. To reduce violence, break all bonds with Al Qaida and other international terrorist groups, and engage in intra-Afghan talks in good faith.”
Meanwhile, the Afghan government also speaks about the increase in violence by the Taliban.
The US ambassador to NATO, Bailey Hutchison, underlined that the Intra-Afghan talks is expected to put an end to violence, protect human rights, uphold the rule of law and eliminate terrorist shelters forever.
Sources in the Afghan government have said that an agreement has been reached to hold the first round of the Intra-Afghan talks in Doha in the coming days.
The Taliban, however, has said that negotiation with the government depends on the release of all 5,000 prisoners of the group.
It is noteworthy that more than 3,000 Taliban prisoners have been released by the government so far, and the Taliban too, have released nearly 500 government prisoners.
Some 2,000 other Taliban prisoners are set to be released in a week’s time.
The Embassy of Japan in Afghanistan announced on Friday that the country has allocated $19.5 million in humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan.
In a statement, the Japanese Embassy said it hopes the aid will help bring positive change to the lives of vulnerable Afghans.
According to the statement, the assistance will cover the basic humanitarian needs of vulnerable communities in Afghanistan.
The embassy added that the aid will be delivered through United Nations agencies, international organizations, and Japanese non-governmental organizations operating in Afghanistan.
Japan’s total assistance to Afghanistan since August 2021 has reached more than $549 million.
Security forces at the Islam Qala border in Herat province prevented hundreds of young Afghans from illegally entering Iran.
Officials from the 207 Al-Farooq Army Corps said that around 530 people attempted over the past two days to illegally enter Iranian territory through areas of Kohsan district in Herat, but border forces detained them and transferred them back to their original areas.
Meanwhile, some sources said that a group of 70 people who were heading to Iran on Wednesday through areas of Kohsan district became stranded amid cold weather and snowfall, resulting in the deaths of two of them.
Sources at the Islam Qala border in Herat also confirmed that in recent days hundreds of people have illegally entered Iranian territory through areas of Kohsan district, and that due to severe cold and heavy snowfall, five of them have lost their lives.
President Donald Trump suspended the green card lottery program on Thursday that allowed the suspect in the Brown University and MIT shootings to come to the United States.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on the social platform X that, at Trump’s direction, she is ordering the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to pause the program, the Associated Press reported.
“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” she said of the suspect, Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente.
Neves Valente, 48, is suspected in the shootings at Brown University that killed two students and wounded nine others, and the killing of an MIT professor. He was found dead Thursday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.
Neves Valente had studied at Brown on a student visa beginning in 2000, according to an affidavit from a Providence police detective. In 2017, he was issued a diversity immigrant visa and months later obtained legal permanent residence status, according to the affidavit. It was not immediately clear where he was between taking a leave of absence from the school in 2001 and getting the visa in 2017.
The diversity visa program makes up to 50,000 green cards available each year by lottery to people from countries that are little represented in the U.S., many of them in Africa. The lottery was created by Congress, and the move is almost certain to invite legal challenges.
Nearly 20 million people applied for the 2025 visa lottery, with more than 131,000 selected when including spouses with the winners. After winning, they must undergo vetting to win admission to the United States. Portuguese citizens won only 38 slots.
Lottery winners are invited to apply for a green card. They are interviewed at consulates and subject to the same requirements and vetting as other green-card applicants.
Trump has long opposed the diversity visa lottery. Noem’s announcement is the latest example of using tragedy to advance immigration policy goals. After an Afghan man was identified as the gunman in a fatal attack on National Guard members in November, Trump’s administration imposed sweeping rules against immigration from Afghanistan and other counties.
While pursuing mass deportation, Trump has sought to limit or eliminate avenues to legal immigration. He has not been deterred if they are enshrined in law, like the diversity visa lottery, or the Constitution, as with a right to citizenship for anyone born on U.S. soil. The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear his challenge to birthright citizenship.
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