A high-level delegation headed by Mohammad Sadiq, Pakistan’s special representative for Afghanistan affairs, arrived in Kabul on Wednesday for a one-day visit.

The delegation will attend a meeting of the Joint Coordination Committee between Pakistan and Afghanistan, scheduled for Wednesday.

The Islamic Emirate confirmed the arrival of the delegation.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, told Ariana News that “this is the seventh meeting, sometimes held in Kabul and sometimes in Islamabad.”

According to Mujahid, there will be an exchange of views between the two countries on security, commercial and possibly transit issues.

Abdul Qayyum Zakir, Deputy Minister of Defense of Afghanistan, will lead the Afghan side.

The last meeting of the Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Coordination Committee was held in January 2024 in Pakistan.

President Donald Trump met with his top national security aides on Tuesday to discuss Iran’s nuclear program ahead of a second meeting between U.S. and Iranian officials on Saturday, sources said.

U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff is to meet his Iranian counterpart on Saturday, a session currently scheduled to be held in Oman. Trump spoke to the sultan of Oman, Haitham bin Tariq, about Oman’s mediation role between Washington and Tehran.

A White House official confirmed the White House Situation Room meeting on Iran and said the location was not unusual since Trump gets briefed there regularly to take advantage of the chamber’s secure setting.

A second source briefed on the meeting said Trump and his top aides discussed the Iran talks and next steps. U.S. officials have been working on a framework for a potential nuclear deal.

Trump has threatened military action against Iran if it does not give up its nuclear program while also stressing the need for diplomacy and negotiations.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Trump’s bottom line in the talks, which included an initial session last Saturday, is he wanted to use negotiations to ensure Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon.

Trump and the Omani leader also discussed ongoing U.S. operations against Yemen’s Houthis, she said.

“The maximum pressure campaign on Iran continues,” Leavitt said at a press briefing. “The president has made it clear he wants to see dialogue and discussion with Iran, while making his directive about Iran never being able to obtain a nuclear weapon quite clear.”

She added that he had “emphasized” this directive during the call with Sultan Haitham.

Both sides described last weekend’s U.S.-Iran talks in Oman as positive.

Trump has restored a “maximum pressure” campaign on Tehran since February, after he ditched a 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and six world powers during his first term and reimposed crippling sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

Iran’s nuclear program has leaped forward since then. The two countries held indirect talks during former President Joe Biden’s term but made little, if any progress.

Iran’s clerical rulers have publicly said that demands such as dismantling the country’s peaceful nuclear program or its conventional missile capabilities were off the table.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs on Tuesday announced that the draft of the National Development Strategy was approved on Tuesday after it was presented to the Economic Commission for discussion.

Before approving the draft, the commission evaluated the draft and incorporated amendments proposed by them.

The Economic Commission, led by Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, drew up the draft strategy, which is a comprehensive, unified, and long-term document designed to define and achieve the country’s fundamental national goals over the next five years.

According to a statement issued by Baradar’s office, the document was developed under the leadership of the deputy prime minister’s office. However, the Ministry of Economy served as the secretariat, and other relevant sectoral ministries were also involved.

The statement added this strategy envisions a stable, prosperous Afghanistan with strong and positive relations with the region and the world.

Its key objectives include upholding Islamic Sharia law, ensuring principles of efficiency, transparency, and accountability, expanding effective and constructive relations with the region and the world, establishing sustainable peace and overall security, creating employment and

fostering economic growth, preserving religious and national values, territorial integrity, and Islamic sovereignty, enhancing effective management of national and natural resources, improving the delivery of basic services, promoting industry, trade, and private sector development, advancing infrastructure and regional connectivity, and improving social protection and the living environment.