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Stanikzai warns Pakistan against closing the trade route from Afghanistan
Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the political deputy minister of foreign affairs, has called on Pakistan to avoid creating problems for Afghan traders especially during the trading season of summer fruits and vegetables.
Addressing a gathering of traders in Logar province, Stanikzai said that closing the trade and transit route into Pakistan is not in the interests of either country.
“Afghanistan is a transit route between Pakistan and Central Asia,” he said. “We can do the same. We can close our borders. We can create problems for them, but we don’t want to create problems for our Pakistani brothers across the border.”
“We therefore ask them to keep their borders open during the fruit and vegetable season in Afghanistan so that fruits and vegetables can reach their people and provinces and through them to India and other countries.”
This is the first time that Kabul has hinted at closing Pakistan’s transit route to Central Asia in response to Islamabad’s trade hurdles.
Officials at the Ministry of Industry and Commerce say they are trying to remove export obstacles as achieving economic self-sufficiency is one of the priorities of the Islamic Emirate.
The closure of trade routes to Afghan traders during the fruit and vegetable season, raising customs tariffs by Pakistan and non-compliance with trade agreements between the two countries have caused Afghanistan’s exports to Pakistan to fall by 10 percent in the first five months of this year.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the former U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan, has announced the release of another American citizen in the country.
Khalilzad said in a post on his X account that, according to information from the Islamic Emirate’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Faye Dai Hall, an American citizen who has been in custody in Afghanistan, will be released soon.
Earlier, George Glezmann, an American citizen whom the Islamic Emirate had held for over two years, was also released.
US Vice President JD Vance said on Friday that Joe Biden administration left about $80 billion worth of military equipment in Afghanistan, which was a “catastrophic error.”
Vance made the remarks during a visit to a military base in Greenland.
He also said the Biden administration’s “catastrophic error” led to the deaths of 13 US soldiers in an attack during the evacuation at Kabul airport in August 2021.
Earlier, US President Donald Trump also criticized the abandonment of military equipment in Afghanistan and called for its return.
The Islamic Emirate, however, has said that the weapons left by the US in Afghanistan belong to the Afghans and will not be returned.
The Supreme Court announced on Saturday that based on the ruling of the supreme leader of the Islamic Emirate, 2,463 prisoners have been pardoned and released on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr.
The court said in a statement that the prison terms of another 3,152 prisoners have been reduced.
Eid in Afghanistan will be celebrated on Sunday or Monday, depending on the moon sighting.
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