CAIRO, September 21. /TASS/. Having seized power in Afghanistan, the Taliban (outlawed in Russia) have appointed two new ministers to the interim government of the country, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Tuesday.
"Nooruddin Azizi, a businessman from the Panjshir province, has been appointed as acting minister of commerce and trade. His deputy is an entrepreneur from the Baghlan province Muhammad Bashir. <...> Dr. Qalandar Ebad will be the head of ministry of health," the Taliban spokesman stressed.
Furthermore, well-known political scientist Nazar Mohammad Mutmain has been picked to head the National Olympic Committee of Afghanistan, and "Najibullah the engineer has been appointed as the atomic energy chief."
In addition, veteran Taliban commander Abdul Qayyum Zakir, an ex-Guantanamo detainee, has been appointed deputy head of the defense ministry under Mohammad Yaqoob.
According to the Taliban spokesman, the movement still aims to make the government as inclusive as possible, including representatives of various ethnic and religious minorities of Afghanistan.
The Taliban (outlawed in Russia) launched a large-scale operation for control of Afghanistan after the United States declared its troop pullout. On August 15, Afghanistan’s then President Ashraf Ghani stepped down and fled the country. The Taliban swept into the capital Kabul without encountering any resistance. In September, they declared that the entire territory of the county was under their control and formed an interim government. All seats in the new Cabinet were taken by the movement’s members, mostly representatives of the country’s largest ethnic group, the Pashtuns.