The Taliban reportedly contacted former Afghan President Hamid Karzai in an apparent attempt to fulfill the insurgent group’s promise to create an “inclusive” government.
According to The New York Times, Mullah Abdul Rahman Mansour, whom the Taliban has named acting governor of Kabul, spoke with Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, head of the former Afghan government’s peace talks, the head of week.
Abdullah has been hosting meetings with officials, tribal leaders and Taliban members at his home, the Times reports, claiming that Taliban guards are parked outside his home and are looking for all vehicles entering.
Karzai, who served as president of Afghanistan from 2001 to 2014, and Abdullah had been on the Taliban’s wanted list, the newspaper reported.
Meanwhile, The Guardian reported that Karzai met with former Taliban commander Anas Haqqani, who is the leader of the Haqqani network, which the U.S. considers a terrorist group. According to reports, that meeting set up the debate with Mansour that took place this weekend.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled Kabul as the Taliban approached the presidential palace, later saying he did so to prevent a “bloodshed.”
The form a new government power will take in Afghanistan has yet to be seen as chaos surrounds Kabul amid evacuation efforts. However, a Taliban member claimed that Afghanistan would not become a democracy.
“There will be no democratic system because it has no basis in our country,” Waheedullah Hashimi said last week.
“We will not discuss what kind of political system we should apply in Afghanistan because it is clear. It is sharia law and that is all,” he said.