KABUL: The Taliban on Tuesday rejected claims of foreign interference in their Panjshir Valley takeover, as Iran condemned the group’s capture of the last holdout Afghan province and Indian media alleging the attacks were carried out by a Pakistan Air Force jet to support the group.
On Monday they took complete control of Panjshir, the only province out of 34 that their fighters had not seized during their blitzkrieg last month.
It followed a week of intense clashes between the Taliban and the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, with Iran’s Foreign Ministry denouncing “all foreign interference” in Afghan affairs, alluding to Pakistan.
“We condemn any foreign interference in Afghanistan,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Monday, adding they were investigating reports about the presence of foreign forces in the valley.
Both Pakistan and the Taliban have denied the allegations.
“The Taliban had the capability to conquer Panjshir, and there was no need for any airpower; we deny such allegations,” Enamullah Samangani, the group’s cultural commission member, told Arab News.
Pakistan military spokesperson Maj. Gen. Babar Iftikhar described reports of the country’s involvement in the Panjshir strikes as “completely false and irrational propaganda.”
“Whatever is happening inside Afghanistan, Pakistan has nothing to do with it. Be it Panjshir or anywhere else,” the BBC reported him as saying.
The BBC report also quoted unnamed military officials saying that Pakistan did not have the drone technology to hit targets at a long distance.
Iran, which shares a 900-km border with Afghanistan, had refused to recognize the Taliban during their previous rule from 1996 to 2001 before the group was ousted from power in a US-led invasion.
Tehran’s rebuke followed Indian media reports claiming a “full-fledged Pakistani invasion” of Afghanistan.
News channels Times Now, Republic TV and Zee Hindustan aired footage from a video game as “visuals of a PAF jet” targeting anti-Taliban groups in Panjshir.
While Pakistan has yet to comment on the matter, several Twitter users debunked the claims, calling for a fact-check.
Michael Kugelman, deputy director at the US-based Wilson Center, said: “Some Indian TV media have used video game images instead of real footage (of which there is very little available) to depict the assault in Panjshir. This may sound zany for the uninitiated, and yet it’s not the first time — happened during the Balakot crisis too, back in 2019.”
Political analysts, however, believed that accusations of foreign invasion in Panjshir must be investigated and called on the international community to take a clear stand on the current events in Afghanistan.
“If such a thing has happened, then the neighboring countries must stop their interference as Afghanistan has got a new opportunity,” Ahmad Saeedi, a Kabul-based political analyst, told Arab News.
Meanwhile, the Taliban on Tuesday fired shots into the air to disperse crowds that had gathered for an anti-Pakistan rally in Kabul to protest against Islamabad’s alleged role in supporting the Taliban.
“We do not want any foreigner to come to Kabul as there is no government in the country,” Rabia Malik, a 35-year-old protester, told Arab News.
Other demonstrators called on the Taliban to end the “current chaos” in the country where, despite three weeks after the Taliban’s return to power, banks and public offices remain closed.
“The current situation is not in favor of the Taliban nor others. We call on the Islamic Emirate to unveil their government and end the current chaos in the country,” Ahmadullah Ibrahimi, a 24-year-old Kabul resident, told Arab News.
Taliban deny foreign interference claims by Iran; Pakistan rejects role in Panjshir capture
https://arab.news/76tkh
Taliban deny foreign interference claims by Iran; Pakistan rejects role in Panjshir capture
- Indian media use video game images to depict ‘attacks’
Russia and Ukraine trade attacks as US and European officials prepare for peace talks
Moscow pounded Ukrainian power infrastructure with drone and missile strikes on Saturday and Kyiv launched a deadly strike of its own on southwestern Russia, a day before talks involving senior European and US officials aimed at ending the war were set to resume.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian, US and European officials will hold a series of meetings in Berlin in the coming days, adding that he will personally meet with US President Donald Trump’s envoys.
“Most importantly, I will be meeting with envoys of President Trump, and there will also be meetings with our European partners, with many leaders, concerning the foundation of peace — a political agreement to end the war,” Zelensky said in an address to the nation late Saturday.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner are traveling to Berlin for the talks, according to a White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
American officials have tried for months to navigate the demands of each side as Trump presses for a swift end to Russia’s war and grows increasingly exasperated by delays. The search for possible compromises has run into major obstacles, including which combatant will get control of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, which is mostly occupied by Russian forces.
“The chance is considerable at this moment, and it matters for our every city, for our every Ukrainian community,” Zelensky said. “We are working to ensure that peace for Ukraine is dignified, and to secure a guarantee — a guarantee, above all — that Russia will not return to Ukraine for a third invasion.”
As diplomats push for peace, the war grinds on.
Russia attacked five Ukrainian regions overnight, targeting the country’s energy and port infrastructure. Zelensky said the attacks involved more than 450 drones and 30 missiles. And with temperatures hovering around freezing, Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said more than a million people were without electricity.
An attack on Odesa caused grain silos to catch fire at the coastal city’s port, Ukrainian deputy prime minister and reconstruction minister Oleksiy Kuleba said. Two people were wounded in attacks on the wider Odesa region, according to regional head Oleh Kiper.
Kyiv and its allies say Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, light and running water for a fourth consecutive winter, in what Ukrainian officials call “weaponizing” the cold.
The drone attack in Russia’s Saratov region damaged a residential building and killed two people, said the regional governor, Roman Busargin, who didn’t offer further details. Busragin said the attack also shattered windows at a kindergarten and clinic. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it shot down 41 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight.
On the front lines, Ukrainian forces said Saturday that the northern part of Pokrovsk was under Ukrainian control, despite Russia’s claims this month that it had taken full control of the critical city. The Associated Press was not able to independently verify the claims.
The latest attacks came after Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov reaffirmed Friday that Moscow will give its blessing to a ceasefire only after Ukraine’s forces have withdrawn from parts of the Donetsk region that they still control.
Ukraine has consistently refused to cede the remaining part of the region to Russia.
Ushakov told the business daily Kommersant that Russian police and national guard troops would stay in parts of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas even if they become a demilitarized zone under a prospective peace plan — a demand likely to be rejected by Ukraine as US-led negotiations drag on.
Ushakov warned that a search for compromise could take a long time, noting that the US proposals that took into account Russian demands had been “worsened” by alterations proposed by Ukraine and its European allies.
“We don’t know what changes they are making, but clearly they aren’t for the better,” Ushakov said, adding: “We will strongly insist on our considerations.”
In other developments, about 480 people were evacuated Saturday from a train traveling between the Polish city of Przemysl and Kyiv after police received a call concerning a threat on the train, Karolina Kowalik, a spokesperson for the Przemysl police, told The Associated Press. Nobody was hurt and she didn’t elaborate on the threat.
Polish authorities are on high alert since multiple attempts to disrupt trains on the line linking Warsaw to the Ukrainian border, including the use of explosives in November, with Polish authorities saying they have evidence Russia was behind it.
