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Taliban Leader Dismisses Foreign ‘Threats’

 A poster of Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada along a road in Kabul (Wakil KOHSAR / AFP/File) 
 A poster of Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada along a road in Kabul (Wakil KOHSAR / AFP/File) 
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Taliban Leader Dismisses Foreign ‘Threats’

 A poster of Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada along a road in Kabul (Wakil KOHSAR / AFP/File) 
 A poster of Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada along a road in Kabul (Wakil KOHSAR / AFP/File) 

Afghanistan's supreme leader affirmed on Tuesday that the Taliban will not be intimidated by “threats” in a speech given days after the International Criminal Court prosecutor requested a warrant for his arrest and another Taliban leader over gender-based persecution.

“Whether Westerners or Easterners, how could we believe them and not almighty God's promises! How can we allow ourselves to be affected by their threats!” Hibatullah Akhundzada said in a recording of a speech shared with journalists on Tuesday.

The address was given at a graduation ceremony for religious scholars in southern Kandahar province on Monday, the governor's spokesman, Mahmood Azzam, told AFP.

Last Thursday, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor announced he had requested arrest warrants for two top Afghan Taliban officials for the repression of women.

Karim Khan said in a statement he asked judges to approve warrants for the group’s supreme leader, and the head of Afghanistan’s Supreme Court, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, accusing the men of crimes against humanity for gender-based persecution.

Taliban members are “Muslims who stand for what is right and cannot be harmed by anybody. If anyone stands against them, from the West or East, nobody can harm them,” Akhundzada said.

Since sweeping back to power in 2021 -- ousting the Western-backed government and ending a 20-year insurgency -- the Taliban authorities have implemented their own strict interpretation of Islamic law.

They have imposed restrictions on women and girls the United Nations has characterized as “gender apartheid.”

Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls and women are banned from education.

Women have been ordered to cover their hair and faces and have been barred from parks and stopped from working in government offices.

ICC judges will now consider Khan’s application before deciding whether to issue an arrest warrant - a process that could take weeks or even months.

The court, based in The Hague, was set up to rule on the world’s worst crimes such as war crimes and crimes against humanity.

It has no police force of its own and relies on its 125 member states to carry out its arrest warrants - with mixed results.

 

 

 

 

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Russia Removes Afghan Taliban from List of Banned Terrorist Groups

Russia's Supreme Court judge Oleg Nefyodov delivers a verdict lifting a ban on Afghanistan's Taliban, who were designated as a terrorist group more than two decades ago, in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP)
Russia's Supreme Court judge Oleg Nefyodov delivers a verdict lifting a ban on Afghanistan's Taliban, who were designated as a terrorist group more than two decades ago, in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP)
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Russia Removes Afghan Taliban from List of Banned Terrorist Groups

Russia's Supreme Court judge Oleg Nefyodov delivers a verdict lifting a ban on Afghanistan's Taliban, who were designated as a terrorist group more than two decades ago, in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP)
Russia's Supreme Court judge Oleg Nefyodov delivers a verdict lifting a ban on Afghanistan's Taliban, who were designated as a terrorist group more than two decades ago, in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP)

Russia on Thursday suspended its ban on the Taliban, which it had designated for more than two decades as a terrorist organization, in a move that paves the way for Moscow to normalize ties with the leadership of Afghanistan.

No country currently recognizes the Taliban government that seized power in August 2021 as US-led forces staged a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of war. But Russia has been gradually building relations with the movement, which President Vladimir Putin said last year was now an ally in fighting terrorism.

The Taliban was outlawed by Russia as a terrorist movement in 2003. State media said the Supreme Court on Thursday lifted the ban with immediate effect.

Russia sees a need to work with the Taliban as it faces a major security threat from extremist militant groups based in a string of countries from Afghanistan to the Middle East.

"Russia aims to build mutually beneficial ties with Afghanistan in all areas, including the fight against drugs and terrorism," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. It added that Moscow was grateful to Afghanistan for military operations against the local branch of ISIS.

Moscow also aims to strengthen trade, business and investment ties with Kabul, leveraging Afghanistan's strategic position for future energy and infrastructure projects, the ministry statement said.

In March 2024, gunmen killed 145 people at a concert hall outside Moscow in an attack claimed by ISIS. US officials said they had intelligence indicating it was the Afghan branch of the group, ISIS Khorasan (ISIS-K), that was responsible.

The Taliban says it is working to wipe out the presence of ISIS in Afghanistan.

Western diplomats say the Taliban's path towards wider international recognition is blocked until it changes course on women's rights. The Taliban has closed high schools and universities to girls and women and placed restrictions on their movement without a male guardian.