The Taliban have accused the US of violating the peace deal the two signed in 2020, for keeping its new interior minister Sirrajudin Haqqani on the US terror list.

The new minister, who is part of the Haqqani Network, had been accused of attacks on US forces in Afghanistan during the 20 years of war. The US has a $5m bounty for Haqqani. He also remains on a United Nations terror list.

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Several other members of the group, including the acting Prime Minister Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, are blacklisted internationally.

“Pentagon officials have remarked that some cabinet members of the Islamic Emirate or family members of the late Haqqani Sahib are on the US blacklists and still targets,” said a statement from the ministry of foreign affairs late on Wednesday.

“The Islamic Emirate considers this a clear violation of the Doha Agreement which is neither in the interest of the United States or Afghanistan,” the statement said, referring to the agreement signed in the Qatari capital.

The deal paved the way for the withdrawal of US-led foreign forces in return for a guarantee from the Taliban not to allow groups such as al-Qaeda and ISIS to operate on Afghan soil. The US forces withdrew just before an August 31 deadline in what turned out to be a chaotic exercise, ending America’s longest war.

The US-Taliban deal excluded the West-backed Afghan government led by former President Ashraf Ghani, who fled the country after Taliban fighters swept through the country last month with little resistance from government forces.

Taliban’s statement comes after the US had in the wake of the deal pledged to remove Taliban members from international sanctions.

Reporting from Kabul, Al Jazeera’s Charlotte Bellis said the statement follows Pentagon officials commenting to the media that members of the Haqqani family are still legitimate targets and remain on US blacklists.

“The Taliban are saying this is very provocative, condemning it, saying that members of the Haqqani family must be removed from the US sanctions lists immediately. They say they will continue to demand that,” said Bellis.

Many Afghans are sceptical that a leader of the Haqqani Network, known to be the most brutal and violent group associated with the Taliban, could bring security to Afghanistan after years of war and violence.

PROTEST BAN

The Taliban have pledged a more moderate brand of rule than in their notoriously oppressive 1996-2001 reign. However, the Islamist hardliners have shown clear signs that they will not tolerate opposition.

Earlier this week armed Taliban militants dispersed hundreds of protesters in cities across Afghanistan, including the capital Kabul, Faizabad in the northeast and in Herat in the west, where two people were shot dead.

Late Wednesday, they moved to snuff out any further civil unrest, saying protests would need prior authorisation from the justice ministry, adding “for the time being” no demonstrations were allowed.

One protest organiser told AFP rallies in Kabul had been cancelled because of the overnight ban. At the site of another planned protest in the city, there were no signs of a demonstration.

The Taliban face a monumental task in ruling Afghanistan, which is wracked with economic woes and security challenges — including from the Islamic State group’s local chapter.

US’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director William Burns yesterday met Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) head Lt General Faiz Hamid during which they discussed issues related to regional security issues and the current situation in Afghanistan, the Pakistan military said.

Burns also met Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and discussed current situation in Afghanistan. Qureshi told Burns that the Taliban assets should be unfrozen so that they can use them.

The five-nation BRICS summit chaired by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday evening called for settling the situation in Afghanistan through peaceful means. The declaration at the summit said the leaders also sought an “inclusive intra-Afghan dialogue so as to ensure stability, civil peace, law and order”.

CHINA EXTENDS EMERGENCY AID

A humanitarian crisis looms over Afghanistan, caused in part by the abrupt halting of international aid after the Taliban takeover.

The United Nations has said basic services are unravelling in the country with food and other aid about to run out. More than half a million people have been displaced internally in Afghanistan this year.

China has announced that it is offering at least $31m worth of emergency aid, including coronavirus vaccines to Afghanistan.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made the announcement on Wednesday during a meeting with foreign ministers of Afghanistan’s neighbouring countries, including Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

The emergency aid will include grain, winter supplies, medicines as well as three million Covid-19 vaccine doses, Wang said. In recent days the Taliban has declared that China will be its “main partner” in rebuilding the war-torn country.

FLIGHT LEAVES KABUL

The first international commercial plane has left for Doha from Kabul airport since Western countries finished evacuations from Afghanistan 10 days ago, with a top Qatari official saying the airport is “fully up and running”.

The airport is “about 90 percent ready for operations but its reopening is planned gradually, Mutlaq al-Qahtani, Qatar’s special envoy to Afghanistan, said yesterday.

The Qatar Airways plane had arrived in Kabul earlier yesterday carrying aid and left with passengers, including 200 foreigners, Americans among them.

Footage broadcast by Al Jazeera TV showed families including women, children and elderly people waiting with suitcases at the airport for their turn to leave.

It was not immediately clear whether any countries other than Qatar had played a role in organising the airlift.



Blacklisting of Ministers: US violated Doha deal
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