ISLAMABAD —The elusive supreme leader of the Taliban warned on Monday afghans that they should not win money nor receive earthly honors, at a time when the country is mired in a food crisis and isolated internationally.
Hibatula Akhundzada included the warning in his sermon to mark the end of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday at a mosque in the southern province of Kandahar, weeks before a trip by a Taliban delegation to Doha, Qatar, for talks on Afghanistan sponsored by the UN.
It will be the first round of talks attended by the Taliban since that Islamist group took power in August 2021. In the first they were not invited, and they boycotted the second because they demanded to be treated as the official representatives of the country.
No government recognizes the Taliban as the legitimate ruler of Afghanistan, whose economy depends on foreign assistance and fell into crisis after the rise of the Islamist group.
UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said the invitation to the meeting in Doha at the end of June does not imply recognition of the Taliban.
Message from the Taliban leader
Akhundzada reminded Afghans of their duties as Muslims and made repeated calls for unity in his 23-minute sermon.
Messages from him and another influential Taliban figure, Sirajuddin Haqqani, on the occasion of another Muslim holiday in April, revealed tensions between hard-line sectors and more moderate ones who want to eliminate strict positions and attract foreign support.
In his sermon on Monday, Akhundzada said he wishes for brotherhood among Muslims and that he regretted the disagreements between citizens and Taliban officials. Any dissent toward the edicts of the Taliban is highly unusual, and protests are quickly and sometimes violently crushed.
He said he will accept any decision to remove him as supreme leader, as long as there is unity and consensus on his departure. But he stated that he was saddened that there are differences and disagreements among the population.
“We were created to worship Allah and not to earn money or receive earthly honors.”Akhundzada said. “Our Islamic system is God’s system, and we must accept it. We have promised God that we will bring justice and Islamic law (to Afghanistan), but we cannot do it if we are not united. Disunity among you benefits the enemy; “The enemy takes advantage of it.”
Source: AP/AFP
