RFE/RL: Mr. President, the people of Afghanistan have different concerns. So far as we know and read in the reports, security is the top concern of the Afghan people. In the past 18 months, the security situation in the southern and eastern provinces -- even in the Tagau and Nejrab areas close to Kabul -- has deteriorated. From your point of view, why has the security situation become so bad? Why are the opponents of the central government attacking and committing suicide bombings?

Hamid Karzai: In the name of God the all merciful and forgiving, without doubt the security situation in Afghanistan in the past 1 1/2 to two years has deteriorated. And there are different reasons for this. This situation also is a cause of concern for us. One reason is that our security forces in different areas and districts -- and particularly in those areas where we are facing attacks -- are very weak. Two or 2 1/2 years ago, the people of Kandahar informed me, and the people of Helmand informed me, that the police forces in the districts are very weak. Their numbers are limited and they are not well-equipped.

I started talking with the international community about it and tried to get more support for our police forces. At first, it was decided that the number of police in the [Afghan National Police] force would be 62,000. We told the foreigners that the material and financial support that they are offering is limited and should be increased. We told them that the amount of support is not enough to train so many police. These discussions continued for a long time. Finally, six months ago, the international community was convinced that our security forces in the districts are, indeed, very limited -- and that they would give us more support in this regard.

And so it was decided that we hire local people in the districts and train them to be police because this is our tradition -- that people take care of their own security. In this way, the number of police was increased from 62,000 to 82,000 people. Furthermore, it was decided that the income of these people would be increased and that they would be given better equipment. This means we have increased the size of our police force by 20,000. This means it was our own weakness -- the weakness of our system and the weakness of our government. We did not have enough police and our police were not trained.

RFE/RL: And all these efforts caused new problems and people began complaining that you have created new militia forces. Is that correct?

Karzai: Yes. While we were talking with the foreigners I told them that if you don't agree very quickly, we will be exposed to attacks. People are crossing our borders. They burn our schools. They kill our children. They destroy our houses and assassinate our clerics and our tribal leaders. So [I told the international community] if you don't agree with me soon to raise the number of our police and give them better training and equipment, then I will be forced to use local measures. Local measures means that I invite the local elders and ask them for their help -- to send their young people to defend the country. The foreigners had the impression that we were going to create local militia forces. The fact is that the Afghan people don't like militia forces at all. But the foreigners didn't realize this. They couldn't differentiate between the local people and the militia forces. This was the first reason.

The second reason is that Afghanistan over the past 30 years was always faced with foreign interference -- the meddling of the neighboring countries. Little by little, Afghanistan lost its sovereignty. Every neighboring country had its own interests and their own people in Afghanistan. And Afghanistan itself had no voice. It appeared that Afghanistan was an independent country. But in reality, it wasn't independent at all.

When the new government was established, when the international community entered Afghanistan, and when Afghanistan stood again on its own feet in the international arena as an independent and respected country, those elements who were supported by foreign [neighboring] countries -- and were governing this country and were abusing this country -- it was hard for them to accept the new realities. [It was hard for them] to tolerate a new and independent Afghanistan with its own identity and flag and whose leaders would appear as the equals of other leaders in the world and delivering speeches like the leaders of the rest of the world.

So in order to weaken this development and progress, to end the improvements that were introduced to the life of this country and change Afghanistan back to a country that they could govern again, they started sabotage acts in our country. So they sent their bombs, their destructive weapons, and most of all, they used our own sons -- those who were uneducated and poor. With lots of tricks and hypocrisy, they deceived our sons and sent them back to Afghanistan to fight against us. They started broad propaganda. For example, in neighboring Pakistan they are creating propaganda that there is no Islam in Afghanistan -- that there is no call to prayer in Afghanistan. And, God forbid, they are saying that there are only infidels in Afghanistan and that Afghanistan is not moving toward progress and prosperity. [They say] that the Afghan people are becoming hungry and facing calamity.

From the other side, our own publicity was very weak. So, to make it short, I can tell you that the first reason was foreign meddling, terrorism, and the creation of fear in Afghanistan. This means the foreigners were training extremists and terrorists against us and making negative propaganda against us. The other reason was our own internal weakness.

RFE/RL: Mr President, you mentioned that foreign countries -- especially Pakistan -- are meddling in the internal affairs of Afghanistan and that they are using Afghan youth to carry out terrorist attacks against Afghanistan. Recently, you said that you invited [former Taliban leader] Mullah Mohammad Omar and [former Prime Minister and head of the Hizb-e Islami] Gulbuddin Hekmatyar for talks. You said that if they are ready for talks, that you would open a dialogue with them. This happened at a time when the chief of Afghanistan's Peace and Reconcilliation Commission, Sebghatullah Mujaddedi, called Hekmatyar a murderer. And the international forces call these people terrorists. The people of Afghanistan are asking how this can happen. What is your comment on this?

Karzai: Mr. Mujaddedi said that these people can come and talk. And we are ready to talk about peace with them. But the government of Afghanistan and the Peace and Reconcilliation Commission cannot take responsibility for their past or for what they have committed. Rather, the people of Afghanistan and the parliament should make the decision about what they have done in the past. So it is up to the people and the parliament to decide whether to forgive them or not.

RFE/RL: Some of your opponents claim that the agreement between the government and the tribal elders of the Musaqala District of Helmand Province is a compromise with the Taliban. What is your reaction to this?

Karzai: This is really an important issue. There are some suspicions in society about this. And these suspicions should be removed. Two or three months ago, the governor of Helmand Province approached me and said that the British forces want to leave this area. [He said] the elders of this district told the [provincial] government that they have problems with air strikes and military operations -- which were really going on there. These people suggested that they will ask the Taliban to stop their operations in this district. The elders said that the Afghan government should also do something so that the Taliban would not have any reason to carry out attacks in this district. These elders had drafted an agreement. [The governor of Helmand said that] he, himself, had read that agreement. And then [the governor] added that some tribal leaders and elders want to see me.

So they came [to Kabul] at the beginning of the month of Ramazan. And I talked with them. Afghanistan is fundamentally a democratic country. Our life is based on jirgas [councils] and talking with tribal elders. In every part of our country where the elders, the tribal leaders, and the religious leaders who guide society all cooperate, there is peace and the government will function. If they do not cooperate, then nothing will work. It is like this in every democratic society in the world. So I am deeply convinced that the people could organize their lives better and advance their situation and bring peace to society. If they want this, they can achieve it. That is the reason that I accepted the advice of these tribal elders.

So I agreed with them and I told them: 'Fine. Do your preparations. But the schools must remain open. There should be peace and the local police will be trained and sent to your districts.' The elders [of the Musaqala district] promised me that there will not be any saboteurs allowed in this district. They said they would return to Musaqala and see how things work. They said that if things are not working, they would let me know. Later, they sent me a video from there. The video showed that they had convened a big meeting there. It was a big jirga. And the elders and the tribal leaders spoke at this jirga and they said in their speeches that they want peace. They don't want destruction. And they said they will not let those who destroy Afghanistan enter their district. These elders asked the government for more help in reconstruction. They asked for the reconstruction of their mosque. And we accepted all of that.

This means that I trust everything these elders say. I trust them and I accept them. They are the true sons of this country and they are more faithful than anyone else in this country. But I have received two reports recently. One report says that a very respected religious leader named Nurul Haq Akhundzada has been threatened by people who seem to be Taliban, or are Taliban. They have not only threatened him, but also humiliated him. I talked about this with the governor [of Helmand]. And now, I am going to talk about this with the elders who have come to Kabul again. Another tribal leader has disappeared. These two incidents need to be investigated. If it is proven that the Taliban entered this district and have committed these crimes, in that case, there will be lots of suspicion about this agreement. And the elders of this district should answer to me about why this has happened. There should be peace in that district and the rule of law should be practiced. There should be governmental institutions and the constitution of Afghanistan should be implemented. If that is not the case, then there will be doubts about this agreement. In that case, the government will be forced to intervene and get rid of these destructive elements.

RFE/RL: Now that we are talking about the security problems in the southern part of Afghanistan, I'm sure that in your private discussions with NATO that you have asked them to bring some changes to their strategies to avoid the killing of innocent local people. However, this has not been done. Rather, the number of civilian deaths have increased. Even recently, many innocent people were killed in Helmand Province. How can this be avoided?

Karzai: Yes. Unfortunately, in this war against terrorism, ordinary Afghans have suffered a lot. They were sacrificed and they tolerated a lot of suffering. After the tragedy of September 11[, 2001] in New York, when the international forces entered Afghanistan and started the war against terrorism, we began to say that this war is in our interest because the people of Afghanistan wanted to free themselves from the visible and invisible foreign occupation, from the the calamity of terrorism, and from foreign interference. This was the reason that we have joined hands with the international community.

The terrorists not only occupied us -- they killed our people, martyred our sons, burned our vineyards, destroyed our villages and towns, and tried to create hostility among the people of our country. They also were humiliating our history and our cultural identity. So it was very important for us that a force enter this country and help to save us. This was the reason that the Afghan nation decided to join hands with the international community and that we cooperated with them. This was also the reason that we accepted a very high number of sacrifices. Many parts of our country were bombarded. In different operations of the war against terrorism, many houses were destroyed. But the people accepted all this.

Now, the more progress we make and the more our system is established, the degree of our tolerance toward terrorist activity is decreasing. This means that we expect such terrorist activities will decrease. And that is the reason that we, for the past 3 1/2 years -- if not every day then certainly on a weekly basis -- discuss the issues of terrorism with the international community. And to find out how we can lower the threats of terrorism in this country. It is normal that in antiterrorism operations there are casualties. But we are trying very much, by developing and using new mechanisms, to avoid casualties. Many things have decreased. For example, the number of searches of Afghan houses [by coalition forces] has gone down. And many other problems are being reduced. But it is true still that air strikes are killing people. We have asked [NATO and the United States] to avoid such casualties.They are also trying very hard. We all try our best to reduce casualties as much as possible. Especially through air strikes. But this can only happen if, instead of looking for terrorists on Afghan soil, we look to the real sources of terrorism -- which is outside of Afghanistan -- and get rid of them. Afghanistan proposed this long ago -- that we should look for the real sources of terrorism outside of the country. We once again propose that we should go to the real sources, to the places where the terrorists get their financing, to the places where they are getting their training. There are no terrorists in Afghanistan. There are no extremists or destructive people in this country. Yes, there are thieves. It is true that there are insecurities because of criminal activities there. But we don't have terrorists in Afghanistan. And we hope that the international community will focus on the real sources of terrorism.

RFE/RL: It is good that you mentioned the real source of terrorism. Many people think that it is Pakistan. But in recent days, and particularly on November 8, there was a big suicide attack against recruits at a military training center in Pakistan. There was also an explosion in Quetta, Pakistan. Is this a result of the actions and reactions of terrorist groups?

Karzai: I am not saying that. The Afghan government does not say that the source of terrorism is in Pakistan. No matter where the source of terrorism is, the Afghan government says that the world should [support us]. A lot has been done in this regard. And we have reached agreements. Wherever the source of terrorism is, wherever the terrorists are financed, we should stand against them. If these centers are in Afghanistan, the world should come and tell us. You see that [NATO and coalition forces] go out every day in Afghanistan in search of terrorists. But if these centers are in Pakistan or in another country, then we should approach those areas and take measures to stop them. I am very sorry about the events [of November 8] in Pakistan that caused the deaths of 42 Pakistani soldiers in a suicide attack. This must show us very clearly that this campaign, this jihad against terrorism, is the duty for all of us. And we should fight this jihad together.

I have told the government of Pakistan -- my brother, the president of Pakistan, Mr. [Pervez] Musharraf -- that Afghanistan is a brother of his country. Afghanistan is his friend and his partner. And the interests of Afghanistan lie in a progressive, stable Pakistan. And the interests of Pakistan are in a stable and progressive Afghanistan. So let us join hands and save Afghanistan and Pakistan from this evil. I am hopeful that the jirga I have proposed -- which will be convening between the people of both countries -- will investigate the roots of all the evil and get rid of terrorism. So we are hoping the jirga will reach this conclusion. Afghanistan is looking for a solution and knows that there is no other way than to destroy the roots of terrorism. Superficial measures today or tomorrow cannot rid us of this problem. We should go to the root cause of extremism that brings about terrorism and get rid of it.

RFE/RL: You mentioned an interesting point -- the jirga between the tribal elders on both sides of the so-called Durand Line. The majority of people in Afghanistan do not know exactly what this proposed jirga is about. Can you please explain it to the people of Afghanistan what its purpose is and what you want to achieve?

Karzai: The purpose of convening this jirga is quite clear. It is to bring peace to the region. To bring peace to Afghanistan and Pakistan. As a result of that, peace will be established in the whole region and terrorism will disappear. The purpose is that no explosions take place in Afghanistan which cut our young boys into pieces. Why did I propose this jirga?

RFE/RL: So it was your proposal for this jirga?

Karzai: Yes. I proposed this jirga in Washington during a formal dinner party that was organized by President [George W.] Bush for myself and President Musharraf. I made the proposal there to convene such a jirga.

Why did I propose it? Five years ago, when the foundations of the new Afghanistan were laid down, life returned. Hope returned to the people of Afghanistan. But at the same time, there were also problems. What we wished was to be able to live in peace inside our country and in peace with our neighbors. But our wishes did not materialize the way we expected -- that the removal of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda would bring an end to terrorism. In defeating these elements, our hope was for absolute peace in Afghanistan. We hoped that the mothers and sisters of Afghanistan would be free from bombs and attrocities and war.

But unfortunately, it did not happen that way. There was peace all over Afghanistan. But in areas that lie close to the border of Pakistan, those provinces faced dangers again after one or two years. Again, they were faced with war. So we started talking about this with the world community, with the neighboring countries, and particularly, with our brotherly country Pakistan. I have visited Pakistan five or six times and there, during my first meeting with the president, he said at a press conference that Pakistan apologizes for any mistakes it may have made. And I told him in response that the Afghan nation thanked the nation of Pakistan -- that Pakistan had taken us in its arms and allowed us to live for 30 years in the country as refugees. We did live there for many years under good circumstances. The nation of Pakistan honored us and treated us like their brothers. They opened the door of their soil to us. They opened the doors of their houses where we lived. We started our jihad [against Soviet occupation] from Pakistani soil and they cooperated with us. So we thank Pakistan for all of that. We want to improve our lives and live with each other in a peaceful and brotherly atmosphere.

Unfortunately, that peace and prosperity that we wished for did not materialize. In less than two or three years, at least 2,000 of our people have been martyred. My government and I, in order to avoid such casualties, worked very hard. I talked with America. I talked with the United Nations, with European countries, with NATO, and with our neighboring countries. I went to every country [that I could]. I talked to China, to Islamic countries, to Arab countries, and to Pakistan. There have been five or six rounds of negotiations. Different delegations have been sent at different levels. But the result that the Afghan people wanted has not been achieved so far.

So, at the meeting of the president of the United States with myself and the president of Pakistan, I decided to present specific proposals. And one of these important, specific proposals was the convening of a jirga. And this was a demand of the Afghan people. Three months before that, I met with the representatives of all the provinces of Afghanistan. At that meeting, it was [first] proposed that we should convene such a jirga in order to find a way to bring an end to the war and to the destruction -- a war that is going on but which we do not know where it is coming from. To bring this out into the political scene and expose it and talk openly about it. Who is complaining about Afghanistan? Who is scared of Afghanistan? If they have complaints, why do they have complaints? And what Afghanistan wants is that the two nations have a formal dialogue about all of these things. We hope to resolve these problems through dialogue. That is why I have made this proposal for this jirga. To fight terrorism in a better way and in a clearer way so that we are able to get rid of terrorism in Afghanistan, in Pakistan, and in the region.

RFE/RL: Some Afghans fear that Pakistan will try to put the Durand Line issue on the table during this jirga. Is Afghanistan ready to discuss the issue of the Durand Line at such a jirga? Is this possible? Or is the agenda of these discussions already prepared in advance?

Karzai: The agenda is prepared ahead of time. The agenda of the discussion is about peace and the removal of terrorism. There is no place for any other issue in it and there will be no talks on any other issue. This jirga does not have the authority to discuss the Durand Line or to make decisions about it. This is a question that goes higher than the authority of such jirgas. This issue cannot be decided on the basis of my signature or the government's approval. This is a question for the people of the two nations. It is beyond the authority of a jirga that is convened for the purpose of peace. So there is no place [there] for discussions on this issue.

RFE/RL: Another main concern of the people of Afghanistan is the issue of corruption. So far, we are watching the situation and reading the reports. After security, people are complaining about the high rate of corruption. You have announced a campaign against corruption several times. The prosecutor-general has even declared a jihad against corruption. But no results have been achieved. We all hope that this issue will be resolved very soon. So, do you still hope for results and positive conclusions soon?

Karzai: This is a very good question. From the very beginning of the establishment of this government, we started different efforts. We discussed the reasons for the increase in corruption -- why and how it has happened. But getting rid of corruption in the Afghan administration is an absolute necessity. This is not only necessary for the survival of Afghanistan as a nation that is hopeful for progress and development and for an accountable system that Afghanistan is going to create. It is also very important for the reputation of Afghanistan within the international community. It is also important to ensure the continuation of aid that Afghanistan is getting.

If we don't get rid of corruption in Afghanistan, the progress and development that we hope to achieve -- the prosperity that we wish for our people -- will not be achieved in Afghanistan. So, in order to improve our lives from the conditions that we have today, it is necessary for our administration to become healthier. This means that corruption must be removed from all national, provincial, and local administrations. Honesty and transparency must be established. We have made different efforts in this regard. There were some results, but not what we had hoped for. So our prosecutor-general has launched a very good campaign. It is a broad campaign. And I absolutely support his efforts. We should take steps in accordance with the laws of Afghanistan and remove corruption from the Afghan administration. This effort is continuing. The prosecutor-general has made these efforts and there are some good results, too. In many cases, these measures will be even broader and stricter.

RFE/RL: Sometimes it is alleged that Afghan officials themselves are blocking the efforts of the prosecutor-general to root out corruption in Afghanistan. The recent reaction of the governor of Balkh Province in Mazar-e Sharif -- accusing the prosecutor-general of having a political agenda and trying to settle personnal vendettas -- is one example of this.

Karzai: Yes. It should be clear, perfectly clear, that I have given the prosecutor-general the authority to act according to Afghan law -- to work with full authority and all the possibilities available to root out corruption. And I am standing absolutely behind him. I have made that absolutely clear.

RFE/RL: Another important issue in the news recently is that Pakistan wants to mine the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan -- or even build a fence there. This has captured the attention of the Afghan people and is a very important issue to them. What is your position on Pakistan's proposal to build a fence and mine the border region?

Karzai: This issue was raised once before in the past. The position of Afghanistan is very clear about this. That is, that barbed wire or [land] mines cannot get rid of terrorism. Barbed wire and mines can only separate people. In this matter, we can say that one brother would be living on one side and another brother would be on the other side. One cousin would be living on this side and another on the other side. One of our girls would be married on this side and another would be married on the other side. So people come and go to both sides. This is one people living in this area. So raising barbed wire there would only separate families and tribes. It would only be a physical separation and it would not prevent terrorism. We have told [Islamabad] this very clearly.

In order to get rid of terrorism, we should address the root causes of it and find the real source of these evils. And I'm very hopeful that we will work even more together on this. We are in touch with the Pakistani regime and government.

The recent measures that [Pakistan] has taken show that they are going to act seriously. They are also sacrificing their people in this campaign and we are very sorry about that. So we share this grief with them. We should look at this question in a different way. We should see whom terrorism affects, who has been hurt by terrorism, who is grieving as a result of terrorism, and who has been destroyed by terrorism. It is the Afghans and the Pashtuns who are the victims.

It has been 30 years now that the Afghans have been burning in this fire. It is the wars, the interferences -- and in the last 10 to 12 years, terrorism -- that have harmed every household in Afghanistan.

It has been 30 years now that the Afghans have been burning in this fire. It is the wars, the interferences -- and in the last 10 to 12 years, terrorism -- that have harmed every household in Afghanistan. Kandahar is suffering from these pains. Jalalabad is suffering from these pains. Badakhshan, Bamiyan, Mazar-e-Shariff, Fariyab, Herat, Paktia -- every household in Afghanistan has been burned by this fire. Their children have been killed by terrorists. Their houses have been destroyed by terrorists -- particularly, in the last four to five years. And particularly, in those provinces of Afghanistan that are neighboring Pakistan. Their children are deprived of going to school. Almost 200,000 children in Helmand, Farah, Kandahar, Nimroz, and Zabul, Oruzgan, Paktika, Paktia, and Konar -- they cannot go to school. In Tagab [a district northeast of Kabul] and other areas as well. It is the same in Pakistan. There, the Pashtuns are hunted by terrorists. They are killed by the hands of terrorists. And also, they are being accused by the terrorists. This is a conspiracy. This is cruelty being imposed upon Afghans and the Pashtuns. And we should prevent that.

So these people are suffering a lot. We must protect these people from such cruelty. This is not only the duty of these tribes. It is also the duty of this region. And it is the duty of the international community to pay attention to this issue -- so that the historical people of this area are not wrongly accused. They are suffering from terrorism and are also accused by terrorists. I am paying very close attention to this issue.

And that is the reason that I have sent letters to the people and to the government of Pakistan, as well as to Esfandiar Wali Khan [the chief of the National Awami Party in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan] and to Mahmud Khan Aczkzai [a Pashtun leader in Balochistan Province]. I have also sent a letter to Maulana Fazoolu Rahman, [leader of the coalition of Islamic parties in Pakistan] asking him to join hands and save Afghans and Pashtuns from this suffering and these calamities. If you look, the Afghan clerics are being killed. In Kabul, innocent people are being martyred. They are killed in suicide bombings. In Kandahar, the religious leaders are being assassinated. In Konar Province, the elders are being martyred. And in Paktia, teachers are being martyred. And in the same way, the same things are happening to the Pashtuns in Pakistan -- especially in North Waziristan. The tribal elders and religious scholars are being martyred. Their heads are being cut off. Recently, they took a religious scholar out of a madrasah and they cut off his head -- saying he was a spy of the United States. Nearly 200 tribal elders and religious scholars have been martyred in this part of Waziristan.

Who is doing that? Why are such atrocities being committed against these people? Is the purpose to suppress these people? To make them become poor and desperate? What are the reasons for this and who is doing it? It is quiet clear that serious measures should be taken to save the Afghans in Afghanistan and the Pashtuns in that area.

RFE/RL: What will be the effects on Afghanistan as a result of the resignation of the U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the success of the Democratic Party in the U.S. legislative elections? And particularly, what effect could this have on your foreign policy?

Karzai: The results of the U.S. election in which the Democrats won a majority in the House of Representatives is an internal affair for the United States. It shows the freedom and democracy of America. It should be a matter of pride for the American people. We consider this an internal matter of the United States.

Fortunately, Afghanistan enjoys the support of the whole U.S. nation. Both big political parties in the United States -- the Democrats and the Republicans -- are supporting Afghanistan. And we thank them both for their help. President George W. Bush gave me the assurance that any change occurring in the peoples' institutions of the United States will not have an effect on Afghanistan. Rather, they are all supporters of Afghanistan. The resignation of Mr. Rumsfeld is their decision and we respect their decision. However, Mr. Rumsfeld is a friend of Afghanistan -- a good ally and supporter in the war against terrorism. I have great respect for him. He is a very knowledgeable man, a very smart person, and a very resolute person. And I am proud to have his friendship.

RFE/RL: When you started your term as president of Afghanistan, you were one of the most popular presidents in the world. Some critics believe now that you are not as popular with your own people as you were before. Do you agree with this? And what are your thoughts about this as the country faces increased corruption and insecurity?

Karzai: I am very happy that I was so popular among the Afghan people. God should bless the Afghan people for voting for me. They liked me. But it is true that there are difficulties in the country. There also will be difficulties in the country in the future.

There is no doubt that people are angry. When a family is hit by a bomb and I am the president here with the responsibility -- when a suicide bomb takes places and murders the people of this nation -- I am the president of this country and it is my responsibility to bring peace to these people. The people know that such tragedies make me very, very sad. Very, very sad. It is certain that the people expect me, and ask me as the president, to bring protect them against the bombs and suicide attacks and against the corruption. They want protection against abusive officials. I am making an effort every day to do what I can. I do everything within my physical and legal powers. But if the nation does not stand behind me the way it was before, and if there is discontent among the people, I know they are right. We must accept that and try to implement all the promises that we have made to the people -- to improve their security and to improve their lives. This means that the nation is always right and the government is always to be blamed.

RFE/RL: Imagine that your term as the president was over. Can you describe how you imagine it will be?

Karzai: If our jirga with our brother country Pakistan is successful and we agree on security in our fight against terrorism, life will be prosperous. Every country has some internal problems. We will also have them. We will not worry too much about it. We will manage that. There will be an end to corruption. There will be an end to the problems of drugs. There will be reforms within our administrations. We will have more schools and education. It all will happen. But what is important is that the relations in the region improve. Between ourselves and Pakistan, there is this one problem; there is a problem of terrorism and extremism in which our Afghanistan has been damaged a lot. So if we get closer with Pakistan, and if we fight terrorism in the right way so that terrorism is finally removed from this area, things in Afghanistan will change dramatically -- no matter who is governing the country, myself or somebody else. They will have an easy job and the country will be progressing.

Afghanistan’s hard-line Islamist Taliban rulers say they no longer consider the Doha agreement -- a peace deal with the United States that paved the way for the withdrawal of Western forces from the country -- to be valid.

Speaking on February 28, the fifth anniversary of the agreement, chief Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the accord was limited to a particular time frame, which has now expired.

“The Islamic Emirate has its own governance system, and now we are no longer moving forward based on that agreement,” he told the state TV.

Mujahid said that the Taliban had fulfilled its key obligation under the agreement by preventing Afghanistan from becoming a launchpad for terrorist attacks against Washington and its allies.

He called on Washington to “take positive steps to engage with Afghanistan” and help in removing the Taliban leaders from international sanctions lists.

The Doha agreement paved the way for the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan in return for the Taliban’s counterterrorism guarantees.

However, crucial parts of the agreement requiring talks among Afghans to form a new transitional government were never fully implemented.

Some U.S. officials have blamed the Doha agreement for prompting the collapse of the pro-Western Afghan republic ahead of the final U.S. military withdrawal on August 31, 2021.

The agreement was negotiated and concluded by the first administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

In a September presidential election campaign debate, he defended the deal as "a very good agreement" and blamed his successor, President Joe Biden, for the death of soldiers during the withdrawal, as well as for leaving behind weapons and failing to enforce the terms of the agreement.

Today, Afghans have mixed views about the agreement.

“The Doha agreement was a positive development because it ended the four-decades-long war in Afghanistan,” Anwar, a resident of the central Ghazni Province, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.

One Kabul resident said negotiations among Afghans would have produced a better outcome for their country.

While the Taliban seized power in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal, no country has yet formally recognized its government.

Inside Afghanistan, the Taliban has established a government led by its clerical leadership.

It has implemented harsh bans on the education, employment, mobility and public role of Afghan women, which has turned it into an international pariah.

A powerful explosion at a seminary in northwestern Pakistan has killed at least seven people, including a top cleric.

The Jamia Haqqania seminary in Akkora Khattak, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, is renowned for training key Taliban figures.

Local officials said that those killed in the blast on February 28 include Hamid ul-Haq Haqqani, a Pakistani politician and deputy head of the seminary.

Provincial police chief Zulfiqar Hameed told reporters that initial evidence suggests the explosion was caused by a suicide bomber specifically targeting Haqqani.

The Taliban, which returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021, said in a statement that it "strongly condemns" the attack on the religious school

No group has claimed responsibility for the incident.

Bilal Faizi, a spokesperson for the local emergency services, told RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal that least 20 people were injured in the explosion.

As Germany heads into pivotal federal elections on February 23, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is making unprecedented gains.

But the party has also faced strong opposition from people who accuse it of exploiting a series of brutal attacks by migrants for political ends.

The most recent case was in the Bavarian town of Aschaffenburg, in which police arrested an Afghan man after a knife attack on a kindergarten group that left a 2-year-old boy and an adult male dead.

“He was supposed to have been deported,” said Hermann Priegnitz, an AfD candidate who was spending the morning hanging election posters on lampposts, told RFE/RL.

He was voicing a common lament, also made by Germany’s Social Democrat Interior Minister Nancy Faeser. But the AfD has more radical policies on migration than any other party.

It calls for “remigration,” meaning mass deportations of Syrians and Afghans.

Critics accuse the AfD of racism or even fascism. Germany’s domestic intelligence service is surveilling it for suspected right-wing extremism.

Priegnitz says the party is being targeted, showing me a video of people tearing down their posters. Today, he was using a ladder to place them out of reach.

He strongly defends remigration, rejecting the idea that it puts people in danger.

“There has always been conflict in Afghanistan, where various tribes fight each other. We can’t make peace for them here in Germany. These tribes, these people, the inhabitants of Afghanistan should do this in their own country.”

Later that day, we visited Sara Seerat. She used to work at the Women’s Ministry in Kabul, and was awarded the Franco-German Human Rights Prize in 2020 for her work helping Afghan girls and women gain access to education and employment.

'I Did Not Feel Safe'

After the Taliban regained power in 2021, she was invited to Germany on humanitarian grounds, along with her two brothers and her parents. The family now shares a small two-bedroom flat on the edge of Berlin.

Seerat said that the attack in Aschaffenburg left her and many Afghans shocked and concerned.

“I personally did not feel safe. Because when I went outside or to class, I thought everyone was looking at me and thinking: ‘She is an Afghan with similar thoughts, and she could be dangerous for our country’.”

She is indeed not alone in this. A few days before we talked to the AfD, a video went viral in Germany of a 12-year-old Afghan girl breaking down in tears after apologizing for the attack at a public meeting. She was comforted by an adult who told her that, of course, she had nothing to apologize for.

Seerat said she was worried about the way events like these were affecting German society, but did not fear that mass deportations would become reality. She noted that no other party has promoted the idea, and that the AfD is highly unlikely to become part of a new governing coalition after the election.

There has for years been a taboo in Germany on working with the AfD. But its hard line on migration, coupled with several attacks over the last 12 months, has arguably had an influence on German politics.

'People Are Asking For A Stricter Regime'

Other parties have also promised to be “tough” on migration and, last year, Germany put 28 Afghans on a deportation flight to Kabul.

Interior Minister Faeser said it was the only European country doing so.

Recently, the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU), likely election winners, voted with the AfD in parliament to promote tighter border controls.

This led to nationwide mass protests, with some 250,000 people gathering in Munich to condemn the CDU/CSU breaking the “firewall” around the AfD.

CDU/CSU lawmaker Juergen Hardt told us he had no difficultly explaining his party’s stance in his constituency. He represents the western town of Solingen, where three people were killed and eight injured in a mass stabbing in August. The attack was claimed by the extremist Islamic State group, and the police arrested a Syrian suspect.

“Two of the victims in Solingen were from a sports club there. There was an annual reception at that sports club, and it was hard to be there because two people were missing,” he said.

“People in Germany are asking for a stricter regime on asylum seekers.”

The day after our meeting with Sara Seerat, a car plowed into a crowd in Munich. The police said they had arrested the driver, an Afghan man, and were investigating an attack with an Islamist motive.

A 37-year-old Algerian-German woman and her 2-year-old daughter were killed. The family made a plea that the attack not be misused for political purposes.

But it has, once again, pushed the issue of migration front and center of Germany’s election.

U.S. President Donald Trump defended his decision to give billionaire businessman Elon Musk a major role in his administration as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) amid backlash over the freezing of funding for USAID, which affected foreign assistance programs around the world.

Trump curtailed the U.S. Agency for International Development work when he ordered a 90-day spending freeze on January 24. The decision affected numerous businesses and nonprofit groups in Ukraine, which are now struggling to cope. It also affected aid programs for people in Afghanistan.

Trump and Musk touched on the move during their first joint TV interview, which aired on February 18 on Fox News, a conservative U.S. news outlet. Trump said he took the step to freeze USAID's funding because his predecessor, President Joe Biden, overspent, including on foreign aid that he said did not serve U.S. interests, and widened the deficit.

Since 2022, USAID has provided Ukraine with billions of dollars in humanitarian aid, development assistance, and direct budget support. Musk and Trump were not asked about the suspension of aid to the programs in Ukraine during the interview or Trump's diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

The interview focused more on Trump's relationship with Musk, the world’s richest man, and why he chose him to head DOGE.

“I know a lot of businessmen and they are not necessarily good people,” Trump said. Musk is a great person who “wants to see the country do well,” Trump told Fox News interviewer Sean Hannity, who is a friend of the president.

DOGE has been rooting out government waste, fraud, and abuse, Trump said, and has already saved American taxpayers millions of dollars.

Since Trump returned to office on January 20, DOGE has gone from department to department, laying off or firing thousands of government employees in a major shakeup of the federal government designed to cut costs and shrink its size. A list of programs that have been identified, some costing hundreds of millions of dollars, scrolled on the screen during the joint interview.

Musk said he took the role to reduce the bureaucracy and prevent the United States from going bankrupt.

“The goal is to try to get a trillion dollars out of the deficit,” Musk said, claiming that Trump “was handed a two-trillion deficit when he came to office.”

Musk said the average American taxpayer should be “mad as hell” over the way their tax dollars have been spent.

He said some of the people on his DOGE team, which has come under withering criticism from Democrats for taking what they say is illegal actions as it slashes programs, are federal employees. Others are software engineers who could be earning million-dollar salaries but have instead opted to work for him.

The president said Musk has only been implementing his executive orders, and vowed that traditional programs such as Social Security and the government-funded health insurance programs Medicare and Medicaid “won’t be touched” by the cuts.

However, the arrival of DOGE employees this week at the Social Security Administration prompted the abrupt resignation of its chief over an apparent clash with Musk's cost-cutting team. Other senior federal officials have resigned when confronted with DOGE’s scorched-earth approach to federal spending.

Trump also said that Musk has not asked him for any favors for his companies -- namely SpaceX, which holds multiple contracts with the U.S. government, and Tesla, which has benefited from U.S. subsidies to promote electric vehicles.

Musk said he would recuse himself if he’s ever confronted with a situation involving his businesses, and Trump said, “If there’s ever a conflict, he won’t be involved.”

Musk told Hannity he has paid a price for his support for Trump but intends to continue.

“I’m a technologist and I try to make technologies that help people and improve the world,” said Musk, who wore a sport coat over a T-shirt with the words Tech Support across the front.

Trump said he has always respected Musk, but his admiration for him grew when he opened the use of Starlink communications satellites to people in North Carolina whose communities had been devastated by a hurricane last year.

His admiration only grew when SpaceX was able to return a rocket to Earth and be grasped out of the air “like a beautiful little baby,” and he decided he wanted him on his team.

MUNICH, Germany -- Police in Munich arrested an Afghan asylum seeker after he rammed a car into a crowd in the German city, injuring 28 people and leaving many Afghans in the country on edge amid calls during an election campaign for tougher immigration laws.

Despite a heavy police presence in the city a day before many high-profile leaders such as U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attend the Munich Security Conference, the man, identified by German media as 24-year-old Farhad N., drove his vehicle into a demonstration held by trade unionists.

"The suspect will be brought before an investigating judge tomorrow [February 14]. We are still at the crime scene with our forensic team and specialists," Munich police said.

Police said they fired one shot at the vehicle, a Mini Cooper, and arrested the man at the scene where victims, clothes and even a stroller were strewn around the street.

Munich police said authorities have "indications of an extremist motive" and that prosecutors are investigating. Several news outlets, including Der Spiegel, cited sources as saying the man is thought to have posted Islamist content online before the attack.

"Afghans living in Germany are deeply saddened and worried about their future due to this and similar incidents," Rahmatullah Ziarmaal, an Afghan journalist who lives in the city of Limburg, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi.

"Many Afghans feel particularly distressed by such events, fearing that anti-immigration parties will exploit them for political gain, making life even more difficult for refugees."

Joachim Herrmann, the interior minister for the state of Bavaria, said the suspect's application for asylum had been rejected, but he hadn't been deported because of security concerns in Afghanistan.

The incident is likely to enflame already heated rhetoric as Germans prepare to vote in parliamentary elections on February 23.

Germany has the largest Afghan community in Europe with an estimated 377,000 Afghan citizens residing in the country at the end of 2022, according to the country's statistics agency.

"We have to continue with deportations...even to Afghanistan, a very difficult country," Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told reporters in Munich.

Several violent incidents involving immigrants have bolstered far-right candidates, who narrowly trail center-right conservatives.

Both have been critical of Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz, accusing him of being soft on immigration, which they blame for an increase in violent crime rates.

Yousuf Rahimi, an Afghan resident of Munich who is awaiting approval of his asylum application, told RFE/RL that many Afghans come to the country because of the open immigration policies but fail to assimilate and end up getting involved in crime and drugs.

"People like this create difficulties for Afghans like me who genuinely seek asylum, want to contribute positively to German society, and hope to build a future here," he said.

With reporting by dpa and Reuters

A suicide bombing attack on the Taliban-led Ministry for Urban Development office in the Afghan capital, Kabul, has killed two people and injured three more.

Taliban authorities said the attacker was one of the people killed in the February 13 attack.

“The suicide bomber was identified and eliminated at the entrance of the ministry,” said Mohammad Kamal Afghan, a spokesman for the Taliban's Urban Development Ministry.

He told journalists that the attack happened just before noon local time.

No group has immediately accepted responsibility for the attack.

But the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K), an ultraradical rival of the Taliban, claimed credit for a separate attack earlier this week.

On February 11, at least eight people were killed in a suicide bank outside a bank in the northern city of Kunduz. IS-K said it targeted the Taliban government employees while they collected their salaries.

Earlier on December 11, an IS-K suicide bomber killed Khalil ur-Rahman Haqqani, the Taliban’s refugee minister. Five more people were killed in the attack inside the Refugee Ministry compound in Kabul.

Haqqani, in his 60s, was the most senior Taliban figure killed by IS-K since the Taliban seized power in August 2021.

IS-K has repeatedly targeted Afghanistan's Shi’ite minority and followers of the moderate Sufi orders.

In recent years, the group has embarked on terror attacks internationally. Last year, it claimed credit for attacks in Iran and Russia. Individuals linked to the group have also been detained in the United States and Europe.

On February 10, a meeting of the UN Security Council declared the group a significant threat to global security.

“We remain concerned about IS-K's capabilities to plot and conduct attacks as well as sustain recruitment campaigns, particularly in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” said Dorothy Shea, the interim U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

The Taliban promised security after returning to power three years ago but has not been able to stamp out attacks by the IS-K. It launched a brutal crackdown against the IS-K and claimed to have killed or detained hundreds of its members.

Afghanistan’s tiny Salafist minority, however, has complained of being on the receiving end of the Taliban clampdown on IS-K as its members were unjustly persecuted.

In 2015, the IS-K emerged as the local branch of the Islamic State, which ruled vast swathes of territories in Syria and Iraq.

With reporting by RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi, VOA, Reuters, and AFP

The Taliban has for years presented a united front to the outside world and kept a tight lid on dissent within its ranks.

But unprecedented displays of discord have laid bare the rifts in the secretive militant group and exposed an intensifying power struggle.

The internal divisions could spill over into violence, experts warn, and trigger a new civil war that would further destabilize the volatile region.

“Despite a culture of secrecy and unity, recently there have been public shows of disunity,” said Michael Semple, a former EU and UN adviser to Afghanistan. “These suggest that the movement is under real strain.”

‘Chaotic And Uncertain’

In December, the Taliban’s Refugees Minister Khalil Haqqani was killed in a suicide bombing. He is the most senior official to be killed since the hard-line Islamist group seized power in 2021.

Privately, most of Haqqani’s supporters accused his rivals in the Taliban of ordering his assassination, according to experts.

In January, a senior Taliban official left the country soon after appearing to criticize the Taliban’s spiritual leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, who has the ultimate say under the group’s clerical-led system.

“Follow him, but not to the extent that, God forbid, you grant him the rank of prophethood or divinity,” said Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the Taliban’s deputy foreign minister, according to an audio recording released last month. “If you deviate even a step from God's path, then you are no longer my leader, I do not recognize you.”

Stanikzai also criticized Akhundzada’s ban on girls’ education, which has provoked international condemnation.

He confirmed that he was in the United Arab Emirates, but said it was due to health reasons. Reports suggest Stanikzai fled Afghanistan after Akhundzada issued a warrant for his arrest and ordered a travel ban.

Meanwhile, a growing number of Taliban members have openly complained about delays to the payment of their salaries.

The Taliban has denied that there are any rifts in the group. Chief Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told the private Tolo News that the group “will never engage in disagreements, become a source of division, or take actions that could lead to misfortune or bring instability back to the country."

But several sources in the Taliban, who spoke to RFE/RL on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, described the current atmosphere as “chaotic” and “uncertain.”

The sources also said that officials were banned from leaving the country unless they received authorization from Akhundzada.

“These developments suggest a real challenge to the movement’s unity, between those Taliban who feel marginalized and those who feel empowered,” said Semple, a professor at Queen's University Belfast.

“We are now in new territory. The political and military opposition to the Taliban is weaker than in the 1990s,” added Semple, referring to the Taliban first stint in power. “But the expectations of the Afghan population are much higher and the levels of popular frustration with Taliban performance are unprecedented. Unhappy Taliban know this.”

Internal Competition

The internal rifts in the Taliban have increasingly come to the fore since the group regained power in 2021.

Akhundzada, who rarely leaves his stronghold in the southern city of Kandahar, has monopolized power, marginalized more moderate figures, and enforced hard-line policies that have made Afghanistan an international pariah.

Among Akhundzada’s rivals is Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban’s interior minister and leader of the Haqqani network, a powerful faction that wields significant influence in eastern Afghanistan.

Others include Mullah Mohammad Yaqub, the defense minister and son of the group’s founder, Mullah Mohammad Omar, as well as Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who headed the group’s political office in Qatar and is the deputy prime minister in the Taliban cabinet.

“Recent events, particularly tensions between different factions within the Taliban, are a significant challenge to their unity, but they are not the only or necessarily the biggest threat,” said Hatef Mukhtar, director of the Afghanistan Center for Strategic Studies.

There are splits in the Taliban along ideological lines. Some Taliban leaders want international recognition and economic investment, while others prioritize enforcing strict Islamic rule, even at the cost of isolation, said Mukhtar.

The growing influence of the Kandahar-based leadership at the expense of former battlefield commanders and the political office is also a source of tension, Mukhtar said.

Meanwhile, the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) extremist group continues to pose a threat to the Taliban, testing the group’s ability to maintain security.

Underscoring that threat, IS-K claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing outside a bank in northern Afghanistan on February 11 that killed five people, the Taliban said. But two Taliban sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, said at least 14 were killed in the attack, including members of the group.

The Taliban’s cash-strapped and unrecognized government has also come under increasing financial pressure.

U.S. President Donald Trump has frozen all foreign aid, including to Afghanistan. That is likely to aggravate the devastating humanitarian crisis in the country. Meanwhile, the value of the national currency, the afghani, has plummeted in recent weeks, triggering price hikes.

Experts say that while the Taliban has shown resilience in managing internal disputes, escalating tensions could threaten the group’s cohesion.

The most likely scenario is “low-level infighting, assassinations, and internal purges rather than an open military confrontation,” said Mukhtar.

“But if the Taliban fails to address its internal divisions, Afghanistan could eventually see another cycle of intra-Islamist conflict,” he added.

U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an executive order slapping sanctions on officials with the International Criminal Court for opening investigations targeting the United States and Israel.

Trump's order said the court in The Hague “has engaged in illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel.”

The executive order, signed by Trump on February 6, said those actions “set a dangerous precedent, directly endangering current and former United States personnel,” including members of the U.S. military.

The order refers to an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his actions toward Palestinians in Gaza and recent actions by the court that endanger members of the U.S. military.

The order was signed after Netanyahu visited Trump at the White House on February 4. It notes that neither the United States nor Israel are members of the court.

Trump’s order imposes sanctions, including barring ICC officials, employees, and family members from entering the United States and freezes any assets they hold in U.S. jurisdiction. The sanctions also apply to anyone deemed to have helped the court's investigations.

The ICC issued arrest warrants on November 21 for Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif -- who Israel says is dead.

The warrants are for "crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024."

Hamas, which has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, launched an attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, that killed some 1,200 people, mostly Israeli citizens, and took hundreds of others hostage. A subsequent Israeli offensive aimed at neutralizing Hamas has killed tens of thousands of people, mostly in the Gaza Strip.

Trump in 2020 during his first administration imposed financial sanctions and a visa ban on the ICC's then-prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, and other senior officials and staff. The move came after Bensouda launched an investigation into allegations of war crimes against U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.

President Joe Biden lifted the sanctions soon after taking office in 2021.

ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan,Khan later effectively dropped the United States from the Afghan investigation.

With reporting by AFP

Democratic members of Congress have challenged the Trump administration's apparent attempt to fold the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) into the State Department, a move that calls into question funding for aid programs around the world, including billions of dollars in development aid to Ukraine.

The lawmakers gathered outside the main office of the USAID in downtown Washington on February 3 to criticize what they called an “illegal maneuver” by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who has been tasked by President Donald Trump with downsizing the government.

The Democratic lawmakers held the gathering as a protest after reports that agency employees had been told not to report to work on February 3 and subsequently were locked out of their government e-mail and other accounts as a gutting of the agency appeared to be under way.

“We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper,” Musk said on X on February 3.

The lawmakers who spoke outside the agency’s main office in Washington defended the work of the USAID and said the actions interfered with congressional power.

“We don’t have a fourth branch of government called Elon Musk. And that’s going to become real clear,” said Representative Jamie Raskin (Democrat-Maryland).

He added that he didn’t know what Musk’s motivations were, “but they’ve got nothing to do with what has been lawfully adopted by the people of the United States of America through the Congress of the United States. We’re going to defend USAID all the way.”

Senator Chris Murphy (Democrat-Connecticut) said the move created a constitutional crisis and vowed to fight it.

“The people get to decide how their taxpayer money is spent. Elon Musk does not get to decide,” he said, also speaking alongside Raskin at the USAID building.

Murphy called the move an attempt to “turn this government over to a handful of unelected billionaires and corporate interests, and we are not going to let them do that.”

USAID is an independent government agency established by Congress in 1961 and has a workforce of approximately 10,000 people around the world. It is the U.S. government’s main international aid arm and receives tens of billions of dollars from Congress annually to fund programs in some of the world's poorest countries.

These include anti-poverty programs, health programs, disaster relief, and programs to promote democracy and defend human rights.

A recent report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) said USAID in fiscal year 2023 managed more than $40 billion in combined appropriations to support projects in around 130 countries. The top three recipients of aid were Ukraine, Ethiopia, and Jordan. Afghanistan is also one of the top 10 recipients of USAID funding.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that he is the acting director of USAID but said he has delegated that authority so he would not be running its day-to-day operations. He informed Congress of the reorganization of the agency in a letter, saying some parts of USAID might be absorbed by the State Department and the remainder may be abolished.

The move is “not about ending the programs that USAID does,” but about taking policy direction from the State Department, Rubio said.

Speaking in El Salvador during a visit to South America, Rubio said he has been frustrated with USAID for years by what he said was the agency’s refusal to respond to State Department policy directives. The agency “has to be aligned with American foreign policy,” he said.

Rubio stressed that the money that USAID receives are taxpayer dollars, but the agency has become a “global charity separate from the national interest.”

In an interview with Fox News later on February 3, he said: “I think we’re going to be the most generous nation on Earth in a way that makes sense, that’s in our national interest.” The State Department posted a transcript of the interview at its website.

Members of Congress took aim at Musk, the world's richest man, when news broke early on February 3 that employees had been sent e-mails on February 2 telling them not to report to work the next day.

Senator Patty Murray (Democrat-Washington) accused Musk of taking the actions against USAID while SpaceX stands to make millions of dollars in profit from government contracts with the Pentagon.

Murray told a news conference at the Capitol that the freeze of already approved funds for USAID is putting “trust at the lowest level” seen in a lifetime and asked what funds would be seized next.

But the White House was adamant that the agency must be reformed, publishing a statement highlighting the "waste and abuse" it said existed at USAID, including $1.5 million to "advance diversity equity and inclusion in Serbia's workplaces and business communities."

It also singled out funding for the production of a “transgender opera" in Colombia, a “transgender comic book” in Peru, and for “sex changes and LGBT activism” in Guatemala.

“The list literally goes on and on -- and it has all been happening for decades,” the statement said. “Under President Trump, the waste, fraud, and abuse ENDS NOW.”

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration appears to be shuttering Washington's main international aid arm amid a blitz of executive actions targeting government spending, a move international humanitarian organizations have warned could have catastrophic consequences.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on February 3 that he is now the acting director of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and that he would end what he described as its "insubordination" to Trump's agenda.

"There are a lot of functions of USAID that are going to continue, that are going to be part of American foreign policy, but it has to be aligned with American foreign policy," Rubio told reporters during a visit to El Salvador.

CBS News, citing three U.S. officials it did not identify, reported that the agency will be merged into the State Department, with significant cuts in the workforce, but will remain a humanitarian aid entity. Reuters cited an unnamed senior White House official as saying Trump is considering merging USAID with the State Department.

Leading the charge against USAID is Elon Musk, Trump's point man on slashing government spending, who claims the administration can cut $1 trillion from the U.S. deficit and is positioning his drive as a battle against corruption.

USAID employees earlier received a notice that the agency's headquarters in Washington would be closed to personnel on February 3 "at the direction of Agency leadership," CNN and the Associated Press cited multiple sources as saying.

The website of USAID, which the UN says provides more than 40 percent of all humanitarian aid globally, was down on February 3, and Trump claimed the agency has "been run by a bunch of radical lunatics."

"We're getting them out, and then we'll make a decision" on USAID's future, he told reporters on February 2.

Trump's comments followed reports by CNN and Reuters that two senior USAID security officials had been placed on administrative leave after they tried to prevent representatives of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the Trump-established organization led by Musk, from accessing agency computer systems.

Musk himself called USAID, which administers tens of billions of dollars in U.S. foreign assistance approved by Congress, a "criminal organization" and that it is "time for it to die."

A group of senior Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on February 2 sent a letter to Rubio expressing "deep concern" over the Trump administration's moves targeting an organization they said was set up "to ensure that we can deploy development expertise and U.S. foreign assistance quickly, particularly in times of crisis, to meet our national security goals."

"Trump and Musk are illegally attempting to shut down USAID," U.S. Senator Brian Schatz, a Democrat from Hawaii, wrote on X on February 3. "The consequences of this are deadly and they are global. It is going to make all of us less safe."

The State Department under Rubio on January 24 ordered a freeze on new funding for almost all U.S. foreign assistance programs as part of Trump's drive to align the programs with his foreign policy goals.

Since assuming his post last month, Rubio has said of U.S. foreign aid under Trump: "Every dollar we spend, every program we fund, and every policy we pursue must be justified with the answer to three simple questions: Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Does it make America more prosperous?"

Trump's executive order called for a 90-day pause in U.S. foreign development assistance to assess efficiencies and "consistency with United States foreign policy." It grants Rubio the power to waive the three-month pause for "specific programs."

Humanitarian groups and nongovernmental organizations across the globe voiced concern over the fate of USAID after Trump's executive order.

A pause in funding for Afghanistan "would be catastrophic for an operation for more than 22 million Afghans that need aid," Jan Egeland, the secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi.

Since Russia launched its all-out war on Ukraine in February 2022, USAID has provided Ukraine with billions of dollars in humanitarian aid, development assistance, and direct budget support.

Trump has criticized the amount of aid -- including billions of dollars in weapons -- that the Biden administration has provided to Ukraine.

Svitlana Musiak, a researcher at the Kyiv-based Independent Anti-Corruption Commission (NAKO), an NGO, told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service that a suspension of USAID funding to Ukraine could negatively impact civil-society programs and signal "reduced U.S. support for democratic reforms and economic stability in the country."

At the same time, some representatives of Ukrainian civil society support an audit, including Olena Trehub, executive director of the Independent Anti-Corruption Commission and a member of the Anti-Corruption Council at the Defense Ministry.

On February 2, Trehub wrote on Facebook that she had "always emphasized the need to reform USAID, as, by monitoring the effectiveness of projects, she saw how enormous budgets pass through this government agency and how often the results leave much to be desired."

At the same time, she noted that USAID had supported critically important reforms, civil society, humanitarian, and infrastructure projects that had a significant impact on Ukraine's development.

Speaking to CBS News on February 2, Republican Congressman Brian Mast of Florida said he is working with Rubio "to make sure that there's the appropriate command and control" of agencies like USAID.

Mast, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives, said he would support "removing USAID as a separate department" and having it fall under "other parts" of the State Department.

The senior Senate Democrats said in their February 2 letter to Rubio that "any effort to merge or fold USAID into the Department of State should be, and by law must be, previewed, discussed, and approved by Congress."

"Congress has also made clear that any attempt to reorganize or redesign USAID requires advance consultation with, and notification to, Congress," they wrote.

With reporting by Reuters and AP

Tensions between Washington and Taliban leaders in Afghanistan are rising a week into President Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio threatened on January 25 to place a bounty on Taliban leaders if the United States determines the group has imprisoned American citizens.

“Just hearing the Taliban is holding more American hostages than has been reported. If this is true, we will have to immediately place a VERY BIG bounty on their top leaders, maybe even bigger than the one we had on [Al-Qaeda leader Osama] Bin Laden,” Rubio wrote on X.

Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban’s acting interior minister, is currently the only senior member of the group on the FBI’s most wanted list. However, dozens of Taliban officials are sanctioned by the United Nations.

Rubio’s comment came days after the Taliban released two Americans in exchange for a member of the Taliban serving a life sentence in the United States on drug and terrorism charges.

The Taliban’s first formal response to Rubio came on January 27, with Suhail Shahin, the group’s ambassador to Qatar, claiming that it was the Taliban’s policy to resolve issues peacefully through dialogue.

However, he warned in a statement to RFE/RL's Radio Azadi, “in the face of pressure and aggression, the jihad [struggle] of the Afghan nation in recent decades is a lesson that everyone should learn from.”

The Taliban fought U.S. and NATO troops for nearly 20 years until its return to power in 2021 following a chaotic and bloody withdrawal of foreign forces.

A U.S. Department of Defense report in 2022 said around $7 billion dollars worth of military equipment was left behind in Afghanistan during the withdrawal, which were subsequently seized by the Taliban.

Ahead of his inauguration on January 21, Trump warned that if the Taliban did not return U.S. military equipment, he would cut future financial assistance to Afghanistan.

The Taliban has not publicly responded to Trump, but a source told Radio Azadi that the group “will not give even a single bullet back to the United States.”

Since the withdrawal of foreign forces, the United States has channeled around $3 billion through the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations to help humanitarian programs in Afghanistan.

The United States may place a bounty on the top leaders of the Taliban, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on January 25 after finding out that the group may be holding more American hostages in Afghanistan.

"Just hearing the Taliban is holding more American hostages than has been reported," Rubio said on X.

"If this is true, we will have to immediately place a very big bounty on their top leaders, maybe even bigger than the one we had on bin Laden," he added, referring to the Al-Qaeda leader and mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Bin Laden was killed in 2011 by the U.S. military in a nighttime raid in Pakistan.

U.S. officials and media confirmed earlier this week the release of two Americans held in Afghanistan in exchange for a Taliban man imprisoned for life in California on drug and terrorism charges.

The two Americans who were set free were not identified by the Afghan Foreign Ministry, but according to U.S. media reports and family members, they were Ryan Corbett and William McKenty.

No mention was made of two other U.S. citizens -- George Glezmann and Mahmood Habibi-- who have been held by the Taliban since 2022. It was unclear whether these were the hostages that Rubio referred to.

The member of the Taliban who was released was Khan Mohammed, who had been sentenced to two life terms in 2008. The Afghan Foreign Ministry said his release came “as a result of long and fruitful negotiations” between Afghanistan and the United States.

A member of the new administration of President Donald Trump told reporters in Washington that the deal was brokered by President Joe Biden’s team before he left office on January 20.

Details of the negotiations were not revealed. The United States, like most countries, does not recognize the Taliban -- which seized power in Kabul in mid-2021 -- as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan.

White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said in a statement on January 21 that the Trump administration "will continue to demand the release of all Americans held by the Taliban, especially in light of the billions of dollars in U.S. aid they’ve received in recent years."

Rubio's bounty comment came two days after the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said that he has requested warrants for the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, and the head of Afghanistan's Supreme Court, Abdul Hakim Haqqani.

Karim Khan announced that he is seeking arrest warrants for the alleged persecution of Afghan women and girls, an accusation the Taliban-run Foreign Ministry called "baseless."

In a statement, Khan said based on evidence collected thus far in an investigation reopened in October 2022 there were grounds to believe Akhundzada and Haqqani "bear criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds."

Mir Abdul Wahid Sadat, head of the Afghan Lawyers Association, told RFE/RL, that the ICC decisions and actions "have strong consequences" and said Khan's announcement was "a big threat to the Taliban."

With reporting by Reuters

The U.S. State Department on January 24 ordered a freeze on new funding for almost all U.S. foreign assistance programs as part of President Donald Trump's push to align the programs with his foreign policy goals.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent a message to U.S. embassies worldwide spelling out the implementation of an executive order Trump signed on January 20 saying that "no further United States foreign assistance shall be disbursed in a manner that is not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the President of the United States."

Trump's order said current U.S. foreign aid is "not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values." It said aid programs "serve to destabilize world peace" by promoting ideas that conflict with stable relations within the countries they serve and relations between those countries and others.

The executive order calls for a 90-day pause in U.S. foreign development assistance to assess efficiencies and "consistency with United States foreign policy." The sweeping order affects new disbursements of funds to foreign countries, NGOs, international organizations, and contractors pending reviews of the programs.

Trump and other Republicans had vowed to crackdown on U.S. foreign aid programs, and Rubio's memo justified the freeze by saying it was impossible for the new administration to assess whether existing foreign aid commitments "are not duplicated, are effective, and are consistent with President Trump's foreign policy."

The new chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Representative Brian Mast (Republican-Florida), promised this week that Republicans would question "every dollar and every diplomat" in the State Department's budget to ensure it met their standards for strictly necessary.

Mast said in a press release after Rubio was confirmed as secretary of state that he intends to work with Rubio to “root out” waste at the State Department.

The ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee reacted to the move by saying it "undermines American leadership and credibility" around the world.

"United States foreign assistance programs promote stability in other countries to help stop crises from expanding directly to our doorstep," Representative Gregory Meeks (Democrat-New York) said in a letter to Rubio. "Foreign assistance is not a handout; it is a strategic investment in our future that is vital for U.S. global leadership and a more resilient world."

The letter said U.S. foreign aid directly serves U.S. interests and demonstrates the country's credibility to allies, partners, and vulnerable people who rely on American assistance for survival.

By pausing current programs and preventing new ones the United States would "cede this space" to its adversaries, said the letter, which was also signed by Representative Lois Frankel (Democrat-Florida), the ranking member on the House National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Appropriations Subcommittee.

"For years, Republicans in Congress have decried what they see as a lack of U.S. credibility vis-a-vis countries like China, Russia, and Iran. Now our credibility is on the line, and it appears we will cut and run from American commitments to our partners around the world," Meeks and Frankel said.

Rubio's order exempts emergency food programs, such as those helping to feed millions in Sudan. Trump's executive order does not mention military aid, but Rubio’s message specifies that military assistance to Israel and Egypt are exempt.

There was no indication of a similar waiver for U.S. military assistance to Ukraine; however, the Biden administration accelerated the disbursement of already approved aid for Ukraine before leaving office over concerns Trump would discontinue it. There is still about $3.85 billion in congressionally authorized funding for future arms shipments to Ukraine and it is up to Trump whether or not to spend it.

The United States is the world's biggest donor, providing tens of billions of dollars annually.

With reporting by AFP and AP

Afghan rights groups have applauded the International Criminal Court's announcement that it is seeking arrest warrants for two top Taliban officials for allegedly persecuting Afghan women and girls, an accusation the Taliban-run Foreign Ministry called "baseless."

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said in a statement on January 23 that he has requested warrants for the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, and the head of Afghanistan's Supreme Court, Abdul Hakim Haqqani.

Khan said based on evidence collected thus far in an investigation reopened in October 2022 there are reasonable grounds to believe Akhundzada and Haqqani "bear criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds."

He said his office had concluded that they are "criminally responsible for persecuting Afghan girls and women, as well as persons whom the Taliban perceived as not conforming with their ideological expectations of gender identity or expression, and persons whom the Taliban perceived as allies of girls and women."

"This is a prestigious international institution, and their decisions and actions have strong consequences.... This is a big threat to the Taliban," Mir Abdul Wahid Sadat, head of the Afghan Lawyers Association, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi.

The alleged crimes were committed from August 15, 2021, when the Taliban seized power as U.S.-led international forces withdrew from the country, until the present day.

The Taliban-run Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the arrest warrants lacked a "legal foundation" and that it "strongly condemns and rejects these baseless accusations."

"This is a major step. The people of Afghanistan have been facing a culture of impunity for over five decades," according to Shaharzad Akbar, an Afghan rights campaigner who headed the former Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and now runs the independent advocacy organization Rawadari.

The government has previously said it was working on a strategy and creating a suitable environment for girls' education. But it has not reported how much progress has been made or said when girls would be allowed to go to school beyond grade six.

After returning to power, the Taliban banned teenage girls from education. Since then, the Islamist group has imposed draconian bans on women's work, education, and mobility despite domestic opposition and a global outcry.

The arrest warrants came a day before International Education Day, which the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said should be noted with "a profound sense of regret and deep concern for the millions of Afghan girls who continue to be denied their fundamental right to education."

"It is a travesty and tragedy that millions of Afghan girls have been stripped of their right to education. No country has ever thrived by disempowering and leaving behind half its population. The de facto authorities must end this ban immediately and allow all Afghan girls to return to school," added Roza Otunbayeva, the UN secretary-general's special representative for Afghanistan.

Khan said in the statement that the applications for arrest warrants "recognize that Afghan women and girls as well as the LGBTQI+ community are facing an unprecedented, unconscionable, and ongoing persecution by the Taliban."

The alleged persecution entails "numerous severe deprivations of victims' fundamental rights" that are contrary to international law, the statement said. This includes the right to "physical integrity and autonomy," free movement, free expression, free assembly, and education.

Human rights groups applauded the ICC move.

Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights Watch, said the Taliban's "systematic violations of women and girls' rights, including education bans, and the suppression of those speaking up for women's rights, have accelerated with complete impunity."

The warrant requests offer a pathway to accountability, Evenson said in a statement.

Khan said the requests were the first applications for arrest warrants to arise out of the investigation into the situation in Afghanistan, adding that his office soon will file further applications for other senior members of the Taliban.

A decision on whether to issue arrest warrants following requests from the prosecutor typically takes around four months.

Yasaman crossed more than half a dozen countries on foot, bus, and boat and paid thousands of dollars to smugglers to reach Mexico.

Yasaman, an Afghan woman whose name has been changed to protect her identity, believed she was within touching distance of realizing her dream: entering the United States.

But her hopes came crashing down on January 20, when new U.S. President Donald Trump declared an emergency on the southern border with Mexico as part of a crackdown on illegal immigration.

As part of the executive order, U.S. authorities shut down the CBP One mobile app -- the only legal way for migrants to make an appointment with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers, request asylum, and enter the country legally.

"I don't know what to do now," said Yasaman, who arrived in Mexico in November 2024. "I'm waiting [for] what Trump will decide next about migrants."

Yasaman, speaking by telephone from Mexico, said she received a notification on January 20 that read: "Existing appointments scheduled through CBP One are no longer valid."

The shutdown of the app will affect thousands of migrants, including Afghans, hoping to enter the United States legally.

Around 1 million appointments had been scheduled through CBP One since it was introduced in January 2023.

Not Happy In Brazil

Mexico has been a relatively new route for thousands of Afghan migrants seeking a new, better life in the United States.

RFE/RL contacted the United Nations refugee agency and the Mexican migration authorities to find out how many U.S.-bound Afghan migrants are currently in Mexico. We have not received a response.

An Afghan migrant who spoke to RFE/RL from the southern Mexican city of Tapachula estimated there were up to 1,500 people from Afghanistan in that city alone.

Karimullah, whose name has been changed over privacy concerns, said Afghan migrants live in rented apartments, relying on the "limited amount of money" they have brought from Afghanistan or borrow from their relatives abroad.

"Families go hungry for days while waiting for money from relatives," he said.

A former civil rights activist, Karimullah fled Afghanistan after the hard-line Taliban returned to power in August 2021.

After running out of money to pay for food and rent and as she was still waiting to get an appointment through CBP One, Yasaman got a job as a kitchen helper at a restaurant in the capital, Mexico City.

Like many other Afghan migrants in Mexico, both Karimullah and Yasaman had already been offered asylum in other safe countries -- in their case Brazil, which has issued thousands of humanitarian visas for Afghan nationals since 2021.

Asked by RFE/RL why they didn't want to stay in Brazil, where they had been given free accommodation and food, both Karimullah and Yasaman said they did not see a "good future" there due to a lack of jobs and other opportunities.

Instead, many Afghans pay money to people-smugglers to take them through Bolivia, Peru, Equador, Colombia, Panama, and other countries to reach the U.S.-Mexico border.

'Life For Immigrants Not What It Used To Be'

Some cross the border illegally. Ehsan Khan, a 26-year-old former driver from Kabul, entered the United States illegally in November 2024, hoping to get settled in the country before Trump closes the U.S. borders.

After spending two months at an immigration detention facility, Khan was released on January 11 with an electronic ankle bracelet for authorities to monitor his movements.

Speaking from San Diego by phone, Khan told RFE/RL that Afghan migrants should think twice before coming to the United States, because "the life in America for immigrants is not what it used to be."

Khan did not give details of his new life in the United States but said it isn't worth the traumatic journey he had through Honduras and Guatemala, where he said he "was beaten by thieves who demanded money" and witnessed his best friend drown in the sea.

"I saw my friend screaming for help as he drowned and I looked helplessly. I wanted to jump into the water, but I knew I couldn't swim. His parents often call me from Kabul and ask about him, and we cry," Khan said.

Back in Mexico City, Yasaman is determined to enter the United States "by any means, legally or illegally."

"I don't have a life or home in Afghanistan to go back to," Yasaman said. "I see my future only in America."

U.S. officials and media confirmed the release of two Americans held in Afghanistan in exchange for a Taliban man imprisoned for life in California on drug and terrorism charges.

Taliban leaders on January 21 identified Khan Mohammed, who was sentenced to two life terms in 2008, as the man released from the U.S. prison “as a result of long and fruitful negotiations” between Afghanistan and the United States.

Afghanistan “views positively the actions taken by the United States that contribute to the normalization and development of relations between the two countries,” the Foreign Ministry said.

A 2008 U.S. Justice Department statement identified the released Afghan man as a member of the "Afghan Taliban sentenced to life in prison in nation’s first conviction on narco-terror charges.” He was convicted following a seven-day jury trial and sentenced to two life terms.

The Afghan ministry did not identify the two Americans set free, but CNN, AP, and family members identified them as Ryan Corbett and William McKenty.

A member of the new administration of President Donald Trump told news agencies that the deal was brokered by President Joe Biden’s team before he left office on January 20.

No mention was made of two other U.S. citizens being held by Taliban -- George Glezmann and Mahmood Habibi, both of whom have been held since 2022.

Details of the negotiations were not revealed. The United States, like most countries, does not recognize the Taliban -- which captured Kabul in mid-2021 -- as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan.

“The Trump administration will continue to demand the release of all Americans held by the Taliban, especially in light of the billions of dollars in U.S. aid they’ve received in recent years," White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said in a statement on January 21.

The Corbett family thanked both Biden and Trump in a statement and said, “Our hearts are filled with overwhelming gratitude and praise to God for sustaining Ryan’s life and bringing him back home after what has been the most challenging and uncertain 894 days of our lives.”

The family also thanked officials in Qatar “for their vital role in facilitating" the release of Corbett. Qatar has often hosted negotiations between Washington and the Taliban.

On January 13, the White House said Biden had spoken to the families of three Americans held by the Taliban in Afghanistan since 2022 and promised to do everything possible to bring them home as he headed into the final days of his presidency.

Aid worker Corbett, 40, and Habibi, 37 -- who led the Afghan Aviation Authority under the previous Afghan government -- were detained separately in August 2022, a year after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan from the Western-backed government.

Glezmann, now 66, was detained later in 2022 while visiting as a tourist.

No information was immediately known about the reasons for McKenty’s presence in Afghanistan or how long he had been held there.

With reporting by AP, CNN, and The New York Times

Humayun Bayat was looking forward to moving to the United States in early February to begin a new chapter in his life.

The young Afghan man, who worked for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, was happy to leave Pakistan, where he has lived for the past three years after fleeing the Taliban takeover of neighboring Afghanistan in 2021.

“Our lives are in danger,” he told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi after his flight to the United States was canceled due to U.S. President Donald Trump’s suspension of U.S. refugee programs on January 20.

“We won't be able to go to Afghanistan either because I worked against the Taliban,” Bayat said.

Jamshid Azizi, who also worked for U.S. forces during the nearly 20-year U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, also voiced distress after his planned flight to the United States early next month was canceled.

“We face death in Afghanistan,” Azizi said. “We want President Donald Trump not to leave us in limbo.”

Bayat and Azizi are among some 1,660 Afghans who were chosen to move to the United States over the next three months after Washington cleared them for resettlement.

But their flights were canceled after Trump, soon after taking the oath of office on January 20, suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) “until the further entry into the United States of refugees aligns with the interests of the United States.”

“Afghans and advocates are panicking,” Shawn VanDiver, a member of the Afghan Evacuation Association, a coalition of U.S. veterans and advocacy groups, told Reuters.

“We hope they will reconsider,” VanDiver said of his organization’s attempts to persuade the new administration to change its views on the issue.

“We are very sad,” an Afghan physician who worked for the U.S. Embassy in Kabul told Radio Azadi.

The doctor said his case was “pending” days before his previously planned departure to the United States on January 15.

“We are facing a lot of problems here,” he added.

The United States resettled more than 200,000 Afghans in the country following its final withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. Most of them worked with the U.S.-led international military coalition or were involved in projects funded by Washington and its allies.

Fears Of Deadly Retribution

But thousands of Afghans are still waiting in Pakistan, Gulf states, and Europe for their cases to be resolved.

“I don’t care much about myself. It is my children and wife I am more worried about,” one Afghan man living in Pakistan told Radio Azadi. He requested anonymity, citing security concerns.

He said he fears deadly retribution from the Taliban because the Islamist group ruling Afghanistan considers anyone who supported the U.S. invasion of the country an “infidel.”

An Afghan woman also living in Pakistan said refugees there were facing tremendous pressure. Pakistani authorities have frequently harassed Afghans in apparent retaliation for the Taliban's refusal to help Islamabad against its Pakistani Taliban allies.

“I hope we receive international support for a safe and stable future,” she said.

Written by RFE/RL’s Abubakar Siddique based on reporting by Radio Azadi correspondent Firuza Azizi

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has again said he would get Ukraine and Russia to stop fighting while also saying he would demand that the Taliban return billions of dollars of U.S. military equipment left behind in Afghanistan in 2021.

“I will end the war in Ukraine, I will stop the chaos in the Middle East, and I will prevent World War III from happening,” Trump told a packed crowd at the Capital One Arena in Washington on January 19, a day before his inauguration, without giving details.

Analysts say it will be difficult to end the war in Ukraine in the near term because Russian President Vladimir Putin believes he is winning and has no incentive to stop the fighting.

Trump’s rally, his first in the city since January 6, 2021, when his supporters stormed the Capitol, featured a rundown of items he has claimed he would achieve during the next four years at home and abroad, including strengthening the military.

Trump will be sworn in as the 47th president on January 20. The ceremony will be held inside the Capitol for the first time in 40 years due to freezing temperatures.

During his speech, Trump claimed the United States has been giving the Taliban in Afghanistan “billions of dollars a year” and that he will end that unless the extremist group gives back billions in U.S. equipment.

“And I say, if we're going to pay billions of dollars a year, tell them we're not going to give them the money unless they give back our military equipment,” Trump said.

The United States left about $7 billion in military equipment in Afghanistan when it chaotically pulled out in August 2021 as the Taliban retook control of the capital, Kabul.

The Taliban takeover has led to a downward economic spiral with more than half of the country’s population of some 42 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, such as food, according to USAID, the U.S. development arm.

The United States has given more than $2.1 billion in humanitarian funding to Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover, according to USAID.

Since taking power, the Taliban has been condemned by Western leaders, international organizations, and activists for brutal human rights violations, especially against women and girls.

Note: This article has been amended to provide a more accurate estimate of the size of Afghanistan's population.

The White House said President Joe Biden spoke to the families of three Americans held by the Taliban in Afghanistan since 2022 and promised to do everything possible to bring them home as he heads into the final days of his presidency.

Biden "spoke with the families of Ryan Corbett, George Glezmann, and Mahmood Habibi -- Americans unjustly held by the Taliban in Afghanistan since 2022 -- this afternoon," the White House said on January 12.

"The president and the families discussed the U.S. government's continuing efforts to reunite these three Americans with their families. The president emphasized his administration's commitment to the cause of bringing home Americans held hostage and wrongfully detained overseas," the statement added.

Reuters, citing a source familiar with the matter, last week reported that the administration has been negotiating with the Taliban since at least July concerning a U.S. offer to release the three Americans in exchange for Muhammad Rahim al-Afghani, a high-profile prisoner held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center.

Afghani has been held at Guantanamo Bay since 2008 and is believed to have been an associate of Osama bin Laden, the late founder of the Al-Qaeda terrorist group.

Aid worker Corbett, 40, and Habibi, 37 -- who led the Afghan Aviation Authority under the previous Afghan government -- were detained separately in August 2022, a year after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan from the Western-backed government. Glezmann, now 66, was detained later in 2022 while visiting as a tourist.

Family members who spoke with Biden said they were told no deal had yet been reached.

Habibi's brother, Ahmad Habibi, was on the call, and welcomed the president's efforts.

"President Biden was very clear in telling us that he would not trade Rahim if the Taliban do not let my brother go," he told Reuters.

"He said he would not leave him behind. My family is very grateful that he is standing up for my brother."

Reuters quoted sources as saying the Taliban, which has not acknowledged holding Habibi, had countered with a proposal to exchange Glezmann and Corbett for Rahim and two other people.

A U.S. Senate report called Rahim an "Al-Qaeda facilitator" and said he was arrested in Pakistan in June 2007 and turned over to the CIA the next month and eventually transferred to Guantanamo Bay.

Biden, who will depart the White House on January 20, last week ordered the release of 11 Guantanamo detainees to Oman, reducing the prison population there to 15.

Biden's administration has been working to reduce the number of detainees, with a goal of closing down the prison, which is on a U.S. naval base on the island of Cuba. At its peak in 2003, it held an estimated 680 prisoners.

President George W. Bush opened the prison in January 2002 to hold international terrorism suspects following the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

With reporting by Reuters