Taliban regime won’t ‘interfere’ in other countries’ affairs: PM

KABUL: The Taliban co-founder and now prime minister of Afghanistan Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund pledged on Saturday that his government will “not interfere” in other countries’ internal affairs, and urged international charities to continue offering aid to the war-ravaged country.

Hassan’s audio speech broadcast on state television — his first address to the nation since the Taliban seized power in August — came ahead of next week’s meeting between the United States and the Taliban in Doha.

“We assure all the countries that we will not interfere in their internal affairs and we want to have good economic relations with them,” said Hassan in a nearly 30-minute speech that came amid criticism on social media for remaining silent since the hardliners took power, even as the nation faced severe challenges.

“We are drowned in our problems and we are trying to get the strength to bring our people out of miseries and hardships with God’s help.”

The Taliban seized power on August 15 after ousting the previous US-backed government, as Washington hurriedly withdrew its troops from the country after a 20-year war.

The Taliban’s previous regime was toppled in a US-led invasion after the 9/11 attacks in the United States that were carried out by Al Qaeda, whose now-killed founder Osama bin Laden lived in Afghanistan at that time.

Hassan is a Taliban veteran who was a close associate and political adviser to Mullah Omar, the founder of the movement and its first supreme leader.

Said to be in his 60s, Hassan served as foreign minister and deputy prime minister in the movement’s previous regime between 1996-2001. He was placed on a UN Security Council sanctions list connected to the “acts and activities” of the Taliban.

PLEA FOR AID

Hassan’s government faces a series of challenges, in particular reviving the country’s dilapidated economy that has been dried of international aid, which used to make up 75 per cent of the national budget under the previous US-backed governments.

Inflation and unemployment have surged in Afghanistan, while the country’s banking sector has collapsed since the Taliban takeover.

The financial crunch was aggravated when Washington froze about $10 billion of assets held in its reserve for Kabul, and deteriorated further after the World Bank and International Monetary Fund halted Afghanistan’s access to funding.

— AFP