Taliban Offers United States Access To Afghanistan’s Mineral Wealth Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi has expressed openness to U.S. investment in Afghanistan, emphasizing economic collaboration as a path to lifting international sanctions and releasing frozen Afghan assets. Speaking to the Financial Times on 31 August, Muttaqi stated that relations between Afghanistan and the United States should be evaluated based on future cooperation rather than the past 20 years of conflict. He highlighted that Afghanistan’s economic policy is open to foreign investment, including in mining, infrastructure, agriculture, and trade. However, Muttaqi did not confirm whether the proposal for U.S. investment had been directly presented to the White House. Geological assessments by the U.S. and former Afghan authorities indicate Afghanistan holds untapped mineral reserves valued at over $1 trillion, including copper, iron ore, niobium, cobalt, gold, and lithium. Since reclaiming power in 2021, the Taliban has signed mining contracts worth more than $7 billion, primarily with China and Iran, focusing on gold, precious stones, and chromite. Despite these efforts, UN experts have warned that normalizing relations with the Taliban should not occur without significant progress on human rights, particularly the rights of women and girls. Muttaqi criticized international sanctions, arguing they have failed to achieve their intended goals. He asserted that no individual, government, or institution should use Afghan assets as a tool of political pressure. U.S. President Donald Trump has shown limited willingness to engage with the Taliban, maintaining demands for the return of Bagram Air Base, which Muttaqi rejected, calling it a national asset of Afghanistan.#taliban #financial_times #un #afghanistan #amir_khan_muttaqi
‘When she turns eight they will take her’: rising number of Afghan girls being sold into child marriage Sima* is 18, but has already given birth four times. Her youngest is a newborn, the eldest is four. Sitting with her children in their mud-brick room in Badghis province, Sima says: “After the Taliban entered the country, I had just finished the sixth grade and was supposed to start the seventh. But two months later, my father pressured me immensely to marry my cousin. After being beaten by my father several times, I was forced to accept.” At 13, Sima became a bride inside the compound where she still lives, and where she has given birth to her children. One child died of pneumonia aged one. She does all the housework: fetching water, tending the cows, baking naan in a tandoor. All the while, her children cling to her legs, crying. Sima’s case is no longer exceptional. Interviews with workers at one public hospital in northern Afghanistan revealed that 42 underage girls gave birth in the first five months of this year. Six were in their second pregnancy. Five had ectopic pregnancies – a leading cause of maternal deaths – and 18 had caesarean sections. Two died, though their babies survived. They are victims of a growing trend toward child marriage, driven by Taliban policies legalising the practice and forcing girls out of school, combined with a deepening humanitarian crisis in which families are forced to sell their daughters to pay debts or buy food. As well as Sima’s family, the Guardian and Zan Times spoke to three other families with daughters under nine who were traded in marriage to settle debts. The youngest was two months old when she was promised as a bride, with all the families pledging to give the girls to their future husbands when they reached between seven and nine years old.#taliban #afghanistan #badghis_province #shabnam #afghanistan_human_rights_center
