Globalsecurity.org

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif reacted to the latest developments in Afghanistan, stressing that Tehran hopes former president of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai's initiative on formation of a Coordination Council by Afghan leaders will lead to dialogue and a peaceful transition of power in the country.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman says the country has drawn down personnel at its political missions in Afghanistan amid fresh developments on the ground in the country.

Afghan acting Interior Minister Abdul Sattar Mirzakwal said here on Sunday that "power will be peacefully transferred to a transitional government", local media reported.

The UN nuclear agency says Iran has made progress in its work on enriched uranium metal, as Tehran and the remaining signatories to a 2015 agreement on Iran's nuclear program are making efforts to revive the deal, which was abandoned by the US in 2018.

Myanmar's junta is targeting members of the deposed National League for Democracy (NLD), including its leader Aung San Suu Kyi and dozens of lawmakers, in a bid to disband the party and secure its tenuous hold on power six months after overthrowing the government, ousted lawmakers and analysts said Monday.

The US troops' withdrawal from Afghanistan has led to the rapid demise of the Kabul government. The world has witnessed how the US evacuated its diplomats by helicopter while Taliban soldiers crowded into the presidential palace in Kabul. This has dealt a heavy blow to the credibility and reliability of the US.

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin filed a lawsuit against the US government over NASA's decision to award the $2.9 billion lunar landing contract to Elon Musk's SpaceX, a spokesperson said in a statement to Sputnik on Monday.

Just weeks before the United States was set to complete its military withdrawal from Afghanistan, military commanders surged hundreds more troops to Kabul to protect U.S. diplomats and Afghan allies, following a swift takeover of the capital by Taliban insurgents.

More than 1,200 Afghans under a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program have undergone processing at Fort Lee, Virginia, since President Joe Biden announced U.S. troops would leave Afghanistan by August 31.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has left country as the Taliban entered the outskirts of the capital, the only major city left in government hands.

The U.S. Embassy staff in Kabul are being moved to the airport amid the Taliban advance on the Afghan capital, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said, as Western states look to bring their embassy staff in Kabul to safety.

Albania has accepted a U.S request to temporarily take in Afghans who are fleeing their country in the face of the rapid Taliban advances.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has rejected comparisons between the U.S. departure from Kabul and the chaotic exit after the Vietnam War, as the Taliban surrounded the Afghan capital.

The situation in the Afghan capital, Kabul, is changing rapidly as the Taliban has moved into the city and taken over parts of it, including the Presidential Palace. This happened as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country and security forces in the city melted away.

Iran's Foreign Minister spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said Iran five representative offices which used to scatter across Afghanistan are now pursuing their activities from the capital city Kabul.

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Saturday that he had authorized the deployment of roughly 5,000 troops to Afghanistan to support personnel drawdown, warning the Taliban not to put U.S. personnel and mission at risk.

The spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry says the country's embassy in the Afghan capital Kabul is still active, but has reduced the number of its personnel as Taliban forces are poised to take over the capital city of the war-ravaged country.

As the UK's collapsing position in Afghanistan worsens by the hour, Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has recalled Parliament for the middle of next week to take stock of the developing disaster.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has rejected war and violence as a solution to the existing problems in the neighboring Afghanistan, reiterating Iran's support for the establishment of sustainable peace in the war-ravaged country.

The United States is reportedly removing all of its staff from the embassy in Kabul in the next 72 hours and closing the embassy as the Taliban appear to capture the seat of the central government.