India and US on Wednesday agreed that it was important to work for as representative and as inclusive a government as possible in Afghanistan, keeping in mind the interests of women, minorities and safety and security of diplomatic personnel.
According to a report by Times of India, the agreement was reached in a briefing cum conversation with US deputy secretary of state.
Another general sentiment to emerge from the talks was that no part of Afghanistan should turn into a terror safe haven and that terrorism was being exported to Afghanistan from outside.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan may be governed by a ruling council now that the Taliban has taken over, while the Islamist militant movement’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, would likely remain in overall charge, a senior member of the group told Reuters.
The Taliban would also reach out to former pilots and soldiers from the Afghan armed forces to join its ranks, Waheedullah Hashimi, who has access to the group’s decision-making, added in an interview.
How successful that recruitment is remains to be seen. 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.
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.
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