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Kabul Must Rein in Militants for Ceasefire to Hold, Says Pakistan
Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif speaks during an interview with Reuters in Islamabad, Pakistan, Oct. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Salahuddin
A ceasefire agreement between Islamabad and Kabul rests on the ruling Afghan Taliban’s ability to rein in militants attacking Pakistan across their shared border, Pakistan‘s Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told Reuters on Monday, underscoring the fragility of the accord.
The South Asian neighbors agreed to a ceasefire in Doha at the weekend after days of border clashes that killed dozens, the worst such violence since the Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021.
Ground fighting between the one-time allies and Pakistani airstrikes across their contested 2,600-km (1,600-mile) frontier were triggered after Islamabad demanded that Kabul control militants, saying they operated from havens in Afghanistan.
“Anything coming from Afghanistan will be a violation of this agreement,” said Asif, who led the talks with his Afghan counterpart Mullah Muhammad Yaqoob. “Everything hinges on this one clause.”
The Taliban administration and Afghanistan’s defense ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
WRITTEN AGREEMENT SAYS NO INCURSIONS FROM AFGHANISTAN
In the written agreement signed by Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkey, and Qatar, it was clearly spelled out that there would not be any incursions, the minister said in an interview in his office at Pakistan‘s parliament in Islamabad.
“We have a ceasefire agreement as long as there is no violation of the agreement which is already in force.”
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, commonly known as the Pakistani Taliban, an umbrella of several Islamist militant groups, operates out of Afghanistan to attack Pakistan “in connivance” with the ruling Taliban, the minister said.
Kabul denies giving haven to militants to attack Pakistan and accuses the Pakistani military of spreading misinformation about Afghanistan and sheltering Islamic State-linked militants to undermine its stability and sovereignty.
Islamabad denies the accusations.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesperson, said on Sunday that at the Doha talks, “It was decided that neither country would take hostile actions against the other, and support will not be provided to groups operating against the government of Pakistan.”
In a follow-up post on X, he said it reflected the Taliban’s longstanding position that Afghanistan’s territory would not be used against any other country.
The statements made about the agreement did not constitute a joint declaration, he said.
KABUL ‘IS NOT A NO-GO AREA’, WARNS PAKISTAN
The Pakistani Taliban, who have been waging a war for years against the Pakistani state in a bid to overthrow the government and replace it with their strict brand of Islamic governance, have accelerated attacks in recent months to target Pakistani military.
Pakistan carried out airstrikes on the Afghan capital Kabul, including one on October 9 in an attempt to kill Pakistani Taliban leader Noor Wali Mehsud, Pakistan security officials have said, though he later appeared in a video showing he was alive.
“We were being attacked. Our territory was being attacked. So, we just did tit for tat. We were paying them in the same coin,” Asif said.
“They are in Kabul. They are everywhere. Wherever they are we will attack them. Kabul is not, you know, a no-go area.”
The next round of talks would be held in Istanbul on October 25 to evolve a mechanism on how to enforce the agreement, Asif said.
Qatar’s foreign ministry, which mediated Saturday’s talks along with Turkey, said the follow-up meetings were meant “to ensure the sustainability of the ceasefire and verify its implementation in a reliable and sustainable manner.”
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Tucker’s Ideas About Jews Come from Darkest Corners of the Internet, Says Huckabee After Combative Interview
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee looks on during the day he visits the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – In a combative interview with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, right-wing firebrand Tucker Carlson made a host of contentious and often demonstrably false claims that quickly went viral online. Huckabee, who repeatedly challenged the former Fox News star during the interview, subsequently made a long post on X, identifying a pattern of bad-faith arguments, distortions and conspiracies in Carlson’s rhetorical style.
Huckabee pointed out his words were not accorded by Carlson the same degree of attention and curiosity the anchor evinced toward such unsavory characters as “the little Nazi sympathizer Nick Fuentes or the guy who thought Hitler was the good guy and Churchill the bad guy.”
“What I wasn’t anticipating was a lengthy series of questions where he seemed to be insinuating that the Jews of today aren’t really same people as the Jews of the Bible,” Huckabee wrote, adding that Tucker’s obsession with conspiracies regarding the provenance of Ashkenazi Jews obscured the fact that most Israeli Jews were refugees from the Arab and Muslim world.
The idea that Ashkenazi Jews are an Asiatic tribe who invented a false ancestry “gained traction in the 80’s and 90’s with David Duke and other Klansmen and neo-Nazis,” Huckabee wrote. “It has really caught fire in recent years on the Internet and social media, mostly from some of the most overt antisemites and Jew haters you can find.”
Carlson branded Israel “probably the most violent country on earth” and cited the false claim that Israel President Isaac Herzog had visited the infamous island of the late, disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“The current president of Israel, whom I know you know, apparently was at ‘pedo island.’ That’s what it says,” Carlson said, citing a debunked claim made by The Times reporter Gabrielle Weiniger. “Still-living, high-level Israeli officials are directly implicated in Epstein’s life, if not his crimes, so I think you’d be following this.”
Another misleading claim made by Carlson was that there were more Christians in Qatar than in Israel.
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Pezeshkian Says Iran Will Not Bow to Pressure Amid US Nuclear Talks
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit 2025, in Tianjin, China, September 1, 2025. Iran’s Presidential website/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday that his country would not bow its head to pressure from world powers amid nuclear talks with the United States.
“World powers are lining up to force us to bow our heads… but we will not bow our heads despite all the problems that they are creating for us,” Pezeshkian said in a speech carried live by state TV.
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Italy’s RAI Apologizes after Latest Gaffe Targets Israeli Bobsleigh Team
Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics – Bobsleigh – 4-man Heat 1 – Cortina Sliding Centre, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy – February 21, 2026. Adam Edelman of Israel, Menachem Chen of Israel, Uri Zisman of Israel, Omer Katz of Israel in action during Heat 1. Photo: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
Italy’s state broadcaster RAI was forced to apologize to the Jewish community on Saturday after an off‑air remark advising its producers to “avoid” the Israeli crew was broadcast before coverage of the Four-Man bobsleigh event at the Winter Olympics.
The head of RAI’s sports division had already resigned earlier in the week after his error-ridden commentary at the Milano Cortina 2026 opening ceremony two weeks ago triggered a revolt among its journalists.
On Saturday, viewers heard “Let’s avoid crew number 21, which is the Israeli one” and then “no, because …” before the sound was cut off.
RAI CEO Giampaolo Rossi said the incident represented a “serious” breach of the principles of impartiality, respect and inclusion that should guide the public broadcaster.
He added that RAI had opened an internal inquiry to swiftly determine any responsibility and any potential disciplinary procedures.
In a separate statement RAI’s board of directors condemned the remark as “unacceptable.”
The board apologized to the Jewish community, the athletes involved and all viewers who felt offended.
RAI is the country’s largest media organization and operates national television, radio and digital news services.
The union representing RAI journalists, Usigrai, had said Paolo Petrecca’s opening ceremony commentary had dealt “a serious blow” to the company’s credibility.
His missteps included misidentifying venues and public figures, and making comments about national teams that were widely criticized.