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UN says ISIS-K remains key threat to international security
The United Nations Secretary-General in a recent report has warned that ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K) remains a key threat to international security.
Several members of the United Nations Security Council in a recent meeting have also raised alarm over the growing threat posed by ISIS-K in Afghanistan, Europe, and Central Asia. They warn that the group remains actively engaged in recruiting fighters and soliciting financial support across these regions.
Dorothy Shea, Acting U.S. Representative to the UN, told the Security Council: “ISIL-K’s recruitment of minors, determination to conduct global terror attacks, and its reign of bombings throughout South Asia and Europe is abhorrent and unacceptable.”
The meeting was held to discuss the 21st report of the UN Secretary-General on the threat posed by ISIS. The report warns that despite the killing of several of its top leaders, ISIS continues to retain significant operational capability.
Vladimir Voronkov, UN Under-Secretary-General for Counter-Terrorism, said: “In Afghanistan, ISIL-Khorasan continues to represent one of the most serious threats to Central Asia and beyond. The group has targeted civilians, minority groups, and foreign nationals, while exploiting discontent with the de facto authorities.”
Representatives from China, Pakistan, and other countries echoed the concerns, calling on the Islamic Emirate to take stronger measures against terrorism.
Geng Shuang, China’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, said: “We call on countries in the region to enhance political trust and make full use of platforms, including the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, to strengthen practical counter-terrorism cooperation. We noted that the United States Government has recently designated BLA and its Majeed Brigade as terrorist organizations. We hope the Council can follow suit and include this organization in the 1267 sanctions list as soon as possible.”
Pakistan’s UN representative, Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, while acknowledging that the Islamic Emirate has been fighting ISIS-K, said the threat from various other terrorist groups, TTP and Baloch militant groups, which have sought refuge in ungoverned spaces in Afghanistan, remains unaddressed.
In response, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) has rejected the claims, stating that ISIS has no operational presence in the country and that such reports are exaggerated and serve only to promote fear.
The head of IEA’s intelligence agency recently reiterated that ISIS, although once imposed on Afghanistan, has now been eliminated.
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, officials in the local administration of Herat said that due to severe cold along the illegal migration route to Iran, three Afghan migrants have lost their lives in the Kohsan district of the province, and a shepherd has also died there for the same reason.
Mohammad Yousuf Saeedi, spokesperson for the Herat governor’s office, said that some statistics and images shared on social media regarding the incident are not reliable.
According to him, further investigations are underway to determine whether any individuals have died on the other side of the border.
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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