3 yıl önce

Afghanistan is not going to be a democracy, says Taliban leader

The country will be governed by ruling council that would be answerable to the supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada.

AP

In this handout photograph released by the Taliban, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, center left, senior Haqqani group leader Anas Haqqani, center right, Abdullah Abdullah, second right, head of Afghanistan's National Reconciliation Council and former government negotiator with the Taliban, and others in the Taliban delegation, meet in Kabul, Afghanistan on August 18, 2021.

Afghanistan may be governed by a ruling council now that the Taliban has taken over, while the militant movement's supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, would likely remain in overall charge, a senior member of the group said.

Many issues regarding how the Taliban would run Afghanistan have yet to be finalised, Hashimi explained, but Afghanistan would not be a democracy, said Waheedullah Hashimi, who has access to the group's decision-making, added in an interview.

"There will be no democratic system at all because it does not have any base in our country," he said. "We will not discuss what type of political system should we apply in Afghanistan because it is clear. It is sharia law and that is it."

Hashimi said he would be joining a meeting of the Taliban leadership that would discuss issues of governance later this week.

Similar power structure to past

The power structure that Hashimi outlined would bear similarities to how Afghanistan was run the last time the Taliban were in power from 1996 to 2001.

Then, supreme leader Mullah Omar remained in the shadows and left the day-to-day running of the country to a council.

Akhundzada would likely play a role above the head of the council, who would be akin to the country's president, Hashimi added.

"Maybe his (Akhundzada's) deputy will play the role of 'president'," Hashimi said, speaking in English.

The Taliban's supreme leader has three deputies Mawlavi Yaqoob, son of Mullah Omar, Sirajuddin Haqqani, leader of the powerful militant Haqqani network, and Abdul Ghani Baradar, who heads the Taliban's political office in Doha and is one of the founding members of the group.

The Taliban would also reach out to former pilots and soldiers from the Afghan armed forces to join its ranks.

Thousands of soldiers have been killed by Taliban insurgents over the last 20 years, and recently the group targeted US-trained Afghan pilots because of their pivotal role.

New national force

On recruiting soldiers and pilots who fought for the ousted Afghan government, Hashimi said the Taliban planned to set up a new national force that would include its own members as well as government soldiers willing to join.

"Most of them have got training in Turkey and Germany and England. So we will talk to them to get back to their positions," he said.

He said the Taliban expected neighbouring countries to return aircraft that had landed in their territory — an apparent reference to the 22 military planes, 24 helicopters and hundreds of Afghan soldiers who fled to Uzbekistan over the weekend