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The Taliban's reclusive supreme leader on Thursday issued a message saying Afghanistan had a “golden opportunity” for unity and reconciliation.
Hibatullah Akhundzada, who seldom leaves the southern province of Kandahar and is rarely seen in public, urged people to rally behind the country’s security forces whose “hard work and dedication” had brought peace to Afghanistan.
The message, issued ahead of the Islamic Eid Al-Fitr festival, did not mention numerous attacks targeting civilians and the Taliban but it did ask people to support the Vice and Virtue Ministry, which last year issued sweeping and repressive laws regulating personal conduct.
Akhundzada’s message was issued in five languages - Arabic, Dari, English, Pashto, and Urdu - and published on the social platform X by the Taliban government’s chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid.
Hassan Abbas, a professor at the National Defense University in Washington D.C. and author of the “Return of the Taliban,” said Akhundzada stressed the importance of unity from a religious perspective by citing verses from the Quran.
“His emphasis tells me that all the news about the challenges between him and (acting interior minister) Sirajuddin Haqqani are accurate and why, in these times when there are all these challenges, he expects everyone to toe his line.”
Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, there has been a shift of power and decision-making from the capital Kabul to Kandahar, a Taliban heartland and Akhundzada’s base.
The United Nations has said that Kandahar’s return as the seat of power — as it was during the Taliban’s rule in the 1990s — circumvented senior Taliban ministers in Kabul because of the way decisions were made.
Haqqani has in the past been critical of the leadership’s decision-making process and warned against authoritarianism.
The Taliban denies any internal rifts.
Akhundzada's Eid message also talked about the infrastructure and development work underway in Afghanistan.
These efforts focused on improving major roads between provinces, expanding trade relations with the world, and increasing export volumes, he said.
“The initiation of major development projects, mineral extraction, and the distribution of vast lands to traders and industrialists aim to reduce unemployment and improve the overall economic situation,” he added.
Abbas said these initiatives came from the government in Kabul rather than Akhundzada, who was trying to take credit for them.
Akhundzada told Afghans to resist believing “harmful propaganda spread by hostile groups and intelligence agencies, who seek to sow despair or create unnecessary concerns about poverty and economic challenges.”
The U.N. says more than half of the population depends on humanitarian assistance to survive. The international body, together with nongovernmental groups, also provide basic services like education and health care. But a funding shortfall, exacerbated by massive U.S. aid cuts from President Donald Trump’s administration, threatens this work.
Last week, the World Health Organization said some 200 health facilities were either suspended or shut due to a lack of money. On Wednesday, the World Food Programme said up to 15 million people needed emergency food assistance to survive and that most families have to borrow money to buy basic groceries. The organization said it currently has funds to help just 6 million people a month.
Though Akhundzada mentioned the importance of education in his Eid message, he said nothing about reopening schools and universities for girls and women.
The restrictions on females is the biggest hurdle to the Taliban being recognized as Afghanistan’s official government. But several countries, including China and the UAE, have accepted their diplomats.
Spokesman Mujahid did not respond to requests for comment Thursday that the Taliban government was seeking control of the Afghan embassy in Washington D.C.
Diplomats who served under the former Afghan government were left in limbo when the Taliban returned to power.
Embassies in Europe and beyond continued to operate, but were accused by the Taliban in Kabul of failing to cooperate with authorities.
English (US) · 