Afghan prime minister defends Taliban’s rule amid disaster

Afghanistan’s Taliban prime minister defended the group’s rule in a public handle Saturday, saying it was to not blame for a worsening financial disaster and is working to restore the corruption of the ousted authorities. He additionally dismissed worldwide strain for the formation of a extra inclusive Cabinet.
The half-hour audio performed on state-run media was the primary such public handle by Mohammed Hassan Akhund because the Taliban captured Kabul and secured their rule over the nation three months in the past. The Taliban takeover led to a shut-off of worldwide support to the federal government and the blocking of billions of {dollars} in Afghan belongings held overseas, worsening an already crumbling financial system.
Akhund mentioned the issues of worsening unemployment and the monetary meltdown had begun beneath the earlier, U.S.-backed authorities, including that Afghans mustn’t imagine claims that the Taliban had been accountable.
Afghan ladies’s rights defenders and civil activists protest to name on the Taliban for the preservation of their achievements and schooling, in entrance of the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Reuters)
“Nation, be vigilant. Those left over from the previous government in hiding are … causing anxiety, misleading the people to distrust their government,” he mentioned.
The ousted authorities had run “the weakest system in the world,” he mentioned, pointing to pervasive corruption. In distinction, he mentioned, the Taliban are eliminating corruption and have introduced safety across the nation.

“We are trying as much as possible to solve the problems of the people. We are working overtime in every department,” Akhund mentioned, including that the group had fashioned committees to attempt to the resolve the financial disaster and pay salaries to authorities workers, who’ve largely gone with out pay for months.
U.N. officers have warned of a humanitarian disaster with hundreds of thousands of Afghans plunging deeper into poverty and going through starvation _ with rising numbers on the verge of hunger. Afghanistan has been hit by one among its worst famines in many years, and the financial collapse has meant many individuals are unable to afford meals.
Akhund urged individuals to wish for an finish to the famine, which he known as “a test from God, after people rebelled against Him.”
The United States and different nations have refused to acknowledge the Taliban authorities till it contains extra of Afghanistan’s ethnic and political spectrum _ in addition to ladies _ and till it ensures ladies’s rights.

All the ministers within the present Cabinet come from the Taliban’s ranks. The Taliban haven’t fully barred ladies from the general public sphere as they did throughout their earlier rule within the late Nineteen Nineties. But they’ve ordered most ladies authorities workers to not come to work and haven’t let highschool ladies return to highschool, although they allowed youthful ladies.
Akhund dismissed the calls for, saying the federal government has members from across the nation. He insisted the Islamic Emirate _ because the Taliban name their authorities _ “has saved women’s dignity.”