Very strange things have been happening between the Taliban and the US ever since an American drone killed Al Qaeda chief Ayman Al Zawahiri last July in a Kabul house, which reportedly belonged to the top aide of Sirajuddin Haqqani, a Taliban minister and a leader in the Haqqani network, a powerful faction within the Taliban movement.
Instead of escalating tensions, we saw two diplomatic breakthroughs. Meanwhile, Taliban forces have clashed with Pakistan on the border. And as this has been happening, Mr Haqqani has publicly reached out to India, despite the fact that his network’s suicide bombers had repeatedly struck New Delhi’s Afghan embassy in the past.
For a decade and a half, the Haqqanis have been portrayed in the US and India as little more than an exceptionally violent proxy for Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the military's primary intelligence agency, with a side mission of supporting global jihad. But recent events validate the vast amounts of evidence painstakingly assembled by scholars, analysts and journalists over the years, which charts the Haqqanis’ extraordinary rise from obscurity to infamy, and now perhaps respectability in some quarters. This data convincingly demonstrates that the Haqqanis have never been subservient; instead they have fiercely guarded their strategic autonomy by cultivating alliances with a range of players who are often enemies with each other.
The Haqqanis have refrained from threatening vengeance for the American missile strike that killed Al Zawahiri on July 31. They have instead chosen to pretend as if the assassination simply did not happen. This is a sign of shifting priorities, a signal that they value a working relationship with Washington over proving their ideological commitment to jihad. Meanwhile, on the very same day of Al Zawahiri’s killing, Sirajuddin Haqqani gave a high-profile interview to the Indian cable news channel News18, promising security for Indian businesses and promoting cricket ties – he’s a huge fan of the sport.
Recruits march during their graduation ceremony at the police academy in Kabul, Afghanistan. AFP
A recruit performs during the graduation ceremony. AFP
Senior Taliban figures including interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani watch as the recruits march. AP
Recruits during the oath-taking ceremony. AFP
Haqqani and deputy prime minister of the Taliban, Abdul Salam Hanafi, left, attend the ceremony. AFP
One of the Taliban's most secretive leaders, Haqqani was photographed openly for the first time at the parade. AFP
The Taliban minister said in a speech that fighters guilty of "misconduct" were being punished after a string of abuse allegations. AP
Before the Taliban's return, Haqqani was the most senior of three deputies to leader Hibatullah Akhundzada. AFP
Haqqani's appearance suggests the Taliban have grown even more confident of their hold on the country since seizing power. AFP
On September 19, the Haqqanis released an American engineer Mark Frerichs, who they had kidnapped back in January 2020, in exchange for a key Afghan drug lord and Taliban financier named Haji Bashar Noorzai. This is the exchange that the Taliban had sought ever since they took Mr Frerichs captive.
Only a few days earlier, a compromise had been struck on an even thornier issue. The US Treasury transferred some $3.5 billion out of the $9bn former Afghan government’s frozen reserves into a Swiss-based trust fund that is meant to meet the urgent humanitarian needs of the Afghan people. This reduces the enormous financial pressures on the Taliban government without putting the money in their hands.
These pragmatic solutions were built on the back of previous overtures. An important one is the tacit co-operation between the US and the Taliban against a common enemy, namely ISIS-Khorasan, the terror group’s offshoot in Afghanistan.
In retrospect, the clearest signal was a February 2020 column published in The New York Times by none other than Sirajuddin Haqqani himself, expressing a desire for "friendly relations with all countries", and for the US to support Afghan reconstruction and development once it withdrew. The Haqqanis' actions appear to have been broadly in line with this thinking.
One explanation for all these developments would be that the Haqqanis have freed themselves from the ISI’s grip. But the evidence from a range of credible sources, including the 97,000 internal Al Qaeda documents retrieved during the 2011 Bin Laden raid and closely analysed by Dr Nelly Lahoud, tells us a very different story, one that pushes us to question prior assumptions.
Published as The Bin Laden Papers, they reveal the Haqqanis' impressive ability to simultaneously maintain trust with both the Pakistani military and Al Qaeda, even as the two spiralled into enmity with each other after 9/11. Similarly, the Haqqanis maintained a close relationship with both Pakistan and the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan even while the Pakistan and the TTP fought each other, round after bloody round from 2007 onwards. Corroborating accounts can be found in Bette Dam’s recent study of Mullah Omar, Looking for the Enemy, as well as works by Vahid Brown and Leah Farrall.
Pakistani leverage over the Haqqanis in the form of material support, medical care and a safe haven has not been enough to get them to give up the TTP. Instead, Pakistan was forced to overlook this while they focused on the common goal of a Taliban victory, which would supposedly protect Pakistan from any hostile power using Kabul’s ability to stir up Pashtun and Baloch people against Islamabad.
What this tells us is that the Haqqanis have always made their decisions based on the strategic needs of their evolving situation. As insurgents fighting the Afghan communist and Soviets – and later the Americans and their Afghan clients – the Haqqanis prioritised long-term relationships that would provide reliable support through the war’s many twists and turns. The ideological force that kept these pipelines open was a shared belief in religious solidarity, especially at a time of war. But now, as they switch from war to governance, the Haqqanis need productive and stable international partnerships that global militant groups cannot provide. And the need to speak for all Afghans means that their ideological perspective is increasingly a blend of nationalism and religion.
An FBI wanted poster of Ayman Al Zawahiri. AFP
But it isn’t just the West and India that misread the Haqqanis. Pakistan's four decades of effort have now culminated in a truly pyrrhic victory. Even though the Haqqanis and the Taliban quietly sacrificed Al Qaeda, they have renewed their commitment to the TTP, releasing thousands from captivity after taking power. To add insult to injury, the Taliban has pressured Pakistan to make constitutional concessions to the TTP while hosting talks between the parties in Kabul.
Afghanistan under the Taliban appears determined to use every available card to equalise the balance of power with Pakistan, even to the extent that it is now publicly speaking of the possibility of training its forces in India. Now, Pakistan is fortifying its border and preparing for the traditional confrontational relationship between Islamabad and Kabul, almost as if the two-generation-long alliance with the Haqqanis and others never happened.
We cannot know what lies ahead – that much is clear from recent history. But what is equally clear is that the US at least gets the present right by recognising that the Haqqanis and the Taliban cannot be reduced to stereotypes or puppets. Instead, the entire international community must engage in the same kind of canny and constant re-evaluation at which the Haqqanis have proved so adept.
Meydan Racecourse racecard:
6.30pm: The Madjani Stakes Listed (PA) | Dh175,000 | 1,900m
7.05pm: Maiden for 2-year-old fillies (TB) | Dh165,000 | 1,400m
7.40pm: The Dubai Creek Mile Listed (TB) | Dh265,000 | 1,600m
8.15pm: Maiden for 2-year-old colts (TB) | Dh165,000 | 1,600m
8.50pm: The Entisar Listed (TB) | Dh265,000 | 2,000m
Lahore Qalandars 186 for 4 in 19.4 overs
(Sohail 100,Phil Salt 37 not out, Bilal Irshad 30, Josh Poysden 2-26) bt Yorkshire Vikings 184 for 5 in 20 overs
(Jonathan Tattersall 36, Harry Brook 37, Gary Ballance 33, Adam Lyth 32, Shaheen Afridi 2-36).
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Starring: Abdullah Boushehri, Laila Abdallah, Lulwa Almulla
Rating: 3/5
TV: World Cup Qualifier 2018 matches will be aired on on OSN Sports HD Cricket channel
Fifa Club World Cup quarter-final
Esperance de Tunis 0
Al Ain 3 (Ahmed 02’, El Shahat 17’, Al Ahbabi 60’)
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
'Unrivaled: Why America Will Remain the World’s Sole Superpower'
Michael Beckley, Cornell Press
Desert Warrior
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley
Billie Holliday: for the burn and also the way she told stories.
Thelonius Monk: for his earnestness.
Duke Ellington: for his edge and spirituality.
Louis Armstrong: his legacy is undeniable. He is considered as one of the most revolutionary and influential musicians.
Terence Blanchard: very political - a lot of jazz musicians are making protest music right now.
The Energy Research Centre
Founded 50 years ago as a nuclear research institute, scientists at the centre believed nuclear would be the “solution for everything”.
Although they still do, they discovered in 1955 that the Netherlands had a lot of natural gas. “We still had the idea that, by 2000, it would all be nuclear,” said Harm Jeeninga, director of business and programme development at the centre.
"In the 1990s, we found out about global warming so we focused on energy savings and tackling the greenhouse gas effect.”
The energy centre’s research focuses on biomass, energy efficiency, the environment, wind and solar, as well as energy engineering and socio-economic research.
Gender equality in the workplace still 200 years away
It will take centuries to achieve gender parity in workplaces around the globe, according to a December report from the World Economic Forum.
The WEF study said there had been some improvements in wage equality in 2018 compared to 2017, when the global gender gap widened for the first time in a decade.
But it warned that these were offset by declining representation of women in politics, coupled with greater inequality in their access to health and education.
At current rates, the global gender gap across a range of areas will not close for another 108 years, while it is expected to take 202 years to close the workplace gap, WEF found.
The Geneva-based organisation's annual report tracked disparities between the sexes in 149 countries across four areas: education, health, economic opportunity and political empowerment.
After years of advances in education, health and political representation, women registered setbacks in all three areas this year, WEF said.
Only in the area of economic opportunity did the gender gap narrow somewhat, although there is not much to celebrate, with the global wage gap narrowing to nearly 51 per cent.
And the number of women in leadership roles has risen to 34 per cent globally, WEF said.
At the same time, the report showed there are now proportionately fewer women than men participating in the workforce, suggesting that automation is having a disproportionate impact on jobs traditionally performed by women.
And women are significantly under-represented in growing areas of employment that require science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills, WEF said.
* Agence France Presse
Results
1.30pm Handicap (PA) Dh50,000 (Dirt) 1,400m
Winner Al Suhooj, Saif Al Balushi (jockey), Khalifa Al Neyadi (trainer)
2pm Handicap (TB) 68,000 (D) 1,950m
Winner Miracle Maker, Xavier Ziani, Salem bin Ghadayer
2.30pm Maiden (TB) Dh60,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner Mazagran, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar
3pm Handicap (TB) Dh84,000 (D) 1,800m
Winner Tailor’s Row, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer
3.30pm Handicap (TB) Dh76,000 (D) 1,400m
Winner Alla Mahlak, Adrie de Vries, Rashed Bouresly
4pm Maiden (TB) Dh60,000 (D) 1,200m
Winner Hurry Up, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer
iPhone XS
With a 5.8-inch screen, it will be an advance version of the iPhone X. It will be dual sim and comes with better battery life, a faster processor and better camera. A new gold colour will be available. Price: Dh4,229
iPhone XS Max
It is expected to be a grander version of the iPhone X with a 6.5-inch screen; an inch bigger than the screen of the iPhone 8 Plus. Price: Dh4,649
iPhone XR
A low-cost version of the iPhone X with a 6.1-inch screen, it is expected to attract mass attention. According to industry experts, it is likely to have aluminium edges instead of stainless steel. Price: Dh3,179
Apple Watch Series 4
More comprehensive health device with edge-to-edge displays that are more than 30 per cent bigger than displays on current models.
The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East
May 2017
The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts
September 2021
Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act
October 2021
Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence
December 2024
Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group
May 2025
The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan
July 2025
The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan
August 2025
Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision
October 2025
Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange
November 2025
180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE
The Dark Blue Winter Overcoat & Other Stories From the North
Edited and Introduced by Sjón and Ted Hodgkinson
Pushkin Press
