A Taliban official has suggested that US President Donald Trump is an “economic warlord” who has helped undermine the international order, accusing him of acting solely in his own interests.
Abdulhaq Hammad, an official at the Taliban’s Ministry of Information and Culture, said the global order had collapsed and the world had fallen “into the hands of an economic warlord.” Without naming Trump directly, he said this figure intervenes wherever he sees personal interests and “destroys anything that stands in his way.”
Speaking Tuesday at a meeting in Kabul on the protection of cultural heritage, Hammad called on the international community to restrain what he described as this “warlord,” warning that otherwise global heritage sites could be at risk.
Hammad also accused the United States of targeting cultural heritage sites and mosques during the 20-year war in Afghanistan. He said hundreds of mosques were damaged during the conflict and that a number of Taliban members were killed inside mosques.
The Taliban official did not refer to the Bamiyan Buddha statues, historic monuments destroyed in 2001 during the group’s first period of rule, despite international protests and warnings at the time.
The destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas is widely regarded as one of the most prominent cases of cultural heritage destruction in Afghanistan and remains a controversial episode associated with the Taliban’s past rule.
