Taliban form all-male interim govt with old faces

Ending two decades-long destructive war, Islamic hardliner group, The Taliban on Tuesday announced an interim government for Afghanistan, declaring the country an "Islamic Emirate".

The new cabinet, entirely male, made up of old faces of their hard-line rule from the 1990s and the 20-year battle against the US-led coalition, a move that seems unlikely to win the international support the new leaders desperately need to avoid an economic meltdown.

It will be led by Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, one of the movement's founders, who is on a UN blacklist.

The interior minister is the feared FBI-wanted leader of the Haqqani militant group, Sirajuddin Haqqani. He headed the feared Haqqani network that is blamed for many deadly attacks and kidnappings.

The announcement came after weeks of seizing Afghan Capital Kabul, ousting the previous elected leadership.

The Taliban have previously said they wanted to form an inclusive government. However, most of cabinet's members are from Afghanistan's dominant Pashtun ethnic group, the Cabinet's lack of representation from other ethnic groups and no-women cabinet is contradictory to their previous words and seems certain to hobble its support from abroad.

In announcing the Cabinet, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid emphasized that the appointments were temporary. He did not say how long they would serve and what would be the catalyst for a change.

Since taking over Afghanistan in mid-August after US troops withdrew, the Taliban have shown no indications they will hold elections.

The US State Department in a statement expressed concern that the Cabinet included only Taliban, no women and personalities with a troubling track record, but said the new administration would be judged by its actions, report BBC.

The carefully worded statement noted the Cabinet was interim, but said the Taliban would be held to their promise to give safe passage to both foreign nationals and Afghans, with proper travel documents, and ensure Afghan soil would not be used as to harm another.

"The world is watching closely," the statement said.

The interim Prime Minister, Mullah Hasan Akhund, served as deputy foreign minister from 1996 to 2001, when the group was last in power. He is influential on the religious side of the movement, rather than the military side.

 Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who had led talks with the US and signed the deal that led to the withdrawal, will be one of two deputies to Akhund.

Abdul Salam Hanafi, an ethnic Uzbek, was named as second deputy to Hasan Akhund. A long-time Taliban member, he is unlikely to satisfy demands for inclusivity and minority representation.

Besides Haqqani as head of the police, the other top security post of defense minister went to Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob , the son of Taliban founder and near mythic figure Mullah Mohammad Omar.

The new foreign minister will be Amir Khan Muttaqi, another prominent figure from the Taliban's last time in power. He faces a difficult task, given the Cabinet's lack of diversity.

The Cabinet selection defied the many voices that had urged inclusivity and moderation. Instead, it seemed to be a bow to the Taliban's tens of thousands of fighters, who would have struggled to accept figures from previous governments that they see as corrupt and that they believe they were called upon to oust.

"The fighters made the sacrifices. ... They are the decision makers, not the politicians," said analyst and author Fazelminallah Qazizai, who has written extensively about the Taliban.

Yet even with a Cabinet dominated by ethnic Pashtuns, the Taliban's fighting force would appear to have already attained some diversity, with their ranks bolstered considerably by ethnic Tajiks and Uzbeks. That may have helped hand the Taliban a surprising win in the mostly Tajik province of Badakhshan, which they overran with hardly a fight. When they last ruled, the province was the only one they failed to control.

Photo Source: BBC

Ministers told to implement Islamic law

A statement attributed to Taliban Supreme Leader Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada told the government to uphold Sharia.

The Taliban want "strong and healthy relations with our neighbours and all other countries based on mutual respect and interaction", said the statement, released in English - 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".

Hibatullah Akhundzada has never made a public appearance. This is the first message appearing to come from him since the Taliban took control last month.

An interior minister on a US terrorism list

Sirajuddin 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 - including a truck bomb explosion in Kabul in 2017 that killed more than 150 people.

Unlike the wider Taliban, the Haqqani network has been designated a foreign terrorist organisation by the US. It also maintains close ties to al-Qaeda.

According to the FBI's profile on Haqqani, he is "wanted for questioning in connection with the January 2008 attack on a hotel in Kabul... that killed six people, including an American citizen".

Haqqani also allegedly was involved in the planning of the assassination attempt on [former] Afghan President Hamid Karzai in 2008."

The Haqqani network has also been blamed for an attack on the US embassy and nearby Nato bases in Kabul on 12 September 2011. Eight people - four police officers and four civilians - were killed in that attack.

Asked why no women were given posts, one senior Taliban figure told the BBC that the cabinet had not been finalised yet.

The Taliban now claim full control of Afghanistan, saying they have defeated resistance fighters who were holding out against them in the Panjshir valley, north of Kabul.

The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF) said in a statement that it "considers the announcement of the Taliban's caretaker cabinet illegal and a clear sign of the group's enmity with the Afghan people".