Blinken has said Washington will work with allies to exert diplomatic and economic leverage in Afghanistan even after the end of America's longest war.

The spokesperson for the bloc said that "such inclusivity and representation is expected in the composition of a future transitional government, and as result of negotiations".

Anyone with the basic knowledge of the regional geopolitical status quo will know that such ill-intentioned rhetoric will not change China-Pakistan cooperation or deter China’s possible participation in the reconstruction of Afghanistan, other than making more noises.

FM Qureshi was pleased to welcome the Foreign Minister’s of China, Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan & Uzbekistan to the 1st Ministerial meeting of #Afghanistan’s neighbours. The positive & constructive response to Pakistan’s proposal for a regional approach was appreciated.

Khater said that since returning to power, the Taliban had largely left Afghan health authorities, including female medics, free to continue their coronavirus response.

It said the Taliban’s illegitimate government regime is a clear sign of the group’s enmity with the Afghan people and for that reason, the world community must not rush in to recognise an “occupier’s regime.”

In a wide-ranging television interview, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu sounded a cautious note about Turkey's future relations with the fundamentalist Islamist group.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, whose country has increased its aid budget for Afghanistan, said last week that humanitarian assistance would flow through agencies and not to the Taliban directly.

Among the erased murals was one showing US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar shaking hands after signing the 2020 deal to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan.

The province's new governor has offered reassuring words, but many people remain sceptical about the Taliban's pledge of a different kind of rule.

The IS attack on Kabul airport was all the more shocking because it succeeded despite US President Joe Biden's specific prior warning that intelligence agencies were aware of the plot.

The spokesman added that any insurgency against their rule would be "hit hard", after earlier saying they had captured the Panjshir Valley -- the last pocket of resistance.