Kazakhstan removes Islamic Emirate from banned group list

KABUL (TOLOnews): Kazakhstan ambassador to Afghanistan Alim Khan Yasin Galdiev in a meeting with the acting foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, said that his country has taken the Islamic Emirate off the list of groups whose activities are banned in this country.
The deputy spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, Hafiz Zia Ahmad Takal, quoted Alim Khan Yasin Galdiev as saying that Kazakhstan wants to expand its economic and political relations with Afghanistan.
“Kazakhstan’s Supreme Court has officially removed the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from the list of banned groups whose activities are banned in its territory and wants to expand its relations with Afghanistan in the fields of trade and politics,” Zia Ahmad Takal said on X.
“Governments make decisions based on their national interests at the international level. Kazakhstan’s national interests require that Afghanistan does not pose any threat to it and its surrounding countries. Similarly, the Taliban also needs legitimacy,” said Shaker Hayat, a political analyst. The acting foreign minister praised this decision of Kazakhstan, saying that it will be beneficial for the two countries, and called for more cooperation between the two countries.
“It is more important that the neighbors of Afghanistan should have mutual trust with Afghanistan like this. Kazakhstan is a bit far away and its importance is less,” Tariq Farhadi, a political analyst, told TOLOnews.
The US Department of Treasury on December 8 said the Office of Foreign Assets Control designated “Fariduddin Mahmood (Mahmood) and Khalid Hanafi (Hanafi) for serious human rights abuse related to the repression of women and girls, including through the restriction of access to secondary education for women and girls in Afghanistan solely on the basis of gender.”