ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban’s reclusive supreme leader warned Afghans Monday against making money or acquiring worldly honors at a time when the country is in the grip of humanitarian crises and isolated on the world stage.
Hibatullah Achundzada he warned in a sermon marking the festival of Eid al-Adha at a mosque in the southern province of Kandahar, weeks before a Taliban delegation heads to Doha, Qatar for UN-hosted talks on Afghanistan.
This is the first round of talks the Taliban will attend since they seized power in August 2021. They were not invited to the Conference of Special Foreign Envoys to Afghanistan in the first round, and they snapped the second round because they wanted to be treated as the official representatives of the country.
No government recognizes the Taliban as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan aid-dependent economy fell into turmoil after their takeover.
UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said the invitation to the meeting in Doha at the end of June does not imply recognition of the Taliban.
Akhundzada reminded the Afghans of their duties as Muslims and did so repeated calls for unity in his 23-minute sermon.
Messages from him and another influential Taliban figure, Sirajuddin Haqqani, on the occasion of a religious festival in April showed tensions between hardliners and more moderate elements who want to scrap tougher policies and attract more outside support.
In Monday’s message, Akhundzada said he wanted brotherhood among Muslims and was dissatisfied with the differences between civilians and Taliban officials. Public opinion about the Taliban edicts is rareand so are protests fast and sometimes destroyed by force.
He said he would willingly accept any decision to remove him as supreme leader as long as there was unity and agreement on his ouster. But he was dissatisfied with the differences and disagreements between people.
“We were created to worship Allah and not to earn money or gain worldly honor,” Akhundzada said. “Our Islamic system is God’s system and we must stand behind it. We have promised God that we will bring justice and Islamic law (to Afghanistan), but we cannot do this if we are not united. The benefit of your division reaches the enemy; the enemy takes advantage of it.”
The Taliban have used their interpretation of Islamic law excluding girls from education over the age of 11, ban women from public spaces, exclude them from many jobs, and enforce dress codes and male guardianship requirements.
Akhundzada told Taliban officials to listen to the advice of religious scholars and entrust them with authority. He said officials should not be arrogant, boastful or deny the truth about Islamic law.
Pakistani journalist and author Ahmed Rashid, who has written several books on Afghanistan and the Taliban, said Akhundzada’s call for unity was a sign of desperation as he refused to address the real problems Afghans face, such as unemployment, economic development and reaching consensus. for social reforms.
“If I were the Taliban, I wouldn’t be convinced this was a meaningful speech,” Rashid said.
Michael Kugelman, director of the Wilson Center’s South Asia Institute, said Akhundzada’s focus on unity can also be preemptive, intended to nip in the bud any possibility that divisions could arise again.
He also wondered whether the intended audience went beyond Afghans and focused on the global Muslim community.
“Operationally, the Taliban has no transnational objectives. But the supreme leader wants to command respect beyond the borders of Afghanistan,” Kugelman said.
