Taliban announce interim government
The Taliban announced on Tuesday the key members of Afghanistan's new interim government, which has no women and is made up entirely of members of the Islamist formation.
Mullah Hassan Hassan Mohammad Akhund becomes the new Afghan Prime Minister and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar becomes his closest confidant in the new government, the Taliban's chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, revealed at a press conference in Kabul. The executive will thus be headed by Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, with Taliban co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar as Deputy and right-hand man, he told reporters.
"We know that the people of our country have been waiting for a new government," spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid added, and now comes the new Taliban executive to run Afghanistan's affairs in the wake of the rapid Taliban takeover in recent weeks after the departure of international troops from the Asian country.
The announcement of the interim cabinet is a key step in the formation of a stable Taliban government in the near future.
Sarajuddin Haqqani, the new acting Interior Minister, is the head of the militant group known as the Haqqani network, which is affiliated with the Taliban and has been behind some of the deadliest attacks in the country's 20-year war, according to the BBC. The new ministerial official is wanted by the FBI, according to the source.
Unlike the Taliban in general, the Haqqani network has been designated as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US.
Other appointments include Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob as acting Defence Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi as acting Foreign Minister and Mullah Abdul Salam Hanafi as Second Deputy. Hedayatullah Badri will be the acting Finance Minister.
"It's also important to say that many of these names, the vast majority of them are actually Pashtun and they are not taking into consideration, critics would possibly say, the great ethnic diversity of this country. And it was interesting to hear his [Mujahid's] comments about the Panjshir Valley, which we know is predominantly ethnic minority Tajik," Charles Stratford was quoted as saying by Al-Jazeera.
According to the Taliban group, the intention regarding the formation of the executive will now forge relations with former enemies and seek to create "security and prosperity" in Afghanistan.
