Won’t Interfere In Internal Affairs Of Other Countries: Afghanistan PM
Kabul: The Taliban co-founder and now prime minister of Afghanistan Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund pledged Saturday that his government will “not interfere” in other countries’ internal affairs, and urged international charities to continue offering aid to the war-ravaged country.
Hassan’s audio speech broadcast on state television — his first address to the nation since the Taliban seized power in August — came ahead of next week’s meeting between the US and Taliban in Doha.
“We assure all the countries that we will not interfere in their internal affairs and we want to have good economic relations with them,” said Hassan in a nearly 30-minute speech that came amid criticism on social media for remaining silent since the Islamists took power, even as the nation faced severe challenges. “We are drowned in our problems and we are trying to get the strength to bring our people out of miseries and hardships with God’s help.”
Hassan’s government faces a series of challenges, in particular reviving the country’s dilapidated economy that has been dried of international aid, which used to make up 75 per cent of the national budget under the previous US-backed governments.
Inflation and unemployment have surged in Afghanistan, while the country’s banking sector has collapsed since the Taliban takeover. The financial crunch was aggravated when Washington froze about $10 billion of assets held in its reserve for Kabul, and deteriorated further after the World Bank and International Monetary Fund halted Afghanistan’s access to funding.
The United Nations’ aid agencies have warned that a major humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Afghanistan, with more than half of the country’s 38 million population expected to face hunger this winter. The rapidly worsening situation has forced Afghans to sell their household goods to raise money for food and other essentials.
“We ask all the international charity organisations to not withhold their aid and to help our exhausted nation… so that the problems of the people could be solved,” Hassan said in his speech, insisting that the problems facing the country were the result of the previous governments.
