August 17, 2021, Afghanistan-Taliban news

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said Tuesday that there would be “no violence against women” in Afghanistan and assured members of the international community that they “should not be concerned” on this matter, but added that they should respect the Taliban’s “core values” on women.

Talking about the rights of women is a change in approach from how the Taliban has approached the issue previously. However, Taliban officials did not go into detail, so the reality of what that will look like remains to be seen.

When the Taliban captured Kabul in 1996, the Sunni Islamist organization put in place strict rules. Women had to wear head-to-toe coverings, weren't allowed to study or work and were forbidden from traveling alone. TV, music and non-Islamic holidays were also banned under their rule at the time.

“Our sisters and mothers — as has been said in Sharia law, which is our value — women are an important part of society,” Mujahid said today during a televised press conference from Kabul.  

He provided no specific details about what "the framework of Islamic law" meant in their interpretation.

Pressed on whether Afghan women will be able to go to work, Mujahid said that the rights of women will be determined within the framework of Sharia Law. 

“Yes, with regards to women, as I stated earlier, it will be within the framework of Sharia Law. In all sectors in society, where they are required, it will be within this framework,” Mujahid said. 

The events of the last few weeks show a military and political collapse "at a speed which had not been anticipated," Jens Stoltenberg, NATO's Secretary General, said as he expressed deep sadness over the events unfolding in Afghanistan on Tuesday.

“Parts of the Afghan security forces fought bravely, but they were unable to secure the country, because, ultimately, the Afghan political leadership failed to stand up to the Taliban and achieve the peaceful solution that Afghans desperately wanted,” Stoltenberg told journalists at a virtual press conference.

“This failure of Afghan leadership led to the tragedy we are witnessing today,” he added. 

Stoltenberg also addressed NATO's engagement in the country, saying it needs an honest assessment. 

He described the dilemma NATO allies faced around the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan. Troops could either leave and risk seeing the Taliban regain control – or stay and risk renewed attacks and an open-ended combat mission, he said, adding, "We never intended to stay in Afghanistan forever."

Stoltenberg added that while the risk of the Taliban regaining control was clear when the block decided to end its military presence, the speed of the Taliban's seizure was a surprise. The big question to ask is why the forces, which NATO trained, supported and equipped, weren't able to stand up to the Taliban in a stronger way, he said.

NATO's focus currently is to ensure the safe departure of personnel from allied and partner countries as well as Afghan nationals, who have worked for them, Stoltenberg said. Around 800 NATO civilian personnel, working for example in air traffic control, have remained at Kabul's international airport, working under challenging circumstances, according to Stoltenberg.

"I would like to thank them," he said. Operations at the airport are resuming, and allies are sending additional airplanes.

The Secretary General urged the Taliban to respect safe departures of all those wishing to leave. 

An Afghan interpreter who assisted US military and coalition forces on the ground in Afghanistan says he feels abandoned as he struggles to get a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV).

The interpreter, who has fled Afghanistan and spoke to CNN without appearing on camera, remained anonymous as he fears for his safety. He told CNN's Jim Sciutto that he is afraid the Taliban will attack him.

"I worked for US coalition Army special foreign coalition forces... for about ten years. So I was highly known and targeted by them. And the people like me, they are never forgiving them and never forgetting them," the interpreter told CNN.

He said that if he stayed in Afghanistan, that he would have died. He believes the country will become violent under Taliban rule.

"At night they come to your houses, they put hand grenades on them, they kill your kids, they kill the interpreters. So the interpreters are the people that they will never forgive them," he said, noting that the Taliban have been calling interpreters the "most dangerous enemy" because they are the "eyes in front of the US forces."

The interpreter said that after a lengthy process to get an interview with the US embassy, when he applied for a visa with the embassy, it was rejected.

Watch the interview:

Yesterday, President Biden said that in the coming days the US military will provide assistance to evacuate more Afghans eligible for special immigration visas and their families to the US.

The President on Monday claimed that the reason evacuations of SIV applicants were not conducted sooner — perhaps the biggest criticism his administration has received since announcing the withdrawal — was because some Afghans did not want to leave before the situation became dire. He again sought to blame the Afghan government, claiming its leaders were afraid of the optics.

CNN's Kevin Liptak, Jeff Zeleny, Kaitlan Collins, Jennifer Hansler and Maegan Vazquez contributed reporting to this post. 

Pakistan’s recognition of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan will come in the form of a “regional decision” according to Pakistan’s minister of information Fawad Chaudhry on Tuesday. 

Chaudhry was speaking at a news conference after a cabinet meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan. The cabinet meeting was held to appraise all members of the decisions of the National Security Council meeting held on Monday.

During the press briefing, Chaudhry also stressed that Pakistan will not make any decision on recognizing the Taliban regime “in isolation” and that the decision will be a “multilateral one” made “in consultation” with regional and international powers.

Chaudhry also stressed that Pakistan expects the Taliban to follow internationally recognized human rights.

He criticized Ashraf Ghani’s former Afghan government for pushing “only one major ethnic group” in Afghanistan and excluding other groups. 

Chaudhry further said Prime Minister Imran Khan also had a detailed discussion with his Turkish counterpart a day ago on the Afghanistan situation, while the US secretary of state had spoken to Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on the same topic.

There are approximately 5,000 to 10,000 Americans "near Kabul" in Afghanistan, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said during an interview with CNN’s John Berman on New Day. 

“We think there are certainly thousands of Americans. We don’t have an exact count. I would say somewhere best guess between 5 and 10,000 near Kabul,” Kirby said. 

Kirby said Americans in Kabul no longer need to shelter in place. The State Department put out a message “advising those Americans about how to queue up and get to the airport,” Kirby said.

“They can begin movement to the airport for processing flights out,” he added. 

Taliban co-founder and deputy leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar has arrived in Afghanistan, Muhammad Naeem Wardak, the spokesperson for the Taliban’s political bureau, said Tuesday. 

A source with knowledge of Baradar’s movements confirmed to CNN earlier on Tuesday that he had departed from Doha, Qatar, for Afghanistan's Kandahar province. 

The deputy leader and co-founder of the Taliban movement hasn’t set foot in Afghanistan in 20 years. He currently heads the Taliban’s political bureau.

In 2010 he was arrested in neighboring Pakistan by the country’s security forces and released in 2018 when the US intensified efforts to leave Afghanistan.

Russian Ambassador to Afghanistan Dmitry Zhirnov said he had a positive and constructive meeting in Kabul with representatives of the Taliban on Tuesday.

"There will be no obstacles to the embassy's activities. There will be no deterioration in status compared to the previous government. All our needs will be met," he added.

The ambassador stressed that this meeting was of a purely technical nature. He said the Taliban representative asked not to disclose his name.

Right now the US does not have a plan to get Afghans in other parts of the country to the airport in Kabul to be evacuated – despite them having previously helped the United States.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said he knows the US has an "obligation" to help these people and their families but "right now our focus is on the airport itself and making sure it stays safe and secure."

"There is an awful lot that has to be done in that," he said.

Kirby said people in other parts of Afghanistan should apply for visas and consult with State Department officials to get themselves enrolled. He said, from there, the US will help them get out of Kabul, but he did not say if there was a plan to help them travel to the capital city.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby confirmed at a news conference today that US military commanders have had communication with the Taliban.

Asked by CNN's Barbara Starr to clarify if US military personnel are the ones talking to Taliban leaders, Kirby said, "Our commanders in the operation have had communication with Taliban leaders."

Kirby would not get into the details of “how those discussions are progressing,” but said US military leaders are interacting with the Taliban “multiple times a day,” at the airport. Kirby said he would “let the results speak for themselves,” referring to the relative stability that has been established at the airport, allowing military planes to fly in and out since yesterday.

In a follow-up question, Starr asked the Pentagon spokesman if it's the United States' 82nd airborne division that is in the command at the airport and the general is the one talking to the Taliban, Kirby said, "I'm not going to talk about specific conversations...or who is having what" interactions.