KABUL: Taliban will deal with international community in line with sharia law, supreme leader of hardline Islamist group said, according to a copy of his speech shared by information ministry. Yet to be formally recognised as a government by any foreign capital, group is struggling with a severe economic crisis due to strict enforcement of international sanctions and cutting off of development aid.

Many governments, including Washington have put pressure on Taliban to ease its restrictions on women and to open schools for high-school aged girls. Around 3,000 tribal leaders, officials and religious scholars had gathered in southern city of Kandahar, where group’s supreme spiritual leader Haibatullah Akhundzada is based, according to state-run news agency Bakhtar.

It was second such gathering since group took power around a year ago. “This meeting is called to think about freedom we received by blessing of Allah, which we achieved from blood of our mujahideen (fighters),” he said in speech. “We will deal with international community as per Islamic Sharia if Sharia doesn’t allow it, we will not deal with any other country,” Akhundzada said.

Talks with US diplomats have continued in particular over how to revive country’s stalled banking sector and possible release of frozen central bank assets held overseas. But officials have cautioned that many hurdles remain to any progress. United States usually needs to receive permission from neighbouring nations to access landlocked Afghanistan via air. 

Published in The Daily National Courier, August, 20 2022

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