Afghanistan crisis live updates: Resistance leader Msssoud lays down condition for talks, says Taliban must stop Panjshir offensive

Iran's president is calling for elections in Afghanistan to determine the future of the country, where he hopes peace will return after Western troops have left and the Taliban have seized control. Speaking on state TV on Saturday, Ebrahim Raisi said that the Afghan people should vote to determine their own government "as soon as possible." "A government should be established there which is elected by the votes and the will of the people," he said.

Former woman Afghan MP, Mariam Solaimankhil said on Saturday that Pakistan intelligence chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed had arrived in Kabul to make sure that Abdul Ghani Baradar does not lead the new Afghanistan government.

The challenges to security emerging from the upheaval in Afghanistan should be a wake-up call for the European Union, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Saturday, urging the EU to be more ambitious on defence and on global leadership. "Europe has to become No. 3 super-power besides China and the United States. Let's open our eyes, we are facing threats and we cannot rely anymore on the protection of the United States," Le Maire told reporters during an annual business conference in Cernobbio on Lake Como.

Veteran-led rescue groups say the Biden administration's estimate that no more than 200 US citizens were left behind in Afghanistan is too low and also overlooks hundreds of other people they consider to be equally American: permanent legal residents with green cards. Some groups say they continue to be contacted by American citizens in Afghanistan who did not register with the US Embassy before it closed and by others not included in previous counts because they expressed misgivings about leaving loved ones behind.

Commander of the anti-Taliban resistance forces in Afghanistan's Panjshir province, Ahmad Shah Masoud, has vowed to save the valley from the outfit and said that he will never stop his resistance for the sake of "God, justice and freedom," local media reported on Saturday. Masoud said that the resistance in Panjshir and protests by women's rights in Afghanistan indicate that Afghans never give up when it comes to standing for their legitimate rights, the country's Khaama Press said today.

Fighters from the so-called National Resistance Front (NRF) -- made up of anti-Taliban militia and former Afghan security forces -- are understood to have stockpiled a significant armoury in the valley, around 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Kabul and guarded by a narrow gorge. The Emergency Hospital in Kabul said two people were killed and 20 wounded by the salvos, as the Taliban tweeted a stern admonishment warning its fighters to stop.

BJP state president K Surendran on Saturday alleged that mainstream political parities in Kerala are vying to extend support to Taliban after the terrorist group took control over Afghanistan. Both the ruling CPI(M)-led LDF and the Congress-headed UDF opposition were playing a different sort of politics after the militants were back in power in the neighbouring country, he charged. He further alleged that those who take a pro-Taliban stand were the ones trying to whitewash the Moplah riots that occurred in the state in 1921.

The Taliban have postponed the formation of a new government in Afghanistan for next week, their spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said on Saturday, as the insurgent group struggles to give shape to a broad-based and inclusive administration acceptable to the international community. The insurgent group was expected to announce on Saturday the formation of the new government in Kabul, likely to be led by the outfit's co-founder Mulla Abdul Ghani Baradar. This is the second that the Taliban have delayed the formation of the new government in Kabul since they seized Kabul on August 15.

Ahead of the government formation in Afghanistan, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said he hopes that the new establishment will be open and inclusive, and disassociate itself from terror groups.The Chinese minister made the remarks during a phone call on Friday with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Global Times reported. This statement on Afghanistan comes a few days after a senior Chinese leader informed the group that Beijing would maintain their embassy in Kabul.After the US exit from Afghanistan and the Taliban's take over of the country, China is concerned about a possible revival of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), its cross-border agitation and terrorism in the Xinjiang region.