TEHERAN, September 7. /TASS/. Delays in the formation of a Taliban (outlawed in Russia) government is linked with the problem of Panjshir, which will be resolved in a couple of days, Mohammad Akbar Agha, a formed Taliban field commander and now the leader of Afghanistan’s High Council of Salvation, told TASS on Sunday.

"The only problem hampering the formation of a government in Afghanistan is the problem of Panjshir," he said, adding that the new government "will be announced in a couple of days."

"No doubts that people in the future government should be Afghans. It doesn’t matter for us which ethnic or social group they belong to," he said.

Last week, the Taliban said they were about to announce a new government but the announcement was postponed several times. Now, according to the local mass media, the Taliban are expected for form a cabinet within three days.

After the Biden administration announced the end of its US military operation in Afghanistan and the launch of its troop pullout, the Taliban embarked on an offensive against Afghan government forces. On August 15, Taliban fighters swept into Kabul without encountering any resistance and gained full control over the Afghan capital within a few hours. Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani said he had stepped down to prevent any bloodshed and subsequently fled the country. Vice President Amrullah Saleh said that under the constitution, he becomes "the caretaker president" in the absence of the president and called for armed resistance against the Taliban.

The northern province of Panjshir is the only pocket of resistance to the Taliban. It is led by Ahmad Massoud, a son of Ahmad Shah Massoud (1953-2001), a once influential leader of Afghanistan’s Tajik community who fought against the Taliban back in the 1990s.