Muttaqi: Resistance Against the Taliban Will Yield No Results

DID Press: Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban’s foreign minister, said at a ceremony marking the fifth anniversary of the group’s return to power in Kabul that opposition to the Taliban would achieve nothing. The ceremony was attended by senior Taliban officials as well as the ambassadors of Russia, China and several other countries.

Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban’s foreign minister, said on Saturday, August 15, at a ceremony marking the fifth anniversary of the group’s return to power in Kabul that resistance against the Taliban had “neither produced results in the past nor will it produce results in the future.”

Criticizing some countries for supporting opposition groups, Muttaqi described the approach as a “failed experience” and said opposition groups had been defeated in the past and would not achieve anything now.

Muttaqi also said Afghanistan poses no threat to any country and asked: “Who has the right to invade Afghanistan?” In another part of his remarks, he criticized what he described as the “harassment and mistreatment of people” by some Taliban officials, saying such conduct was contrary to the orders of the Taliban leader.

Referring to the history of foreign wars in Afghanistan, the Taliban foreign minister said the Soviet Union brought “socialism” to the country while the United States brought “liberal democracy,” but both failed because, he argued, these ideas were incompatible with the “faith and beliefs of the Afghan people.” According to Muttaqi, after its military defeat, the United States turned to negotiations in Doha.

The Taliban seized Kabul on August 15, 2021, following the departure of former President Ashraf Ghani. Over the past five years, apart from Russia, no other country has formally recognized the Taliban government. Since then, the country has faced a human rights crisis marked by the exclusion of women from public life, a ban on girls’ education, repression of ethnic and religious minorities, severe restrictions on the media and the killing of former security personnel, alongside worsening poverty and record unemployment.