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Media Lens
Editorial stance of the outlets covering Afghanistan most this month.
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Editorially curated conflicts and rivalries Afghanistan is party to. Open a panel to see the specific friction points inside it.
The contested borders of South Asia, where two nuclear-armed states and their neighbours dispute territory, water and responsibility for cross-border violence. Five fault lines run through it: the air campaign and border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan along the Durand Line; the Kashmir territorial dispute between India and Pakistan; the separatist insurgency in Balochistan; the Indus Waters Treaty, suspended by India and contested by Pakistan; and the militant attacks that each state attributes to the other. Pakistan is a party to four of the five.
Editorial stance of the outlets covering Afghanistan most this month.
The economy is crippled by severed trade routes and threatened aid. The conflict with Pakistan has halted critical Central Asian trade routes, while the US warns that Taliban policies threaten international aid. A new air route via Afghanistan offers a minor logistical development.
The Taliban's diplomatic isolation is intensifying as China mediates the Pakistan conflict. The US designated Afghanistan as a sponsor of wrongful detention, and the Taliban installed a new diplomat in Germany without notification. China is the primary external actor, repeatedly urging dialogue between Afghanistan and Pakistan and welcoming the temporary ceasefire.
Security is defined by a cycle of deadly cross-border airstrikes with Pakistan, temporarily paused for Ramadan. Pakistan conducted airstrikes on a Kabul hospital that the Taliban says killed hundreds. A temporary multi-day ceasefire for Ramadan and Eid was announced, and the Taliban released an American detainee.
Society is under severe strain from the Taliban's systematic oppression of women and a natural disaster. Taliban edicts force women to give birth outside hospitals and the regime carried out over 1,100 floggings and public executions in the past year. Concurrently, floods and landslides have killed dozens, compounding the humanitarian crisis.
