In the nearly 20 months since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan, the
country has presented one of the most dynamic and challenging international
security environments today. The Taliban’s alignment with al-Qaeda through the
Haqqani Network, which is situated at the center of the Taliban regime, as well
as the persistent and widespread violence between the Taliban and the Islamic
State-Khorasan Province (ISKP) are contributing to a rapidly deteriorating
environment that threatens the viability of provisioning humanitarian aid and
presents serious challenges to global security.





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ICYMI: The Taliban’s Takeover In Afghanistan – Effects On Global Terrorism



(New York, N.Y.) — In the nearly 20 months since the Taliban seized control of
Afghanistan, the country has presented one of the most dynamic and challenging
international security environments today. The Taliban’s alignment with
al-Qaeda through the Haqqani Network, which is situated at the center of the
Taliban regime, as well as the persistent and widespread violence between the
Taliban and the Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISKP) are contributing to a
rapidly deteriorating environment that threatens the viability of provisioning
humanitarian aid and presents serious challenges to global security.



To better understand this situation and what steps foreign governments should
take, the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) and Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS)
published a report in December 2022,The Taliban's Takeover in Afghanistan –
Effects on Global Terrorism
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, which details and analyzes the internal and external threats that have
manifested in Afghanistan under Taliban rule.



Internally, many of the same Taliban leaders who lost power in 2001 have
returned under the new Taliban regime despite being on the U.N. Security
Council's terrorism blacklist. Financial support from nongovernmental
humanitarian aid groups could be diverted to launder proceeds from the illicit
drug economy, which is now fully under control of the Taliban, and to subsidize
terrorism just as the misuse of charitable organizations during the last
Taliban regime financed al-Qaeda’s activities in the country.



CEP Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler
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coordinator of the U.N. Security Council’s ISIL, Al-Qaida and Taliban
Monitoring Team and a co-author of the report, observed that the Taliban’s
“control over all sectors of the Afghan economy affords them additional
opportunities to launder proceeds from these activities. Consequently,
financial flows in and out of the country set up to facilitate the provision of
humanitarian aid are also at risk of being misused for this purpose.”



At the same time, the complex rivalry and violence between the Taliban and
ISKP forces, includingassassinations
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of Taliban regime officials, has prompted foreign governments to abandon
Afghanistan or call for their citizens to evacuate. Most recently, Saudi
officials left their embassy and relocated to Pakistan in February; they still
have not returned. This act follows China'scall
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for its citizens to evacuate in December and Indiadoing the same
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in August 2022.



These humanitarian crises, which now includes a risk of famine
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, threatens to drive Afghans into seeking refuge abroad. According to the
European Union Agency for Asylum
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Afghani applications for asylum were filed with the EU, up 42 percent from
January 2022. The EU, however, is unprepared. “Europe is progressing but at a
desperately slow pace, and we will have to rely on undeserved luck if nothing
is to happen in the one, two or three years to come,” said CEP Advisory Board
memberDr. Gerhard Conrad
<[link removed]>, a co-author of the
report, in a February 2023 CEP-KASwebinar
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To watch the CEP-KAS webinar “The Taliban’s Takeover in Afghanistan – Effects
on Global Terrorism,” please clickhere
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To read the CEP-KAS report, The Taliban’s Takeover In Afghanistan – Effects of
Global Terrorism, please click here
<[link removed]'s%20Takeover%20in%20Afghanistan_Dec%202022.pdf>
.



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