Taliban announce new government for Afghanistan
The Taliban have announced an interim government in Afghanistan, declaring the country an “Islamic Emirate”.
It will be led by Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, one of the movement’s founders, who is on a UN blacklist.
The interior minister will be a feared FBI-wanted leader of the Haqqani militant group.
The Taliban seized control of most of the country on 15 August, ousting the previous elected leadership.
The announcement of the acting cabinet is a key step in the formation of a Taliban government.
In a statement, Taliban leader Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada said they want “strong and healthy relations with our neighbours and all other countries based on mutual respect and interaction” – with the caveat that they would respect international laws and treaties “that are not in conflict with Islamic law and the country’s national values”.
The Taliban have previously said they wanted to form an inclusive government. However, all of the cabinet ministers announced on Tuesday are already established Taliban leaders or their allies.
Hassan Akhund, the new prime minister, served as deputy foreign minister from 1996 to 2001, when the Taliban were last in power.
Sarajuddin Haqqani, the new acting interior minister, is head of the militant group known as the Haqqani network who are affiliated with the Taliban and have been behind some of the deadliest attacks in the country’s two-decade-long war.
Unlike the wider Taliban, the Haqqani network has been designated a foreign terrorist organisation by the US.
Other appointments include Mullah Yaqoob as acting defence minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi as acting foreign minister, and Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and Mullah Abdul Salam Hanafi as two deputies.
Yaqoob is the son of Taliban founder and late supreme leader Mullah Omar. He first came to prominence in 2015 when, in an audio message released after his father’s death, he called for unity within the militant group.
Baradar was previously head of the Taliban’s political office, and oversaw the signing of the US withdrawal agreement last year.
Asked why no women were announced, Ahmadullah Wasiq, from the Taliban Cultural Commission, told the BBC’s Secunder Kermani that the cabinet had not been finalised yet.
The announcement comes amid reports that the Taliban have carried out some retribution attacks, despite saying they would not.
Sources inside Afghanistan previously told the BBC that some Taliban fighters have been searching for, and allegedly killing, people they promised to leave in peace – including two senior police officials.
Women who fled the country said they had received messages from the Taliban, urging them to return and “live in the Islamic way”.
“Since the Taliban have come to power they haven’t stopped killing,” a former Afghan special forces soldier still in the country told the BBC. He said some of his former colleagues had been killed.