What We're Watching: OIC cash for Afghanistan

What We're Watching: OIC cash for Afghanistan
Afghanistan's acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi is seen during the 17th extraordinary session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Council of Foreign Ministers on the Afghanistan situation, in Islamabad, Pakistan December 19, 2021.
REUTERS/Waseem Khan

An Islamic trust fund for Afghanistan. They didn’t officially recognize the Taliban government. They didn’t even allow the Taliban’s foreign minister to appear in the official group photograph. But foreign ministers from the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the second-largest intergovernmental organization after the UN, met in Islamabad on Sunday and pledged to set up a trust fund to address the worsening humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. Neither the exact amount of the fund nor the contributions by member countries was released, but may not match the $4.5 billion that the UN has appealed for aid to Afghanistan amid warnings that the Afghan economy is in a free-fall, with 23 million facing starvation. The lead organization of the fund will be the Islamic Development Bank, the OIC’s in-house global lender.

More from GZERO Media

Internally displaced Somali women stand in a queue waiting for relief food to be served south of Mogadishu, September 5, 2011.
Reuters

The effects of the global food crisis have hit some parts of the globe harder than others. Prone to drought and largely reliant on food imports, the Horn of Africa is reeling, and Somalia, in particular, is facing an acute crisis. Sadly, many countries appear to be destined for a similar fate.

- YouTube

Ian Bremmer's Quick Take: I wanted to talk a little bit about Biden versus the MAGA Republicans, because of course, if you go back to the inaugural when President Biden had just taken over, he was the unifier. Now over the course of the last few days, President Biden has said something very different. He referred to MAGA Republicans as semi-fascists a few months ago. So what is going on here?

Europe Apprehensive About Liz Truss, New UK Prime Minister | Europe In :60 | GZERO Media

What's the European attitude to Liz Truss as the new prime minister of the United Kingdom? How is Europe looking forward to the winter now when Russia is unreliable when it comes to gas supplies? Carl Bildt, former prime minister of Sweden, shares his perspective on European politics from Riga, Latvia.