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Taliban announces new government in Afghanistan

September 8, 2021 No Comments

The Taliban on Tuesday announced a team of hardliners into its interim government in Afghanistan with key government roles shared among veterans of the militant group and its allies in the United States-sanctioned Haqqani Network.

The composition of the interim government was announced at a press conference by one of the group’s spokesmen in Kabul, the country’s capital.

Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, a long-time Taliban member and a leader of the group’s Shura or Leadership Council for about two decades, was named the Prime Minister.

Akhund is seen as an influential member of the Taliban and highly respected on the religious side of the movement.

Mullah Baradar, the head of the Taliban’s political bureau, who led the Taliban delegation in peace talks in Qatar, was named the Deputy Prime Minister.

Two senior figures in the Haqqani Network were also named in the interim government with Sirajuddin Haqqani, the network’s leader, was appointed as the acting Interior Minister.

Haqqani has been one of Taliban’s two deputy leaders since 2016 and has a $10 million US bounty on his head.

Khalil Haqqani, Sirajuddin’s uncle, was appointed the acting Minister for Refugees.

Israel’s opposition leader moved closer to unseating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he officially told the country’s president that he has reached agreements with political allies to form a new government.

About 35 minutes before a Wednesday midnight deadline, the centrist Yair Lapid told President Reuven Rivlin in an email: “I am honored to inform you that I have succeeded in forming a government.”

Rivlin, attending Israel’s soccer cup final at the time, congratulated Lapid by phone, according to his office.

Lapid’s main partner is nationalist Naftali Bennett, who would serve as prime minister first under a rotation between the two men. Lapid, 57, a former TV host and finance minister, would take over after about two years.

Their coalition government would comprise a patchwork of small and medium parties from across the political spectrum, including for the first time in Israel’s history a party that represents Israel’s 21% Arab minority – the United Arab List.

It would also include Bennett’s Yamina (Rightward), centre-left Blue and White, headed by Defence Minister Benny Gantz, the left-wing Meretz and Labour parties, former defence minister Avigdor Lieberman’s nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party and New Hope, a right-wing party headed by former education minister Gideon Saar, who broke away from Netanyahu’s Likud.

But the fragile new government, which would command a razor-thin majority in parliament, was only expected to be sworn in about 10-12 days from now, leaving slight room for Netanyahu’s camp to try and abort it by turning lawmakers over to their side and vote against it.

(Reuters)