After days of speculation and multiple comings and goings as they tried to appease various stakeholders, the Taliban on Tuesday announced their new cabinet. Mullah Hasan Akhund, an associate of the late founder of the movement, Mullah Omar, is the head of the new government in Afghanistan, with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, head of the movement’s political office, as deputy.
Sirajuddin Haqqani, son of the founder of the Haqqani network, will be the new interior minister, Taliban chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told a news conference in Kabul.
The new Taliban cabinet is made up of at least five UN-designated terrorists.
MULLAH MUHAMMAD HASSAN AKHUND, PRIME MINISTER
Akhund is the longtime head of the powerful Taliban decision-making body, Rehbari Shura, or board of directors. He was prime minister and then deputy prime minister during the last Taliban government from 1996 to 2001.
Like many of the Taliban leaders, Akhund derives much of his prestige from his closeness to the movement’s first exclusive leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar.
He comes from Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban.
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A UN sanctions report described him as a “close associate and political adviser” to Omar.
Akhund is highly respected within the movement, especially by its supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada, a Taliban source said.
Some observers see Akhund, who is believed to have been about 60 years old and possibly older, as a more political than religious figure, with his control over the board of directors also giving him his word on military matters.
ABDUL GHANI BARADAR, PRIME MINISTER DEPUTY DIRECTOR
Baradar was a close friend of Mullah Omar, who gave him his war name, “Baradar” or “brother.”
He was deputy defense minister when the Taliban last ruled Afghanistan.
Following the fall of the Taliban government, Baradar served as the first military commander responsible for attacks on coalition forces, according to a UN sanctions warning.
He was arrested and imprisoned in Pakistan in 2010. After his release in 2018, he headed the Taliban’s political office in Doha, becoming one of the leading figures in peace talks with the United States.
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MAULAVI ABDUL SALAM HANAFI, PRIME MINISTER DEPUTY DIRECTOR
Hanafi, believed to be 53 years old, was appointed head of Jawzujan province in northern Afghanistan in May 2007. He continues under UN sanctions for drug trafficking. Hanafi is said to have been the key to the peace agreement between the United States and Afghanistan that caused American troops to be withdrawn from the war-torn nation, which ended almost 0 years of war. and destruction.
He has also been central to Taliban negotiations with Russia, China and others since 2015, when he was appointed deputy chief of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, and often went to Moscow, Beijing and Doha for talks. key, a nasty piece. as reported.
In May 2007, the Taliban leadership placed Abdul Salam Hanafi Ali Mardan Qul at the head of Jawzujan Province. He was also a Taliban member in charge of Jawzjan province in northern Afghanistan until 2008. He is believed to be involved in drug trafficking.
AMIR KHAN MUTTAQI, CURRENT FOREIGN MINISTER
Originally from Paktia, Muttaqi calls himself a resident of Helmand.
Muttaqi was Minister of Culture and Information during the previous Taliban government, as well as Minister of Education. Muttaqi was later sent to Qatar and was appointed a member of the peace commission and the negotiating team that held talks with the United States.
Neither the militant commander nor the religious leader, according to Taliban sources, Muttaqi is the chairman of the Invitation and Guidance Commission, which during the insurgency had led efforts to get government officials and other key figures flawed.
In statements and speeches, while fighting to control the country, he projected a moderate voice, calling on the forces that were in the provincial capitals to speak to the group to avoid fighting in urban areas.
In the weeks following the fall of Kabul, Muttaqi played a similar role with the lonely province of Panjshir, calling for a peaceful settlement for hostilities.
SIRAJUDDIN HAQQANI, CURRENT MINISTER OF THE INTERIOR
Head of the influential Haqqani network, Sirajuddin Haqqani succeeded as leader after the death of his father, Jalaluddin Haqqani, in 2018.
Initially supported by the United States as one of the most effective anti-Soviet militias of the 1980s, the semi-autonomous group was accused of some of the deadliest attacks on coalition forces.
The network, whose exact status is being debated in the Taliban structure, has been named a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States, although the Taliban have not.
The United Nations Sanctions Committee has also said the group, based in the lawless border areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan, has a close involvement in drug production and trade.
Haqqani is one of the most wanted men in the FBI, due to his involvement in suicide attacks and links to Al Qaeda. The U.S. State Department has offered a reward of up to $ 10 million for the information that led to his arrest.
(With Reuters tickets)
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