“The critical evidence was not that he was in Afghanistan, but where. Al-Zawahiri was not hiding…He was living comfortably in a safe house…This location, teeming with Taliban security, implies high-level protection, not an intelligence failure.”
The collapse of the Turkiye-hosted talks to address the TTP threat was not a diplomatic failure but a calculated act of sabotage from within the Taliban regime. Deep factional divides—between Kandahar, Kabul, and Khost blocs—turned mediation into chaos, as Kabul’s power players sought to use the TTP issue as leverage for U.S. re-engagement and financial relief. The episode exposed a regime too fractured and self-interested to act against terrorism or uphold sovereignty.
The Taliban’s confrontation with Pakistan reveals a deeper failure at the heart of their rule: an insurgent movement incapable of governing the state it conquered. Bound by rigid ideology and fractured by internal rivalries, the Taliban have turned their military victory into a political and economic collapse, exposing the limits of ruling through insurgent logic.
The recent talks in Turkey, attended by Afghan representatives, exposed the delicate politics of legitimacy and agency in Pakistan-Afghanistan relations. By rejecting the Taliban’s proposal to include the TTP, Pakistan safeguarded its sovereignty and avoided legitimizing a militant group as a political actor, preserving its authority and strategic narrative.
A tenuous ceasefire between Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Taliban regime has halted hostilities for now, but the calm conceals deeper fissures rooted in history, ideology, and regional rivalries. As cross-border tensions resurface, the decades-old dispute over the Border, the Taliban’s harboring of TTP militants, and India’s quiet re-entry into Kabul are reshaping South Asia’s most volatile frontier.
From India to Sri Lanka, disinformation has become a weapon of mass manipulation, fueling mob violence, deepening polarization, and corroding democratic institutions. As truth becomes contested, South Asia’s future stability hinges on digital literacy, civic resilience, and responsible governance.
The security architecture of South and Central Asia is undergoing a significant realignment, the implications of which are crystallizing along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. To view the Afghan Taliban’s engagement with India and the TTP’s escalation of attacks as disconnected is to miss the emergence of a complex geopolitical dynamic. This signals a fundamental recalibration of regional relationships, forcing Pakistan to confront a renewed and more intricate security dilemma.
Far from being an impartial recognition of pacifism, the Nobel Peace Prize’s legacy is marred by controversial laureates whose actions have been linked to immense violence. The prize is not a universal arbiter of peace but a political instrument reflecting a Western-centric worldview, rewarding figures who align with its geopolitical interests, regardless of the blood on their hands.
A new Gaza peace plan by Donald Trump has international backing and a surprising partial acceptance from Hamas. However, its journey toward lasting peace is threatened by critical deal-breakers and the unresolved core question of Palestinian political sovereignty.
A 20-point Gaza peace plan, initially hailed by a coalition of eight Muslim-majority nations, represented a rare moment of consensus in Middle East diplomacy. But this optimism was short-lived. Following a pivotal meeting between US and Israeli leaders, the plan was radically altered, transforming a multilateral framework into a security-centric arrangement that alienated its initial backers and triggered a crisis of trust. This is the story of how a potential breakthrough unraveled into a diplomatic failure.