It is the first major international energy contract for the current Afghan rulers
The Taliban government of Afghanistan has signed an oil extraction deal with a Chinese company, Bloomberg reported on Friday.
The contract with Xinjiang Central Asia Petroleum and Gas Company (CAPEIC) was signed in Kabul in the presence of the Taliban’s deputy prime minister for economic affairs, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, and the Chinese ambassador to Afghanistan, Wang Yu, the outlet said, citing a statement from the Taliban government.
The 25-year oil extraction agreement would see CAPEIC drilling for oil in the Amu Darya basin. It is the Taliban’s first major international energy extraction deal since the group took control of the country in 2021.
“In terms of natural resources, Afghanistan is a wealthy nation. In addition to other minerals, oil is the wealth of the Afghan people on which the economy of the country can rely,” Bloomberg quoted Baradar as saying.
The Chinese company will invest up to $150 million a year, which will increase to $540 million in three years, and will give jobs to 3,000 Afghans, the outlet added.
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Afghanistan is estimated to have more than $1 trillion worth of natural resources such as natural gas, oil, copper, and rare earths, which are largely untapped due to decades of turmoil. After the Taliban came to power in 2021, the US froze more than $7 billion of its foreign currency reserves, leaving the country severely short of cash. China, which shares a 76km border with Afghanistan, said at the time that it was ready to deepen “friendly and cooperative” relations with Afghanistan.
The Taliban has not yet been recognized as Afghanistan’s legitimate government by any country.
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has struck more than 100 targets in the city of Tel Aviv in retaliation for the martyrdom of Dr. Ali Larijani, Iran's former top security official, during unprovoked American-Israeli aggression against the country.
In a statement on Wednesday, the IRGC announced hitting the targets during the 61st wave of its ongoing retaliatory Operation True Promise 4 in the face of the aggression.
The hostile objects, it added, were targeted using multi-warhead Khorramshahr-4 and Qadr missiles as well as Emad and Kheibar Shekan projectiles as a means of avenging the martyrdom of Dr. Larijani, the former secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), the statement read.
"During these intense lightning strikes, the Khorramshahr-4 and Qadr missiles hit more than 100 military and security targets in the heart of the occupied territories without facing any obstruction," it added.
The IRGC put the facility characterizing this stage of the reprisal down to ...
Mohsen Rezaee, a member of the Expediency Discernment Council, has said preconditions include reparations and security guarantees
For the ongoing conflict between Iran and the US to conclude, the latter must withdraw its military forces from the Persian Gulf, according to a member of the advisory board of Iran’s supreme leader.
Mohsen Rezaee, a retired major general and former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), added that Tehran would also seek full restitution for the damage done and ironclad security guarantees from Washington.
In an interview with Iran’s SNN TV broadcaster published on Saturday, the member of the Expediency Discernment Council said that the “presence of the US in the Persian Gulf has been the main cause of insecurity over the past 50 years.”
“The end of the war is also in our hands,” Rezaee claimed, naming the “US withdrawal from the Persian Gulf” among the key prerequisites. Additionally, Iran expects to receive reparations from the ...
The spokesman for the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters has accused the United States and Israel of deploying a rebranded copy of Iran’s Shahed-136 drone, designated “Lucas,” to carry out attacks on civilian infrastructure in regional countries as part of a deliberate false-flag operation aimed at framing the Islamic Republic.
In an official statement released today, the spokesman explained that after suffering military setbacks on the battlefield and failing to build political coalitions against Iran, the enemy has resorted to deception.
The statement specifically warned that the objective of these operations is to “create doubt and accuse the Islamic Republic of Iran” while sowing discord between Tehran and its neighbors, thereby undermining the legitimacy of Iran’s defensive actions.
The spokesman pointed to a series of “suspicious attacks” in recent days on facilities in friendly neighboring countries, including Turkey, Kuwait, and Iraq, which Western media outlets and hostile ...
