The head of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), Jan Egeland, has urged governments in Europe, North America and elsewhere to reopen their embassies in Afghanistan and engage directly with the Islamic Emirate authorities.

Speaking to AFP in Kabul on Thursday, Egeland said governments should continue pressing the IEA for women’s rights while also providing humanitarian assistance to a population facing a deepening crisis.

He stressed that diplomatic engagement would not necessarily mean formally recognising the IEA authorities, whose government is officially recognised only by Russia.

“Our appeal is… come here and engage with us,” Egeland said, calling on governments to demand rights for women and girls while also offering assistance to them.

His comments came as international aid to Afghanistan has fallen sharply since the Islamic Emirate returned to power in 2021. The United Nations said it had received less than 30 percent of the funding needed to provide life-saving assistance as of late August.

Egeland also criticised governments that publicly advocate for Afghan women’s rights while reducing humanitarian funding.

“It is hypocrisy when one does that from abroad in a seminar in some capital in Europe and cut aid for food to Afghan girls and even for primary education for Afghan girls,” he said.

Instability in Afghanistan has effectively stalled Pakistan’s regional transport connectivity projects, Pakistan’s Ambassador to Russia Faisal Niaz Tirmizi said, stressing that Islamabad wants to see a stable Afghan state integrated into the region.

In an interview with Russian newspaper Izvestia, Tirmizi said Pakistan had hoped the Afghan government would become part of the regional process, but continued instability had hindered Islamabad’s efforts to develop overland connections with Central Asia and Iran.

“Our transport connectivity projects have effectively stalled precisely because of this instability,” Tirmizi said.

He added that a stable Afghanistan would significantly improve regional trade and transportation.

“If Afghanistan were stable, overland routes to Central Asia and Iran would be much more efficient,” the ambassador said.

Tirmizi said Islamabad remains particularly concerned about militant groups operating from Afghanistan, describing the country as a haven for extremists and terrorists.

He warned that the threat extends beyond Pakistan, saying instability in Afghanistan poses risks to China, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Russia as well.

The envoy said that Pakistan will participate in the Moscow-format consultations on Afghanistan in October.

Former US diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad has said the Islamic Emirate has “surprisingly” been beneficial to US counterterrorism interests since returning to power in Afghanistan.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Khalilzad reflected on US decisions following the attacks, saying anger and fear contributed to policies that shaped two decades of war.

“Anger was a factor of urgency because the people wanted to see action: What are we going to do about this?” he said.

Khalilzad was a senior director on President George W Bush’s National Security Council when the September 11 attacks killed nearly 3,000 people. Less than a month later, the US invaded Afghanistan to target al-Qaeda and remove the IEA government.

Looking back, Khalilzad said Washington should have considered negotiating with the IEA in the early stages of the war.

“One thought that has emerged is that we should have negotiated with the Taliban (IEA) or included the Taliban in the political process in Afghanistan,” he said.

“We were angry, and we wanted to get information from them,” Khalilzad added. “But if we could have included them … realistically, that could have been helpful.”

He also acknowledged problems with the intelligence used to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq, particularly claims that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction.

“With regard to Iraq, well, there the information was the problem,” Khalilzad said.

“Without 9/11, I don’t think we will attack Iraq,” he added.

Khalilzad defended the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, saying the war could have continued indefinitely and that the US had largely achieved its original counterterrorism objective.

“We had been there for 20 years. Afghanistan was changed. The war could have gone on indefinitely,” he said.

The IEA returned to power after the US withdrawal and the collapse of the US-backed Afghan government.

Despite the IEA’s former status as Washington’s main adversary in Afghanistan, Khalilzad said its current approach to terrorism has, unexpectedly, benefited US interests.

“I think the Taliban (IEA), surprisingly, have been good in terms of terrorism for the United States interests,” he said.