US lifts bounties on senior Taliban figures

According to various media reports, the United States has lifted bounties on three senior Taliban officials, including Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, who also leads the Haqqani network, a group long blamed for deadly attacks against Afghanistan’s former Western-backed government.

Haqqani, who previously admitted to orchestrating the 2008 attack on Kabul’s Serena Hotel that killed six people, including American citizen Thor David Hesla, no longer appears on the US State Department’s Rewards for Justice Website.

According to Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani, the US government revoked the bounties on Sirajuddin Haqqani, Abdul Aziz Haqqani, and Yahya Haqqani. “These three individuals are two brothers and one paternal cousin,” he told The Associated Press.

The Haqqani network, originally founded by Jalaluddin Haqqani, rose to prominence as one of the most lethal arms of the Taliban following the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

The group has been linked to a series of high-profile attacks on the Indian and US embassies, the Afghan presidency, and other targets, and has also been accused of engaging in extortion, kidnappings, and other criminal activities.

Zakir Jalaly, a Foreign Ministry official in Kabul, said the US decision to lift the bounties — coming just days after the release of American prisoner George Glezmann — signaled a thaw in bilateral relations.

“Both sides are moving beyond the effects of the wartime phase and taking constructive steps to pave the way for progress,” Jalaly said. “The recent developments in Afghanistan-US relations are a good example of pragmatic and realistic engagement.”

Shafi Azam, another official, welcomed the move as the beginning of normalization, noting the Taliban’s recent assertion of control over Afghanistan’s embassy in Norway as further evidence of diplomatic progress.

Since taking power in August 2021, the Taliban have struggled with global isolation, worsened by their sweeping restrictions on women and girls.

Only a few countries, including China and Qatar, have formally or informally engaged with the Taliban diplomatically. The US has also maintained indirect channels of communication.

Despite being under United Nations sanctions since 2007, Sirajuddin Haqqani has traveled internationally in the past year. These trips, made with UN clearance, were his first abroad since the Taliban’s return to power.

Haqqani has also voiced rare public criticism of the Taliban’s decision-making process, highlighting internal divisions within the group’s leadership.

 

Afghan Caretaker Government

Taliban have appointed Mohammad Hasan Akhund, a close aide to the group’s late founder Mullah Omar, as head of Afghanistan’s new caretaker government. The list of cabinet members announced by Chief Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid on Tuesday was dominated by members of the group’s old guard, with no women included.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the head of Taliban’s political office, will be the deputy leader.

 Sirajuddin Haqqani, son of the founder of Haqqani Network, has been named Interior Minister.

Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, son of Mullah Omar has been named Defence Minister.

Hedayatullah Badri is Finance Minister.

Amir Khan Muttaqi, a Taliban negotiator in Doha, is named Foreign Minister.

“The Islamic Emirate decided to appoint and announce a caretaker cabinet to carry out the necessary government works,” said Mujahid, who named 33 members of “the new Islamic government” and said the remaining posts will be announced after careful deliberation.

Speaking at a news conference in the Afghan capital, Kabul, Mujahid stressed the cabinet was an “acting” government and that the group will “try to take people from other parts of the country”.

Akhund, the acting Prime Minister, is on a United Nations sanctions list. Hailing from Kandahar, Akhund was previously the Foreign Minister and then Deputy Prime Minister during the group’s last stint in power from 1996 to 2001. He is the longtime chief of the Taliban’s powerful decision-making body Rehbari Shura, or leadership council.

Haqqani, the new Interior Minister, is the son of the founder of the Haqqani network, designated as a “terrorist” organization by the United States. He is one of the FBI’s most wanted men.

Reporting from Kabul, Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford said many of the appointments involved “old faces”.

“It’s also important to say that a lot of these names, the vast majority of them are actually Pashtun and are not taking into consideration, arguably critics would say, the vast great ethnic diversity of this country.”

Commenting on the Taliban’s announcement, Obaidullah Baheer, of the American University of Afghanistan, said it did not do “their cause for international recognition any favours”.

“The amount of time spent wasn’t on discussing or negotiating inclusivity or potential power sharing with other political parties. That time was spent on knowing how to split that pie amongst their own ranks,” Baheer told Al Jazeera from Kabul.

The group had promised an “inclusive” government that represents Afghanistan’s complex ethnic makeup – though women are unlikely to be included at the top levels.

In a statement on Tuesday, Mullah Haibatullah Akhunzada, the Taliban’s supreme leader, said the new government will work towards upholding Shariah law in Afghanistan.

“I assure all the countrymen that the figures will work hard towards upholding Islamic rules and Sharia law in the country,” Akhundzada said.

He told Afghans the new leadership would ensure “lasting peace, prosperity and development”, adding that “people should not try to leave the country”.

“The Islamic Emirate has no problem with anyone,” he said.

“All will take part in strengthening the system and Afghanistan and in this way; we will rebuild our war-torn country.”

In response to Taliban announcement, the United States said it was concerned about the “affiliations and track records” of some of the people named to government.

“We also reiterate our clear expectation that Taliban ensure that Afghan soil is not used to threaten any other countries and allow humanitarian access in support of the Afghan people,” a State Department spokesman said in a statement.

United Nations spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters in New York that only a “negotiated and inclusive settlement will bring sustainable peace to Afghanistan”.