KABUL/PESHAWAR – According to a transcript of his address provided by the Afghan Ministry of Information on Friday, the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hebatullah Akhundzadeh, stated the organization will deal with the world community in line with Islamic law.
No country has yet recognized the Taliban administration as Afghanistan’s formal authority, and the organization is struggling to deal with a serious economic crisis as a result of international sanctions and cuts in development funding.
Several governments, including Washington, have pressured the Taliban to ease restrictions on women and open high schools for girls.
The official Bakhtar news agency reported that about three thousand tribal sheikhs, officials and clerics gathered in the southern city of Kandahar, the headquarters of Akhundzadeh, on Thursday, in the second gathering of its kind since the movement took power about a year ago.
We called for this meeting to reflect on the freedom that we obtained with the grace of God and achieved with the blood of our mujahideen, the movement’s supreme leader said in his speech, adding, We will deal with the international community in accordance with Islamic law… We will not deal with any other country if Sharia does not allow this.
There are continuous discussions with US diplomats, particularly over ways to revitalize the country’s banking industry and the probable release of the central bank’s frozen assets abroad, although authorities have warned that making progress remains difficult.
Tensions heightened last month when the US carried out a drone hit in central Kabul, killing al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and accusing the Taliban of breaking an agreement not to host him.
According to the official Bachter Agency, the Thursday meeting resulted in numerous conclusions, including one denouncing the American strike and another deeming any neighboring nation that enabled the use of its airspace to carry out the operation to be complicit.
About Author
