“The country is on the brink of collapse and that collapse is coming faster than we thought,” Swedish Development Minister Per Olsson Fridh told Reuters on Oct. 23 in Dubai. He said economic freefall could provide an environment for terrorist groups to thrive—but that Sweden would not channel money through the Taliban, instead boosting its humanitarian contributions through Afghan civil society groups.
Pakistani Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry later told Reuters that direct engagement with the Taliban was the only way to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe, and insisted the billions of dollars of Afghan assets frozen overseas be released.
