Wednesday October 27, 2021
First appearance on television
Taliban minister justifies war deaths
The Islamists’ struggle against NATO forces has killed or mutilated thousands of Afghans. The new defense minister appears in public for the first time and explains to his compatriots that the hardships were inevitable. Mullah Jakub is the son of the Taliban founder.
The new Afghan Defense Minister, Mullah Mohammed Jakub, appeared in public for the first time. The son of Mullah Omar, the founder and long-time leader of the militant Islamist Taliban, spoke at an event in the military hospital in the capital, Kabul, as seen on television images. He called for investments in the Afghan health sector. There have been no official pictures of Mullah Jakub, who is likely to be in his mid-30s. Since his appointment in early September, only audio messages had been released from him.
Before the Taliban came to power in August, Mullah Jakub was the Islamists’ deputy chief in charge of military affairs. In his speech he justified that many Afghans were also killed in the war against the foreign armed forces. In the past you were never hostile to Afghans, but you were forced to fight hard. It was not possible to reach American bases without eliminating Afghans. These were an obstacle to the Islamic system. But now all Afghans should shake hands.
Afghanistan conference without the Taliban
At the same time, the Taliban did not take part in a conference organized by Iran on the country’s political future. Only the foreign ministers of the neighboring countries of Afghanistan were present in person: Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. According to official information, the chief diplomats of China and Russia will also be connected via video conference. Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi was supposed to open the conference, but he had to cancel for scheduling reasons and was replaced by his deputy.
At the beginning of the conference, Vice President Mohammed Mochber primarily blamed the “illegitimate interference by the USA in the past two decades” for the “current plight of Afghanistan”. He stressed that in the future any foreign interference, especially that of the USA, in Afghanistan’s internal affairs should be avoided in the first place.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hussein Amirabdollahian also called for an end to US interventions in Afghanistan and more respect for the decisions of the new government in Kabul. However, “all political groups in the future government of Afghanistan should be involved,” stressed Amirabdollahian. He called on the neighboring states to work together constructively to enable stability and peace not only in Afghanistan, but also on their own borders.