Sultan Barakat

The ban stands against the core prin­ci­ples of Is­lam and hin­ders Tal­iban’s ef­forts to gain in­ter­na­tion­al recog­ni­tion.

For­eign com­pa­nies, in­clud­ing Eu­ro­pean ones, are help­ing Is­rael loot Gaza’s nat­ur­al gas re­serves. They must be stopped.

The first step to­wards en­sur­ing peace in the re­gion should be plac­ing Pales­tini­ans un­der in­ter­na­tion­al pro­tec­tion.

Is­rael should not be al­lowed to do to Gaza what it has long been do­ing to the West Bank.

Ne­tanyahu is tak­ing ad­van­tage of the war in Gaza to push the Unit­ed States into a di­rect con­fronta­tion with Iran.

The ap­point­ment of a new prime min­is­ter in Kab­ul sig­nals the Tal­iban’s open­ness to di­a­logue.

But it should be ner­vous about how close Is­rael has grown to Bei­jing.

The Tal­iban’s anti-ed­u­ca­tion edicts stand against the very foun­da­tions of Is­lam and will harm Afghan so­ci­ety as a whole.

We need a new ap­proach that seeks to re­in­force, not re­place, na­tion­al and lo­cal sys­tems.

The Tal­iban’s first year back in pow­er was one of cri­sis but they also scored vic­to­ries that de­serve to be ac­knowl­edged.