Taliban Rejects Elections As Un-Islamic, Says NRF Leader
Ahmad Massoud, leader of the National Resistance Front, said Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi told him during talks in 2022 that elections “have no place in Islam.”
Ahmad Massoud, leader of the National Resistance Front, said Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi told him during talks in 2022 that elections “have no place in Islam.”
Massoud disclosed the exchange on Saturday in a discussion on the social media platform X. He said Muttaqi had urged him to end resistance against the Taliban and return to Kabul following the group’s takeover.
The meeting took place in Tehran shortly after the fall of Kabul, when armed resistance against the Taliban began. Sources at the time told Afghanistan International that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps had invited Muttaqi to Tehran and facilitated the talks with resistance leaders.
Massoud said he challenged Muttaqi’s rejection of elections, telling participants that if his view were correct, then Islamic countries such as Iran “must not have realised their actions were un-Islamic.”
In January 2022, Muttaqi also met in Iran with former jihadi commander Ismail Khan, Massoud and other Afghan figures. After the talks, he returned to Kabul and said resistance leaders could safely return home.
Massoud has consistently stressed the Afghan people’s right to elect their leaders. In a recent interview with Afghanistan International, he said he would be prepared to negotiate with the Taliban if the group accepted principles of elections, peace and justice.
Since seizing power, the Taliban has abolished Afghanistan’s constitution and dismantled democratic and electoral institutions. The group has ruled under its strict interpretation of Islamic law for the past four years.
Opponents of the Taliban and Western governments describe the movement’s rule as autocratic and illegitimate, with decision-making concentrated in the hands of senior leaders, particularly supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.
