• 40,000 stuck in Albania, Pakistan, Qatar after flights cancelled
• Rubio threatens bounties on Taliban leaders
• Tehran, Kabul vow to increase cooperation

SHENGJIN: Ali Amini was just days from starting a new life in the United States when President Donald Trump halted aid for resettling Afghan refugees last week, a move that Amini worries could put his life in danger if forced to return home.

After processing in Albania, he had a flight booked for Tuesday and his bags were packed when Trump suspended state aid needed to transport tens of thousands of Afghans who have been granted visas.

“I don’t know if we will ever get on that plane and, if so, whether it will go to Kabul or the United States,” Amini said from Shengjin, a coastal town in northern Albania where he is sheltering along with 300 compatriots.

Trump’s pause on foreign aid has led to the suspension of flights for over 40,000 Afghans approved for special US visas and at risk of Taliban retribution, Shawn VanDiver, head of the #AfghanEvac coalition of US veterans and advocacy groups, told Reuters on Saturday.

Amini arrived in Albania more than a month ago and had secured visas for his wife and three children, the youngest being six months old.

Upon hearing the news from Trump, Amini’s wife was moved to tears while their children have become anxious about the future.

After working as a locksmith for US troops before their withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, Amini lived in hiding for three years for fear of Taliban reprisals.

“If we return, they will kill us because, to the Taliban, we are essentially Americans and their number one enemies, as we worked shoulder to shoulder with the Americans.”

Most of those affected by Trump’s decision are stranded in Afghanistan, with others in Pakistan, Qatar and Albania, VanDiver said.

The order also prompted the State Department to suspend funding for groups that assist Afghans with Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) in finding housing, schools and jobs in the US.

Nearly 200,000 Afghans have been resettled in the US with SIVs or as refugees since 2021. Trump’s victorious 2024 re-election campaign included promises of strict immigration policies.

Rubio threatens bounties on Taliban leaders

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has threatened bounties on the heads of Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders, sharply escalating the tone as he said more Americans may be detained in the country than previously thought.

The threat comes days after the Afghan Taliban government and the United States swapped prisoners in one of the final acts of former president Joe Biden.

The new top US diplomat issued the harsh warning via social media, in a rhetorical style strikingly similar to his boss, President Donald Trump.

“Just hearing the Taliban is holding more American hostages than has been reported,” Rubio wrote on X. “If this is true, we will have to immediately place a VERY BIG bounty on their top leaders, maybe even bigger than the one we had on bin Laden,” he said, referring to the Al-Qaeda leader killed by US forces in 2011.

Iran FM arrives in Kabul

In a separate development, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Kabul on Sunday on the highest-level visit by an Iranian official to the Afghan capital since the Taliban’s takeover in 2021.

During the trip, the two sides called for increased cooperation. Araghchi met with his Afghan counterpart, Amir Khan Muttaqi, and Taliban government Prime Minister Hassan Akhund during a one-day visit to discuss relations between the neighbouring countries that spar over issues including migration and water resources.

The two sides covered economic cooperation, the situation of Afghan migrants in Iran, border issues and water rights, an Afghan foreign ministry statement said.

Araghchi praised the countries’ economic, trade and political relations in his talks with Muttaqi, according to an Iranian statement, adding he hoped that “during this trip we will be able to further expand the ties in line with the national interests of both sides”, emphasising security and economic arenas.

Muttaqi “expressed hope that (Araghchi’s) visit to Kabul would create further momentum in relations between the two countries and they would enter a new phase of bilateral relations”, the Afghan foreign ministry said.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2025