Taliban leadership, explained: Who are they?

The Taliban formally announced the formation of a transitional government on Tuesday, and appointed acting cabinet ministers who were largely loyal during the early years of the group’s rule in the 1990s.

The slate of ministers was the clearest indication yet that the group saw power as something to be shared exclusively among the victors, rather than as realised. He promised them an inclusive government Take this into account in the changing reality of Afghanistan where women and ethnic minorities are represented in decision making.

Although many senior figures in the new government have been in similar roles within the Taliban for years, relatively little is known about them. Here are details about some of them, based on New York Times reporting.

Mullah Muhammad Hassan, Prime Minister

Being one of the founding members of the Taliban movement in the 1990s, Mullah Hassan will take over as the prime minister who takes care of governance day in and day out.

He was deputy prime minister and former foreign minister during the Taliban government that took power in the 1990s. During the two decades of insurgency after the Taliban fell from power, he has remained out of the limelight and in the shadows, helping to coordinate and manage the Taliban leadership council in Quetta, Pakistan.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, Deputy Prime Minister

Mr. Baradar, who Interpol says was born in Uruzgan province in 1968, served with Mullah Muhammad Omar, the founder of the Taliban, in the war against the Soviet occupation. He held senior positions in the first Taliban government, beginning in 1996, and gained a reputation as one of the most brutal leaders on the battlefield as the Taliban sought to suppress their opponents in the Northern Resistance. He held the position of Deputy Defense Minister in 2001, and like other leaders fled to Pakistan.

When the Taliban was reformed into an insurgency, Mr. Baradar was Mullah Omar’s chief deputy, leading the movement’s military operations. He oversaw a sharp escalation of the insurgency in 2006, but also participated in secret consultations with envoys of President Hamid Karzai and international aid organizations.

He was arrested in a joint US-Pakistani raid in 2010 that Pakistani officials later said she was subjected to He was ending his dialogue with the Karzai government. But because of his respect within the Taliban and his previous openness to dialogue, the United States pressured Pakistan to release him so he could. Help drive conversations Which started in 2019 and arrived Troop withdrawal deal with the Trump administration.

During the talks, he struck what a number of officials described as a warm relationship with US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad. And in the last days, His movements inside Afghanistan – first to Kandahar, the source of the Taliban, and then to Kabul, where he began holding leadership meetings – was seen as confirmation of the approach of the new Taliban government.

Sirajuddin Haqqani, Minister of Interior

Mr. Haqqani, who is believed to be 48 years old, is the son of Mujahideen leader and founder of the Haqqani Network. Jalaluddin Haqqani, stands out as one of the biggest winners in the Taliban’s return to power. He will be the Acting Minister of the Interior, responsible for law and order and possibly even local government, and he has also secured the positions of his leaders in other key departments of the government.

In 2016, he became one of the two deputy leaders of the Taliban’s supreme leader, Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzadeh, overseeing a sprawling network of fighters and madrassas, and leading many of the Taliban’s military efforts.

The Haqqani network, known for its close ties to the Pakistani intelligence service, has been the staunch opponent of the US presence in Afghanistan. She was responsible for hostage-taking, targeted assassinations, and suicide bombings, including some Huge truck bombs killed civilians in Kabul.

Mr. Haqqani and his network also have some of the strongest and longest-running ties to al-Qaeda.

“The Haqqanians sit at the link between the Taliban and al-Qaeda — they are one of the main bridges,” said Thomas Joslin, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and senior editor of the group’s Long War Journal.

Mawlawi Muhammad Yaqoub, Minister of Defense

Mr. Yaqoub, who is believed to be in his 30s, is the head of the Taliban’s military committee, and is the eldest son of Mullah Omar.

His name gained public attention during the Taliban leadership succession in 2016. Although Mr. Yaqoub had the support of some of the movement’s military leaders, concerns about his youth became a factor in the final decision to choose Sheikh Haibatullah as commander in chief of the insurgency.

In the years that followed, Mr. Jacob rose to prominence. And in recent days, he has played an increasingly public role in trying to maintain order among the victorious ranks of the organization, warning that anyone caught looting will be “handled”, and that any theft of government property would be a betrayal of the country. “There is no permission to take a car or a house from a person or anything else,” he said.

Amir Khan Muttaki, Minister of Foreign Affairs

Mr. Mottaki, who until recently was the head of the Taliban’s powerful Advocacy and Guidance Committee responsible for persuading many members of the Afghan army and police forces to surrender in recent months, has been rewarded with a key position as foreign minister.

He served as Minister of Information and Culture, then Minister of Education, in the first Taliban government. During the two decades of the Taliban insurgency, he helped shape the group’s strategy for propaganda and psychological warfare, before serving as Chief of Staff of the Supreme Leader and as a member of the Taliban’s political delegation in Qatar.

In a movement known for its ambiguous methods, Mr. Mottaki has been one of the few consistent public faces since the 1990s. He was among the Taliban leaders who held back-channel talks with US officials over the years and was among the first prominent Taliban figures seen meeting with former Afghan officials, including Mr. Karzai, the former president, as well as Abdullah Abdullah, the former . Chief Executive of the Government, after the fall of Kabul.

Abdul Haq Al-Wathiq, Chief of Intelligence

Mr. Wasiq was one of the five Guantanamo Bay prisoners who were released in exchange Another American POW, Sgt. Bo Bergdahl. Upon his release, he arrived in Doha, Qatar, and became A key member of the Taliban talks with the United States, where he spent months negotiating with his former captors their departure from Afghanistan. He was born in Ghazni Province and is believed to be in his early fifties.

While all five detainees who were part of the Bergdahl exchange have held senior positions in the new government – three ministerial positions, one deputy minister and one governor – Mr. Wasiq assumes the key role of leading the same intelligence agency Where he held the position of deputy In the 1990s, the CIA was central to the Taliban’s control of power as a police state that operated extensive networks of informants.

for him interrogation files Since his stay in Guantánamo, Mr. Al-Wathiq has been accused of close ties to al-Qaeda, including arranging for the terrorist group to provide training for intelligence agents of the Taliban government.

Zabihullah Mujahid, Deputy Minister of Information and Culture

Mr. Mujahid, who says he is 43 years old and born in Paktia province, has been the Taliban’s main spokesman and chief propagandist for years, responding to calls from reporters and continuing a barrage of posts on social media. But the world didn’t see his face until August 17, when He held the first in-person press conference for the Taliban in Kabul.

Since then, he has played a major role in trying to get Afghans and the world to accept the Taliban as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan, and in arguing that the group was abandoning some of the harsh policies of its early reign.

“We don’t want Afghanistan to become a battlefield anymore – from today onwards, the war is over,” he said at the press conference.

Khalil Haqqani, Minister of Refugee Affairs

Mr. Haqqani is the Special Representative of the Supreme Leader of the Taliban, and the uncle of the Taliban’s deputy leader. He has long been an important fundraiser for the Haqqani Network, has close ties in the Gulf region, and is on US and UN lists of global terrorists.

In recent days, he played a public role in establishing Taliban authority in Kabul. A few days after the fall of Kabul, he appeared at a prominent mosque within the city and told a cheerful crowd that “the Taliban’s number one priority for Afghanistan is security – if there is no security, then there is no life.”

The main Taliban figure in Tamin al-Bayat, the Islamic loyalty oath, has been a prominent Afghan figure for the past two weeks.

Contribute to reporting Carlotta GalAnd Mujib MashalAnd Jim HoylebrookAnd Matthew AikinsAnd Adam NaseerAnd Julian E. Barnes And God bless you.