Taliban close to forming new govt in Afghanistan

KABUL－The Taliban were on Friday close to forming a government to be led by the Islamist group's co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, with an announcement to come shortly, sources said.

The progress in the political sphere comes as the Taliban battle rebel fighters in the Panjshir Valley.

Baradar, who heads the Taliban's political office, will be joined by Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, the son of late Taliban co-founder Mullah Omar, and Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai in senior positions in the government, three sources said.

"All the top leaders have arrived in Kabul, where preparations are in final stages to announce the new government," one Taliban official told Reuters, on condition of anonymity.

The announcement of a new administration, earlier expected to be made after Friday afternoon prayers, would now not happen until Saturday at the earliest, a Taliban spokesman told Agence France-Presse.

Haibatullah Akhunzada, the Taliban's supreme religious leader, will focus on religious matters and governance within the framework of Islam, another Taliban source said.

The Taliban, which seized Kabul on Aug 15 after sweeping across most of the country, have faced resistance in the Panjshir Valley, north of the capital, with reports of heavy fighting.

Several thousand fighters drawn from regional militias and remnants of the government's armed forces have massed in the rugged valley under the leadership of Ahmad Massoud, the son of the late Ahmad Shah Massoud, a former Mujahedeen commander.

The government's legitimacy in the eyes of international donors and investors will be crucial for an economy grappling with drought and the ravages of a conflict that killed an estimated 240,000 Afghans.

Humanitarian groups have warned of impending catastrophe and the economy, reliant for years on many billions of dollars of foreign aid, is close to collapse, Reuters reported.

Many Afghans were struggling to feed their families amid severe drought well before the Taliban took power and millions may now face starvation, aid agencies say.

"Since Aug 15, we have seen the crisis accelerate and magnify, with the imminent economic collapse that is coming this country's way," Mary-Ellen McGroarty, the director of the World Food Programme in Afghanistan, told Reuters from Kabul.

Frozen assets in US

The administration of US President Joe Biden has no plans to release billions in Afghan gold, investments and foreign currency reserves parked in the United States that it froze after the Taliban's takeover, according to media reports.

The US, the European Union and other Western countries have cast doubt on Taliban assurances of a more moderate approach for their rule, saying formal recognition of the new government, and the resultant flow of economic aid, was contingent on action.

The United Nations said it had restarted humanitarian flights to parts of the country, linking the Pakistani capital Islamabad with Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan and Kandahar in the south.

The country's flag carrier Ariana Afghan Airlines also said it would resume domestic flights later on Friday, starting with one from Mazar-i-Sharif to Kabul, after getting a "green light" from the Taliban and aviation authorities.

Agencies via Xinhua