Pakistan’s defense minister warned Afghanistan on Wednesday that any new “terrorist or suicide attack” by militants on Pakistani soil would draw a stern response, hours after talks between the two countries in Istanbul failed to secure a peace agreement.

Afghanistan occupies a central position in Tehran’s changing playbook, as the country is both a risk and a buffer for Iran.

India has neither sought nor been offered any presence at the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, officials in Kabul clarified, dismissing recent social media reports as "baseless" and aimed at discrediting the relationship between the two countries.

A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush region late on Saturday, according to the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC). The tremor was felt across several nearby provinces,