Who are the ministers of the new Taliban government?

Three weeks after taking the reins of Afghanistan, the Taliban unveiled part of their future government on Tuesday, which will be led by Mohammad Hasan Akhund.

Founded in 1994 by Mullah Omar, the Islamist movement has always been shrouded in mystery, even during his previous time at the helm of the country, from 1996 to 2001.

This is an overview of the new faces of the Afghan Executive, which the Taliban promised would be “inclusive” and which will be completed in the coming days and weeks.

– Mohammad Hasan Akhund, Prime Minister –

Hailing from Kandahar, the new Afghan prime minister was a close associate and political advisor to the movement’s founder and supreme leader, Mullah Omar.

Under the first Taliban government, he served as deputy foreign minister and governor of Kandahar province in the south, the cradle of Islamists.

According to the United Nations, Mohammad Hasan Akhund, whose name appears on the Security Council sanctioned list related to “acts and activities of the Taliban”, is known to have been one of the “most effective Taliban commanders.”

– Mullah Baradar, number 2 of the Executive –

Abdul Ghani Baradar, who will occupy the second position in the new cabinet, was born in Uruzgan province (south) and raised in Kandahar. He is one of the co-founders of the Taliban along with Mullah Omar, whose death in 2013 was hidden for years.

Like many Afghans, his life was turned upside down by the 1979 Soviet invasion, which led to him becoming a Mujahideen. It is believed that he fought alongside Mullah Omar, who was one-eyed.

Both would have founded the Taliban during the Afghan civil war in the early 1990s.

In 2001, after the intervention of the United States and the fall of the Taliban regime, he would have been part of a small group of insurgents willing to sign an agreement in which they recognized the new government in Kabul. An initiative that, however, was rejected by the United States, which led to a new chapter in twenty years of war.

Baradar was the military commander of the Taliban when he was arrested in Karachi, Pakistan, in 2010. He was released in 2018, under pressure from Washington.

Listened to and respected by different Taliban factions, he was appointed head of its political office, which is based in Qatar.

He led the Doha negotiations with the Americans, which led to the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan, and in peace talks with the Afghan government, which were unsuccessful.

He returned to Afghanistan, specifically Kandahar, two days after the Taliban took power, and then moved to the capital.

– Sirajuddin Haqqani, ministro de Interior –

Son of the famous anti-Soviet jihad commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, Sirajuddin will serve as Interior Minister.

He is one of the three deputy chiefs of the Taliban and head of the powerful network that bears his name.

The Haqqani network, founded by his father, is considered a “terrorist” by Washington, which ensures that it is one of the most dangerous factions that faced Afghan and NATO troops in the last two decades.

The network often uses kamikazes and is credited with some of the most violent attacks in Afghanistan in recent years.

She is also accused of having murdered senior Afghan officials and kidnapped Westerners, whom she would have released in exchange for ransoms or other prisoners. This is the case of US soldier Bowe Bergdhal who, after being kidnapped, was released in 2014 in exchange for five Afghan detainees from Guantánamo prison.

Known for their independence, their combat prowess and their business sense, the Haqqani are at the forefront of Taliban operations in the mountainous areas of the east of the country. They seem to have a strong influence on the decisions of the movement.

– Mullah Yaqub, Minister of Defense –

Son of Mullah Omar, Yaqub is the head of the powerful Taliban military commission, which decided the movement’s strategy in the war against the Afghan government. This Tuesday he was appointed Minister of Defense.

His ancestry and ties to his father, highly revered as the head of the Taliban, make him a unifying figure within a broad and diverse movement.