Zablon Simintov
Times of Israel: Following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan last month, the country’s last remaining Jew, 62-year-old Zebulon Simantov, has fled the country, according to Tuesday reports. With the United States’ complete withdrawal from Afghanistan at the end of August leaving the country in the hands of the extremist group, Simantov crossed the border to a neighboring country over the weekend, the Kan public broadcaster reported. Click here to read more (external link).
Taliban leader Mullah Baradar with Pakistan’s ISI Chief Faiz Hameed
By Abubakar Siddique
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
September 7, 2021
The powerful head of Pakistan’s notorious Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency appeared relaxed in his brown chinos and blue blazer as the media gathered after he arrived at Kabul’s five-star Sarena Hotel.
“Please don’t worry — everything will be okay,” Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed told a Western journalist on September 4 after being queried what will happen next in Afghanistan.
A video and photos of him sipping coffee in the hotel lobby prompted intense speculation over his motives for making a very public appearance and brushing with the media on his visit.
Some in Afghanistan and Pakistan saw it as confirmation of their belief that the Taliban is nothing more than a Pakistani proxy whose harsh rule in the 1990s and two-decade insurgency against U.S.-led forces were part of Islamabad’s quest to dominate its western neighbor.
Others took it as a signal to Pakistan’s archrival, India, whose support for the previous Afghan government prompted Islamabad to accuse it of orchestrating instability inside its territory from Afghanistan
Panjshir Offensive
Still other Afghans linked Hameed’s visit to the Taliban’s ongoing offensive in Panjshir Province, which some have accused Pakistan of aiding.
Such allegations and Islamabad’s previous support of the Taliban led to hundreds of protesters taking to Kabul’s streets on September 7 and chanting slogans against Pakistan. Islamabad and the Taliban have both consistently denied accusations that they are allied and work with each other.
Many regional experts are painting a more nuanced picture of the relationship.
Some say Islamabad still wields decisive influence over the Taliban and is intimately involved in shaping its government and worldview.
Others describe more complicated relations that are likely to change now that the Taliban no longer needs to rely on Pakistani sanctuaries as it attempts to govern Afghanistan and deal with an international community highly skeptical of its intentions.
“The ISI chief’s recent visit was both for symbolic purposes and substantial,” Ibraheem Bahiss, an Afghanistan consultant with the International Crisis Group, told RFE/RL’s Gandhara. “Symbolically, it is important for Pakistan to portray its influence in Afghanistan and purport to be the most important power with influence on the movement.”
Bahiss, however, added that unlike in the 1990s and the initial years of the Taliban insurgency in the 2000s, Pakistan must now compete with Qatar for influence over the Taliban.
In 2013, the Taliban established a political office in Qatar that eventually negotiated an agreement with the United States in 2020 that paved the way for Washington to end the longest war in its history.
“Much the same way that Qatar has [been] a key intermediary between the Taliban and the West, Pakistan wants to replicate a similar role between China, Central Asia, Russia, and the Taliban,” he noted.
But Ayesha Siddiqa, an expert on the Pakistani military, said Hameed’s visit highlights Islamabad’s eagerness to shape the incoming administration.
She added that while Pakistan isn’t interested in the day-to-day running of a Taliban government, it is keen on having the right people in the right positions.
“Hameed’s visit was instrumental in how the various Taliban factions decided who to appoint as the head of the state or head of the government — Mullah Hassan Akhund instead of Mullah [Abdul Ghani] Baradar,” she told Gandhara.
Baradar, head of the Taliban’s Qatar office and political deputy to Taliban leader Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada, was widely tipped to lead the next Taliban government.
But Akhund, a close confidant of Akhundzada and reclusive leader of the Taliban leadership council, was announced on September 7 as the head of government.
Afrasiab Khattak, a Pakistani politician and critic of Islamabad’s approach toward Afghanistan, agrees.
“Hameed’s Kabul visit was most probably aimed at helping the Taliban overcome its factional differences and form an inclusive government, as well as for guiding them on security matters,” he told Gandhara. “A foreign state can’t lord over another like this, even if it were a protectorate.”
But the Pakistani government and the Taliban deny such accusations.
“He was invited by the Taliban leadership so he went there,” Raoof Hasan, an adviser to the Pakistani prime minister, told the BBC of Hameed’s visit. “Why should Pakistan be assisting or asking or doing something concerning a matter, which is Afghanistan’s internal affairs?” he said in response to Pakistan’s alleged role in the Panjshir offensive and in crafting the Taliban’s new government. “We have nothing to do with Afghanistan’s internal matters.”
Durand Line
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid offered a different explanation.
He told journalists in Kabul on September 6 that the ISI chief had requested a meeting with Taliban leaders a month ago but it could only happen now because “our leaders were busy.”
“They were concerned about security along the Durand Line,” Mujahid said of the 19th-century demarcation that forms the current border between the two neighbors that Islamabad has fenced to prevent an influx of militants.
“They were worried about the prisoners recently freed from prisons across Afghanistan. In their view, some of these prisoners might harm them,” he added. “But we assured them our soil will not be used against anyone.”
Before the Taliban captured Kabul, Islamabad accused the Afghan government and India of supporting remnants of the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which reportedly fled to Afghanistan to escape a large-scale Pakistani military operation in 2014.
Many in Pakistan are now hoping the Afghan Taliban will rein in the TTP.
“It will be an ongoing struggle and it is not going to be over soon. I am not sure Pakistan will be able to subdue the TTP,” Siddiqa, a research associate at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, noted. “[And] the Taliban needs more foot soldiers to retain ground in Afghanistan, so I don’t think [the Afghan Taliban] will be able to abandon their foot soldiers.”
Bahiss said the Taliban’s relations with Pakistan have evolved considerably. Islamabad became one of the movement’s major supporters after its emergence in 1994 and was one of the three states to recognize its government after it captured Kabul in 1996. Some Pakistani officials have even admitted that the Taliban leadership found refuge in their country after the demise of their regime in Afghanistan in late 2001.
“Their relations have gone through a number of evolutions,” Bahiss said. “Since at least the mid-2000s, the Taliban has been seeking to end its dependence on Pakistan. The Taliban achieved a major diplomatic victory when it opened its Doha office. The fact that it resisted Pakistani mediation was a major blow to Pakistan.”
Despite repeated denials by officials, Pakistan has supported the Taliban insurgency. But it did go after individual leaders.
Baradar was arrested in a joint U.S.-Pakistani raid in 2010. In 2012, the Taliban announced the death of Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, their former defense minister. The Taliban said he had died inside a Pakistani prison in 2010. In May 2016, Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansur was killed in a U.S. drone strike in the southwestern Pakistani province of Balochistan after he reportedly returned from a trip to neighboring Iran.
According to Bahiss, Islamabad has new motives in its relations with the Taliban.
“Since 2018, Pakistan has been seeking to portray itself as a responsible interlocutor on the Afghanistan issues,” he said. “I suspect Pakistan will continue seeking to build a unified regional approach in dealing with the Taliban.”
Since the Taliban takeover on August 15, Islamabad has attempted to allay the fears of Afghanistan’s neighbors.
On September 5, Islamabad hosted a virtual diplomatic meeting with representatives of China, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Iran. Mohammad Sadiq, Pakistan’s special envoy to Afghanistan, said the meeting aimed to build a regional approach to address common challenges.
“A prosperous and peaceful Afghanistan would provide impetus to economic integration, strong people-to-people linkages, enhanced trade, and regional connectivity,” he tweeted.
Weeks later, it remains unclear whether Pakistan’s neighbors are ready to go along with its plans for Afghanistan.
Iran and Tajikistan have already voiced their opposition, and Dushanbe is even seen as sheltering the anti-Taliban resistance that is based in Panjshir.
Islamabad’s quest to shape Afghanistan’s destiny through the Taliban, however, has a major impact at home.
“There will be a greater push for Pakistan to become a theocracy just like the Taliban [is creating in Afghanistan],” Siddiqa noted.
After occupying Panjshir, the Taliban transported dozens of Panjshir youths to unknown locations in Kabul in heavy vehicles, claiming that they had surrendered or been captured. The status of these people and their fate is unknown.
طالبان پس از اشغال پنجشیر، دهها جوان پنجشیری را با این عنوان که آنها تسلیم و یا اسیر شده اند، با خودروهای سنگین به نقاط نامعلوم در کابل انتقال دادند.
از وضعیت این افراد و سرنوشت آنها اطلاعی در دست نیست.#پنجشیر #طالبان #افغانستان #ایندیپندنت_فارسی pic.twitter.com/77wod3qTqY— Independent Persian (@indypersian) September 7, 2021
Related
Sources telling me that Taliban started slaughtering people in the Omarz district of #Panjshir, home of former VP Marshal Fahim. Reports suggest they killed Mojeer Haqjo, Marshal Fahim's brother-in-law. Adeb Fahim son of Marshal Fahim also confirms killing of innocent people. pic.twitter.com/XfjbcUKWD6
— Tajuden Soroush (@TajudenSoroush) September 7, 2021
Dr. Abdullah
Tolo News: Abdullah, referring to the war in Panjshir, wrote on his Facebook page that imposing demands on people by force will not have positive results and will lead to the continuation of conflict and suffering. Mohaqiq, condemning the attack on Panjshir, wrote on his Facebook page that Panjshir did not deserve such a large-scale and cruel offensive. Mohaqiq also warned against “foreign intervention.” Nabil has also said the current situation is not acceptable to the people of Afghanistan. He sharply criticized what he has called Pakistan’s intervention in Afghanistan. Click here to read more (external link).
Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada
By Abubakar Siddique
September 7, 2021
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
The Afghan Taliban has named a reclusive, hard-line Sunni cleric as its supreme leader in a still-unrecognized governing structure weeks after a dramatic takeover in which the militants seized most of Afghanistan even before the final withdrawal of U.S. and allied forces.
Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada, 55, was already the radical fundamentalist group’s appointed leader. That’s a position he secured in May 2016, days after the second leader in the Taliban’s quarter-century history, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansur, was killed in a U.S. drone strike in southwestern Pakistan.
On September 7 Ahmadullah Wasiq, a Taliban spokesman, confirmed to the BBC that Akhundzada will be formally called “commander of the faithful.”
“[Akhundzada] is a religious figure who commands tremendous respect because of his religious credentials,” Afghan journalist Sami Yousafzai told RFE/RL’s Gandhara. “He was a senior Taliban judge and a close confidant to the movement’s founder, Mullah Mohammad Omar.”
Akhundzada is often referred to as Shaikhul Hadis, a Deobandi — or Sunni revivalist — clerical title signifying his status as an authority on the life and teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. “He is an Islamic scholar and has authored several books [on religious issues],” Yousafzai noted.
He said that after the fall of the Taliban regime to U.S.-led invasion forces in late 2001, Akhundzada joined the movement’s leaders to seek refuge in the southwestern Pakistani province of Balochistan.
“He used to run a madrasah near Quetta,” Yousafzai said of Akhundzada’s time leading a religious school in exile in Balochistan’s provincial capital. “He was known as Akhundzada of Kuchlak and frequently addressed graduation ceremonies of various madrasahs in the region.” Kuchlak is a small town near Quetta where many senior Taliban leaders were believed to have sheltered over the past two decades.
Recent Taliban statements indicate that Akhundzada will likely determine the strategic direction of the movement’s new government atop what it calls an Islamic Emirate.
“The leader of the Islamic Emirate offered comprehensive instructions and made everyone aware of their responsibilities,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted at the end of a three-day consultation among Taliban leaders in the southern city of Kandahar this week.
The Taliban appears to be keen on projecting him as a visionary leader.
“After the withdrawal of all foreign forces from our country, we would like to establish good relations with the world, including the United States,” Taliban media quoted Akhundzada as saying in July. “Such relations should have diplomatic, political, and economic aspects within a framework of mutual benefit.”
Like the movement’s founder, Mullah Omar, Akhundzada hails from Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar Province, where the Taliban movement first emerged in 1994. He rose through its ranks and was appointed caretaker chief judge of the Taliban’s military courts by the late 1990s in large part due to his theological credentials.
His tribal connections, good standing with the late leader Mansur, and status as a religious authority cemented his appointment as Mansur’s deputy in 2015 after the latter assumed informal leadership of the Taliban. After a messy struggle, Mansur was formally appointed Taliban leader in 2015, but he had acted as de facto leader while covering up the news of Omar’s death for two years. Omar is thought to have died in April 2013.
Nazar Mohammad Mutmaeen, a Kabul-based former Taliban official who often attempts to explain Taliban positions, wrote that Akhundzada is an unflappable religious scholar with a penchant for long religious speeches.
“He can command his emotions, and the Taliban is now looking to him as someone capable of uniting its ranks,” he said.
Under Akhundzada’s leadership, the Taliban scored diplomatic and military victories. With his political deputy, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, it also successfully negotiated a key agreement with the United States. The February 2020 Doha Agreement paved the way for a full withdrawal of U.S. and allied forces from Afghanistan.
He kept the Taliban’s military ranks united by promoting Omar’s eldest son, Mullah Yaqoob, as his deputy and placing him in charge of the movement’s military arm along with Sirajuddin Haqqani, leader of the Haqqani network.
Now that the Taliban military machine has swiftly overrun Kabul and most of the rest of Afghanistan since the beginning of the final U.S. military withdrawal in May, Akhundzada faces a host of challenges.
Under his leadership, the Taliban could be hard-pressed to win international legitimacy, resolve a growing domestic economic crisis, or deliver good governance to Afghanistan’s some 38 million people, who are likely to demand prosperity and personal freedoms in addition to security.
While the Taliban has made sweeping promises of reform under the watchful eye of the global community, Akhundzada’s challenge will be to lead the movement in delivering on the growing demands and expectations of a militant group whose credibility will be under intense scrutiny at home and abroad.
Sirajuddin Haqqani
By Frud Bezhan
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
September 7, 2021
The Taliban has formed a new, theocratic government in Afghanistan, weeks after the August 15 collapse of the internationally recognized administration in Kabul and within days of international troops’ departure.
Taliban leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, a hard-line cleric and former chief justice, has been named supreme leader. He will have the ultimate say in political, religious, and military affairs in the country under a system reminiscent of the clerically led establishment in neighboring Iran since 1979.
Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, a founding member of the group in the early 1990s who also served as foreign minister and a deputy prime minister during the Taliban’s regime from 1996-2001, has been named head of government and will oversee day-to-day affairs.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the Taliban who previously served as one of Akhunzada’s three deputies, will be Akhund’s first deputy.
Mawlawi Hanafi, a senior Taliban figure who served on the negotiating team at the peace talks in Qatar, has been named as Akhund’s second deputy.
Other key positions have been filled by two other deputies: Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, the son of the late Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, was named defense minister.
Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the Haqqani network, a powerful Taliban faction, will serve as interior minister.
Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, a key Taliban political leader who has worked as a key diplomatic envoy, has been named deputy foreign minister.
One of the Taliban government’s first tasks will be trying to open diplomatic and economic channels while seeking recognition from foreign governments, some of whom in the West have already signaled policies of “engagement” without such recognition.
All positions were named as being in an “acting” capacity.
Mullah Hassan Akhund
Akhund is one of the Taliban’s most senior figures. He was a founding member of the group in the early 1990s and a deputy prime minister during the Taliban’s regime from 1996-2001. He also served as foreign minister and a provincial governor during that time.
Akhund, who hails from Kandahar, considered the birthplace of the Taliban, was believed to have been a close associate of late spiritual leader Mullah Omar.
During the Taliban’s insurgency, Akhund was a senior military commander. He also headed the Taliban’s leadership council, the group’s highest decision-making body, which is based in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta.
Akhund has been on the United Nations terror list since 2001, when the U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban from power. The UN has described him as one of the “most effective Taliban commanders.” It says he was born between 1955 and 1958.
Ibraheem Bahiss, an independent Afghan research analyst, says that considering Akhund’s seniority and status it is not a “huge surprise” that he was appointed as the new head of government.
Mullah Baradar
Abdul Ghani Baradar, a veteran Taliban leader, is the most public face of the three-decade-old militant Islamist group.
The 53-year-old Baradar served as the Taliban’s second-in-command under Mullah Omar and coordinated the group’s military operations in Afghanistan before his arrest in neighboring Pakistan in 2010.
Baradar was jailed by Pakistani authorities after he reportedly facilitated talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban command without the approval of Pakistan, the group’s main foreign sponsor.
Baradar spent eight years in prison in Pakistan, where many Taliban leaders fled following the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 that toppled their brutal regime.
He was released in 2018 at the behest of the United States following the launch of direct talks between the militants and Washington, becoming the head of the Taliban’s political office in Qatar and chief negotiator. Baradar signed the February 2020 agreement with U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in a ceremony in Doha.
“Baradar has been a key figure in Taliban leadership and diplomacy,” said Graeme Smith, an author on Afghanistan and a consultant for the International Crisis Group (ICG), a Brussels-based think tank.
But he says it would be a mistake to focus exclusively on any single Taliban leader. “The Taliban leadership is much more collective than the top-down hierarchies of other organizations,” Smith said. “They consult widely, not just among the leadership, but also a number of councils within the group.”
Hailing from the southern province of Uruzgan, Baradar is a Durrani Pashtun from the Popalzai tribe. Southern Pashtuns make up the bulk of the Taliban’s leadership. His close relationship with the late Mullah Omar earned him the nom de guerre “Baradar,” or “brother.”
Mullah Yaqoob
Mullah Yaqoob was virtually unknown until 2015, when the Taliban acknowledged the death of his father, Mullah Omar, who had died more than two years earlier in Pakistan.
Since then, the ambitious Yaqoob has soared through the Taliban’s ranks. He consolidated power after his failed bid to succeed his father that year, first becoming deputy leader before being named as a military chief.
Yaqoob, believed to be in his 30s, oversaw military operations in 13 southern and western provinces despite his lack of battlefield experience. Yaqoob was a graduate of several hard-line Islamic seminaries in Pakistan.
Experts say the prestige of being Mullah Omar’s eldest son elevated Yaqoob’s standing among the Taliban’s field commanders and its rank and file.
“Mullah Omar was a charismatic leader and there remains huge respect for him, his family, and even his close associates, many of whom have been promoted to influential positions over the years,” said Obaid Ali, an expert on the insurgency at the Afghanistan Analysts Network, an independent think tank in Kabul.
Sirajuddin Haqqani
Sirajuddin Haqqani is a deputy Taliban leader and a military chief who oversaw operations in 21 eastern and northern provinces. He is also the leader of the Haqqani network, the most lethal and powerful faction of the Taliban. The network is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States.
Experts say the network has close links with Al-Qaeda and Pakistan’s military establishment, which has long been accused of providing safe haven and material support to the Taliban.
The network — based in the tribal areas of northwest Pakistan — has been blamed for some of the deadliest attacks against civilians and Afghan and foreign security forces, gaining notoriety for its use of suicide bombers in complex, urban attacks.
Haqqani, who has a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head, is the son of the late radical Islamist leader Jalaluddin Haqqani, who was a key resistance commander in the war against Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai
Stanekzai was Baradar’s deputy at the Taliban’s political office in Qatar.
Stanekzai trained at and graduated from prestigious military schools in India in the 1980s before he joined the mujahedin, the U.S.-backed Islamist guerrillas who fought Soviet forces during their decade-long occupation of Afghanistan.
When the Taliban seized most of Afghanistan in 1996, following a devastating four-year civil war, Stanekzai was appointed deputy foreign minister.
A fluent English speaker, he is a key leader in the Taliban’s political wing and has been one of the group’s key envoys to foreign diplomats and media.
Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada
By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
September 7, 2021
The Taliban has named its reclusive leader Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada as a supreme leader and a founding leader, Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, to lead a new Afghan regime as the radical fundamentalist group seeks to establish its rule after the UN-backed government collapsed in mid-August.
The announcement by Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid on September 7 in Kabul comes eight days after the United States announced the final withdrawal of U.S. and other international forces after a nearly 20-year war against the Taliban and other anti-government elements.
Many of the world’s leading powers have been waiting to see who is in the still-unrecognized government and whether it will act in line with Taliban promises of being more moderate than during its brutal rule 20 years ago, when it enforced a radical form of Islamic law.
Soon after the announcement, Akhundzada issued a public statement that could do little to assuage those international concerns.
“I assure all the countrymen that the figures will work hard towards upholding Islamic rules and Shari’a law in the country,” Akhundzada said in the statement, which was distributed in English.
At least two of the new ministers are on UN or U.S. lists of designated terrorists.
Taliban spokesman Mujahid described the new appointments as “acting” leaders and said there could be changes in the future.
The hard-line Sunni cleric Akhundzada will be a sort of supreme leader with the final word on political, religious, and military affairs under a governing structure that some have likened to Iran’s clerically dominated system.
Akhundzada, 55, was already the Taliban’s appointed leader.
Separately, another Taliban spokesman, Ahmadullah Wasiq, confirmed to BBC that the country should be known as “the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” — the title the group used during its mostly unrecognized rule in 1996-2001 — and Akhundzada’s post is “commander of the faithful.”
The 60-something Akhund, a longtime confidant of the late Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and former “foreign minister” under the previous period of Taliban rule, is expected to lead day-to-day affairs of the new regime in something akin to a prime ministerial role.
He has been on the UN terror list since 2001.
Mawlawi Amir Khan Mutaqqi was named as foreign minister.
Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of a powerful Taliban faction known as the Haqqani network, which is designated a terrorist organization by the United States, will serve as interior minister.
Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, the son of Mullah Omar, was named defense minister.
Other senior figures in the new government include Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who has arguably been the most public face of the Taliban, as Akhund’s first deputy.
Baradar was released from Pakistani custody in 2018 at the behest of the United States following the launch of direct talks between the militants and Washington that eventually led to the withdrawal agreement reached in early 2020.
Mawlawi Hannafi, a participant in the international talks in Doha, was named Akhund’s second deputy.
The justice minister, Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai, led the Taliban’s international negotiating team in Doha and headed the Taliban’s Pakistan-based shadow Supreme Court.
One of the Taliban government’s first tasks will be trying to open diplomatic and economic channels while seeking recognition from foreign governments, some of whom in the West have already signaled policies of “engagement” without such recognition.
The government announcement comes less than two days after the Taliban claimed to have defeated holdout forces in the Panjshir Valley, although the leader of the National Resistance Front (NRFA) insists he has thousands of fighters and will continue to oppose Taliban control of the region, north of Kabul.
NRFA leader Ahmad Masud, son of the storied late mujahedin commander known as the “lion of Panjshir,” Ahmad Shah Masud, in an audio message rejected the Taliban claim of “victory” and said his ranks would keep up the fight. He also urged Afghans in and outside the country to “start a general uprising.”
On September 7, the brother of the late Ahmad Shah Masud, Ahmad Wali Masud, told a symposium in Geneva that the resistance was “really wounded” but that “any time they can come back.”
“We still have thousands of fighters in the valley,” Wali Masud said, “and any time they can come back and you will be witnessing that one.”
“Yes, we have been wounded and we have been really wounded, but we have not died, we are still alive.”
The Taliban announcement came with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken engaged in crisis talks in Qatar, a U.S. ally that has emerged as a key interlocutor to the Taliban, including to discuss ongoing efforts to evacuate Western nationals and as many as thousands of Afghans who cooperated with the Western-backed administration.
Blinken said on September 7 that the United States had been “engaging with the Taliban…in recent hours” on the evacuation issue.
The militant group declared an amnesty for all Afghans who worked with foreign forces during the war that ousted it from power and said it was in talks with “all factions” to reach an agreement on its future government.
But many reports have said summary executions and house-to-house searches for those who worked with international groups or the previous government are occurring across the country.
Taliban gunmen meanwhile fired warning shots into the air to disperse a rally in Kabul on September 7 by women and others denouncing Taliban rule, urging respect for women’s rights, and fearful of a repeat of the group’s previous brutal rule two decades ago.
Small, isolated demonstrations have been held this week in cities including Herat in the west and Mazar-e Sharif in the north.
Aamaj News:
Zabihullah Mujahid has announced that Mullah Mohammad Hassan will lead the new government.
Mullah Baradar was appointed as first deputy.
Mawlavi Hannafi was appointed as second deputy.
Mullah Yaqub was appointed by the Taliban to head the Ministry of National Defense.
Sirajuddin Haqqani has been appointed by the Taliban as acting interior minister.
Shir Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai was appointed by the Taliban as deputy foreign minister.
ذبیحالله مجاهد اعلام کرده که ملا محمد حسن، رهبری حکومت جدید را بر عهده خواهد داشت.#آماج_نیوز pic.twitter.com/bYATFfWHdS
— Aamaj News (@AamajN) September 7, 2021
Other positions
Acting Foreign Minister: Amir Khan Muttaqi
Acting Finance Minister: Mullah Hedayatullah Badri
Acting Education Minister: Sheikh Mawlawi Noorullah
Acting Minister for Information and Culture: Mullah Khairullah Khairkhah
Actng Minister of Economy: Qari Din Hanif
Acting Minister for Hajj amd Religious Affairs: Mawlawi Noor Mohammad Saqib
Acting Minister of Justice: Mawlawi Abdul Hakim Sharie
Acting Minister of Borders and Tribal Affairs: Mullah Noorullah Noori
Acting Minister of Rural Rehabilitation and Development: Mullah Mohammad Younus Akhundzada
Acting Minister of Public Work: Mullah Abdul Manan Omari
Acting Minister of Mines and Petroleum: Mullah Mohammad Esa Akhund
Lisa Schlein
VOA News
September 7, 2021
GENEVA – The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization warns millions of Afghans are at risk of starving if farmers do not receive the seeds they need to plant their winter wheat crop before the end of the month.
About 70% of all Afghans live in rural areas and depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. The Food and Agriculture Organization reports one in three people, or 14 million are suffering from acute hunger, with four million on the brink of famine.
The FAO director of emergencies and resilience, Rein Paulsen, says more than 20% of households are facing catastrophic gaps in their food consumption. He says malnutrition levels are soaring and many children risk dying.
Speaking on a video link from Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, Paulsen says Afghanistan’s critical winter wheat season is under threat. This, from the prevailing drought, as well as the many uncertainties due to the fluid political and military situation in the country.
He warns the window of opportunity to assist farmers for the fast-approaching winter wheat season is narrowing.
“Towards the end of September, we need to make sure that that planting is starting. There is a very short window of time to be able to address that. The seeds cannot wait, the farmers cannot wait. We need to do everything we can to ensure that those vulnerable households are supported,” he said.
Paulsen notes wheat is the most important cereal crop in Afghanistan, providing more than half of the population’s daily caloric intake. In addition to winter wheat, he says millions of Afghans also depend upon their livestock for survival.
“There are more than three million livestock at risk. We are approaching winter. Support to ensure that that livestock survives and thrives is vital. So, the drought has already posed a major threat to the livestock. The winter season is a challenge too. So, working with vulnerable herders, ensuring that feed, concentrate feed gets into the hands of those herders and farmers is vital,” he said.
FAO has supported more than 1.5 million people across 26 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces this year. The agency says it plans to support another 1.5 million people with seeds, cash, and other aid for the rest of the year, but needs $15 million to do so.