Rift Between Taliban Political Factions is Real & Serious, Says Former Iranian Ambassador

Amir Abdollahian during a call with Amir Khan Muttaqi, Taliban’s foreign minister, raised Iran’s demands.

Amir Abdollahian and Muttaqi on Wednesday discussed Iran’s water rights during a phone call after the Iranian foreign minister met with his country’s officials in Chabahar.

According to Tasnim News Agency, Amir Abdollahian during a meeting, in which Kazemi Qomi, Iran’s ambassador in Kabul, was also present, said, “Our demand is clear. Taliban claims that the dam doesn’t have enough water, but we have clearly stated that according to the agreement of 1973, a joint technical team should determine it. We submitted the names of our technical team, so that they can visit Kajaki dam and judge if there is enough water or not.”

Earlier, the Taliban had said that they accept of Iran’s water rights. Amir Khan Muttaqi had said that if it rains a lot, water will be released to Iran as well. This comment caused a stir among some of the Iranian officials.

Mawlawi Abdul Kabir, who is known for his close ties with Pakistan’s military intelligence, the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), has replaced Mullah Hassan Akhund, the Taliban’s prime minister.

According to credible sources, four days ago Mullah Hassan held his farewell ceremony in Kandahar in the presence of the Prime Minister and the head of Qatar's intelligence agency, while the news about his resignation from the Taliban premiership was published on Tuesday.

Recently, Mullah Hasan Akhund held fewer meetings with the people and officials, and instead, it was Mawlawi Abdul Kabir, who as the Deputy Prime Minister for Political Affairs, had more meetings with foreign officials and the Afghan public.

A decree which was attributed to the Taliban leader, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, announced the appointment of Abdul Kabir, as the new Prime Minister while Mullah Hassan Akhund quietly handed over his position to his former deputy.

According to the decree, Mullah Hassan Akhund has resigned from the position of Prime Minister due to illness.

While many in the Taliban and international powers such as the United States, consider Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, one of the founders of the Taliban and a close ally to the group’s former leader, Mullah Omar, as the top choice to have succeeded Mullah Hasan Akhund, he still remains on the side lines and didn’t become the Prime Minister of the group. The Taliban’s other deputy prime minister, Abdul Salam Hanafi, also has a symbolic position.

In fact, Mullah Baradar has once again become a victim of past tense relations with Pakistan and his close relationship with former and current US officials such as Zalmay Khalilzad, Thomas West, and Rina Amiri.

Mullah Baradar is now officially a deputy to Mawlawi Abdul Kabir and this is an interesting development of the Taliban that should be closely watched.

Probably, in the coming days, we will see changes in the Taliban's caretaker cabinet, based on which those Taliban members with close ties to Pakistan and Al-Qaida may get appointed to senior positions.

Mawlawi Abdul Kabir is from Paktika province and it is said that he belongs to the Zadran tribe; one that is shared by the Taliban interior minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani. However, unlike Haqqani, he does not have armed forces or operational capability and has been present mostly in political positions within the Taliban.

Since being appointed as the deputy prime minister, Kabir has been conducting most of the political meetings with the opposition forces of the Taliban, representatives of the international community, and the United Nations in Sapidar Palace, and has shown more moderate position than the extremist circle of Kandahar.

He was previously the governor of Nangarhar during the former Taliban regime in the 1990s. It is said that after the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, he was the head of Peshawar Council.

Kabir was later a member of the Taliban's negotiating team in Qatar, and after the fall of the Ghani government, he first became an assistant to Mullah Baradar, who has held the post of the deputy prime minister for economic affairs.

Mawlawi Abdul Kabir remains on the blacklist of the United Nations, and he, like more than ten other members of the Taliban, is not allowed to travel outside of Afghanistan.

According to the United Nations report, he was involved in terrorist activities and drug trafficking in Afghanistan.

He is originally from Paktika, but has lived in northern Baghlan province for many years. He is said to have been a landlord in Baghlan and was behind the bombing attack in Baghlan in 2007, which killed many members of the Afghan parliament, including Sayed Mustafa Kazemi, a former Shia Jihadi commander.

According to Wafa’s office, members of the families that met with Taliban Balkh governor had waged suicide attacks on Kabul Serena hotel, Balkh police headquarters, US military base in Parwan, Kandahar Airport, Intercontinental hotel and Chahar Bolak district in Bakh province.

During this meeting, the Taliban’s governor in Balkh stressed that the group’s administration has been formed based on sacrifice and for its survival, it has to be preserved by sacrifice.

According to the statement, Wafa articulated to the relatives present there that “it is our responsibility to fulfil the goals of the suicide attackers”.

This Taliban official added that the door of the group’s elders and officials is always open to the kin of the suicide attackers. He also distributed some cash to their families.

During the past 20 years of Taliban’s war with the previous government of Afghanistan and international forces, thousands of civilians, including women and children, have been killed due to the group’s suicide attacks.

On February 21, 2022, Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, Taliban’s minister of promotion of virtues and prevention of vice, said that no group executed more suicide attacks than the Taliban in history.

After seizing power in Afghanistan in 2021, Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban’s minister of interior, for the first time, met and appeased some of the relatives of the suicide attackers of the group at the Intercontinental hotel in Kabul.

Haqqani called the suicide attackers as “champions of Islam and the country”.

During a gathering in Kandahar province, Sirajuddin Haqqani in early 2022 had said that 1,500 individuals are ready for suicide attacks. According to him, these people want to join the “martyrs caravan” with suicide attacks.

Taliban officials have repeatedly consoled relatives of the suicide bombers and called them pillars of their 20 years of jihad. At the moment, Taliban’s interior ministry has a unit of suicide bombers named as the Badri Unit and the group’s ministry of defence also manages Omari and Mansoori units of suicide bombers which were included in the military parade of Taliban for their first anniversary of victory on August 15.

Taliban’s Higher Education Ministry in a statement said that this delegation will meet with Russian and officials of the Islamic countries on the side lines of the forum.

According to Russian media outlets, the Russia-Islamic World Economic Forum will be held for a duration of two days, starting Thursday.

Interfax News Agency of Russia reported that representatives of 85 countries including Azerbaijan, Iran, Malaysia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, UAE, Bahrain, Uganda, Qatar and Pakistan will attend the upcoming meeting.

Taliban’s minister of commerce and industry and deputy prime minister in economic affairs are part of the group’s delegation.

Representatives of the countries will discuss economic, commerce and educational opportunities.

Danish said that he had been hospitalised at a public hospital and currently, the status of his health is “better”.

The political activist also sent pictures to Afghanistan International which reveal his battered face.

Danish added that three days ago he had received a phone call from an unknown number stating that it had been one of his friends, who recently returned from Germany.

According to Danish, the caller that insisted on meeting him personally. He stated that when he agreed to meet the caller, several individuals with masks attacked him as soon as he left his house.

He told Afghanistan International that these unknown individuals beat him up and fled when the neighbours got involved in the scuffle.

Danish stressed that he doesn’t know the identity of his attackers or which group they belong to.

The Istanbul Police has not commented on the incident and other sources have also not revealed the identity of the attackers or the motivation behind the assault.

Danish usually criticises Taliban’s politics, jihadi leaders and former governments of Afghanistan during round table discussions on different television channels.