War in Afghanistan

The Taliban on Sept. 6 said their officials held discussions on the situation in Afghanistan with Turkey's ambassador to the country.

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Suhail Shaheen, a Taliban spokesman, said on Twitter that Qari Din Mohammad Hanif, head of Taliban's Political Office Department for Turkey and Russia, met with Turkish Ambassador Cihad Erginay in Kabul on Sunday.

It is not clear why the Taliban do not allow people to fly to the rescue, and the official explanation is that the planes are full of Afghans who do not have passports and visas, and that is the only reason why they cannot leave the country.

Taliban fighters advanced deep into the last holdout province of Panjshir on Sept. 5, as the top U.S. general warned Afghanistan faces a wider civil war that would offer fertile ground for a resurgence of terrorism.

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Afghan female filmmakers who fled the Taliban begged the world to not forget the Afghan people and to support its artists, warning on Sept. 4 that a country without culture will eventually lose its identity.

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Ljubljana – A group of five Afghans who worked with the EU delegation in the country has arrived in Slovenia along with their family members, the Foreign Ministry has confirmed for the STA. In all, 19 Afghans have thus arrived in Slovenia after withdrawing from the country in the wake of the Taliban taking over.

Ljubljana – The newspaper Dnevnik writes about “mouse steps” the EU is making toward its strategic autonomy in Saturday’s commentary whose headline says the same.

The U.S. is "working closely" with its allies in Turkey and Qatar on quickly reopening Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sept. 3.

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"We're working closely with our partners Qatar and Turkey to help get the airport in Kabul up and running as quickly as possible," he told reporters at the State Department.

The Taliban are due to form a government within days despite fighting in Afghanistan's Panjshir Valley where forces battling the hardline Islamists say they are enduring "heavy" assaults.

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Brdo pri Kranju – The EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell has announced that EU foreign ministers have agreed on five benchmarks which will form the basis for the bloc to engage in cooperation with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Afghans were still awaiting the formation of a new government on Friday, days after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of US troops.

A Taliban spokesperson told AFP that no inauguration ceremony was planned until Saturday at the earliest, while previous announcements indicated that it could take place after Friday prayers.