‘Our Gov’t is Inclusive’: Taliban's Interim FM Doubles Down on Its Cabinet Amid Global Criticism
13:26 GMT 12.11.2021 (Updated: 13:26 GMT 06.08.2022)
© AP Photo / Gulabuddin Amiri
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During several regional conferences on Afghanistan that have taken place in India and Pakistan this week, the participants have reiterated their demand for an "inclusive" government in Afghanistan.
The interim foreign minister for the Taliban*, Amir Khan Muttaqi, said on Friday that the new cabinet comprises members of all the major ethnicities of Afghanistan, including Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras among others.
He was responding to calls to form an “inclusive and representative government” in Afghanistan.
Pashtuns are the single largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, with the majority of the Taliban's members drawn from the community, according to a study.
“If by being inclusive, it means having members of the opposition and the previous Ashraf Ghani government, then show me one country in the world which has members of opposition serving in government,” Muttaqi said while delivering a lecture at Pakistani government-affiliated think-tank, The Institute of Strategic Studies in Islamabad.
The speech was delivered in Pashto language, with an interpreter translating Muttaqi’s remarks into English.
Happening now!
— Centre for Afghanistan Middle East & Africa -CAMEA (@CAMEA_ISSI) November 12, 2021
The international community wants us to build an inclusive government- our current cabinet fulfils that requirement - we have representatives from all ethnicities - HE @FMMuttaqi @ISSIslamabad @ambmansoorkhan @AmbassadorSadiq @ForeignOfficePk @aizaz1101 pic.twitter.com/zAYVzbFLQu
Muttaqi also pointed out in his address that “no woman” or members of the minority community serving in government positions in Afghanistan had been removed from their position since the Taliban came to power in the country.
“We now control the whole of Afghanistan… Not a single inch of Afghan territory is outside the control of the central government,” the Taliban official also claimed.
The remarks by Muttaqi come a day after the participants of the ‘Extended Troika’ meeting on Afghanistan — Russia, the US, China, and Pakistan — demanded again that the Islamist group “take steps to form an inclusive and representative government that respects the rights of all Afghans and provides for the equal rights of women and girls to participate in all aspects of Afghan life.”
The ‘Extended Troika’ meeting was hosted by Islamabad and was also attended by Muttaqi, who is on a two-day visit to Pakistan, the first overseas trip by a Taliban interim cabinet member since the Islamist group took over Afghanistan in August this year.
11 November 2021, 20:30 GMT
Muttaqi also held consultations with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Thursday.
An official statement released by Islamabad after the meeting said that Qureshi “underlined Pakistan’s commitment to peace, stability and progress in Afghanistan”.
Significantly, Qureshi had said in September that the Taliban was heading towards “collectivism and inclusivity, which is the right direction”, after the group announced an expansion of its cabinet in September.
After the original all-male Taliban interim cabinet announced on 7 September drew flak from major powers such as the US and Russia for not being inclusive enough, the Islamist group expanded its cabinet on 21 September.
The expanded cabinet includes members from the Tajik and Hazara communities.
Despite criticism from the international community, no woman holds a cabinet position.
The US and its allies have linked recognition of the Taliban government to its willingness to uphold its previous commitments, which include forming a representative government.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that Washington would “judge” the Taliban by its actions and not just words.
The US has also frozen nearly $9 billion of Afghanistan’s federal funds held in the financial institutions based there. Pakistan and China among others have backed Taliban’s calls to unfreeze the funds, on account of an impending “humanitarian catastrophe” in the country.
13 September 2021, 12:14 GMT
Russian President Vladimir Putin has also backed the idea of “gradual unfreezing of Afghanistan’s reserves and restoration of programmes through the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)”.
The UN-run World Food Programme warned last month that Afghanistan was on a "countdown to catastrophe" without urgent humanitarian relief.
* Taliban is under UN sanctions over terrorist activities
