Taliban to form govt in Afghanistan tomorrow

Two weeks after seizing power in Afghanistan, the Taliban are all set to form a government in the country on Friday. Sources said the Taliban will form a government after Friday prayers tomorrow.

The Taliban took Afghanistan under its control after capturing Kabul on August 15. The Islamic militant group reveled in their victory after the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, reiterating their pledge to bring peace and security to the country after decades of war.

The Taliban, who seized control of the country ahead of the withdrawal of American forces this week, now looks forward to governing a nation that relies heavily on international aid and is in the midst of a worsening economic crisis.

The legitimacy of the new government in the eyes of international donors and investors will be crucial for the economy as the country battles drought and the ravages of a conflict that took the lives of an estimated 240,000 Afghans.

The Taliban have promised to allow safe passage out of the country for any foreigners or Afghans left behind by the massive airlift which ended with the withdrawal of the last U.S. troops on Monday. But with Kabul airport still closed, many were seeking to flee overland to neighbouring countries.

Qatar Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said the Gulf state was talking with the Taliban and working with Turkey about technical support to restart operations at Kabul airport, which would facilitate humanitarian assistance and possibly more evacuations.

Speaking at a joint news conference with the Qatari minister in Doha, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said he would be talking with regional countries about how to secure safe passage through third countries for people who want to leave Afghanistan.

“The prospects of getting Kabul airport up and running and safe passage for foreign nationals and Afghans across land borders (are) top of the agenda,” the British Foreign Office said in a statement.

The Taliban’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, is expected to have ultimate power over a new governing council, with a president below him, a senior Taliban official told Reuters last month.

ECONOMIC COLLAPSE
Humanitarian organisations have warned of catastrophe as severe drought and the upheavals of war have forced thousands of families to flee from their homes.

Afghanistan desperately needs money, and the Taliban are unlikely to get swift access to the roughly $10 billion in assets mostly held abroad by the Afghan central bank.

The new, Taliban-appointed central bank head has sought to reassure banks that the group wants a fully functioning financial system, but has given little detail on how it will provide the liquidity needed, bankers familiar with the matter said.

Afghanistan’s real gross domestic product is expected to shrink by 9.7% this financial year, with a further drop of 5.2% seen next year, said analysts in a report from Fitch Solutions, the research arm of ratings agency Fitch Group.

Foreign investment would be needed to support a more optimistic outlook, a scenario that assumed “some major economies, namely China and potentially Russia, would accept the Taliban as the legitimate government”, Fitch said.