The new face of Afghanistan\u2019s Taliban rulers owes his freedom to the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2001, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the Taliban, tried to arrange the group\u2019s surrender to the new U.S.-backed Afghan government. It was rejected. He spent most of the past decade under arrest in Pakistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He returns to power 20 years later after the U.S. lobbied for his release when the Trump administration launched talks with the Taliban. At the helm of the group\u2019s political office in Doha, its de facto embassy, Mullah Baradar led talks with the U.S. that culminated in a deal to end America\u2019s engagement in the 20-year war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The world still has little idea who Afghanistan\u2019s new leaders are and how they will rule the country. If the movement has a face, today it is Mullah Baradar. He is the highest-ranking leader of the movement to appear in public since it took back control of Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his first appearance on Sunday, the somber, spectacled political leader spoke in low tones and urged for calm, promised services to the nation, and called on fighters to be respectful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe way we achieved this was unexpected. God gave us this victory,\u201d Mullah Baradar said in a video message released on social media, telling the Taliban\u2019s rank-and-file to \u201cnot be arrogant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Taliban haven\u2019t said who will lead their movement, or how their government will operate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For two decades, the Taliban built up a war administration with appointed leaders for each province, judiciary, and military commanders, but rarely appeared in public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group\u2019s Emir, or spiritual leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhunzada is believed to be based near Quetta in Pakistan. The day-to-day operations are led by his two deputies: Mullah Yacub\u2014the eldest son of the group\u2019s first leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar\u2014and Sirajuddin Haqqani, the group\u2019s military chief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe structure we see now is not necessarily the structure we\u2019ll see when they come into government,\u201d said Ashley Jackson, an expert on insurgencies and author of a book about life under Taliban rule. \u201cNobody knows who is going to run the movement\u2026Nobody knows, and I would wager the Taliban don\u2019t know because they haven\u2019t said anything yet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mullah Baradar, now aged around 50, has been a central figure in the Taliban movement ever since it emerged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His friendship with the Taliban\u2019s founder and late leader, Mullah Omar, went back decades. Bette Dam, a Taliban expert and author of a book on Mullah Omar, says the two met in southern Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban movement,hard-won when they took up arms against the Soviets following the invasion of 1979.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mullah Baradar proved himself a skilled military commander during the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 1994. When the group was forced underground after the U.S. invasion of 2001, he first tried to surrender and then played a central role in regrouping it and turning it into an insurgency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe was the one who surrendered to Hamid Karzai in December 2001,\u201d Ms. Dam said, referring to Afghanistan\u2019s first president after the Taliban fell from power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mullah Baradar was long regarded as the senior Taliban commander most likely to participate in peace talks with the Afghan government and its Western backers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He tried again to negotiate a settlement midway into the conflict, engaging in secret contacts with Mr. Karzai\u2019s government before he was captured by U.S. and Pakistani agents in early 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe is one of the most important people in the Taliban because he has been around since day one and has been a driving force in the key stages of the movement,\u201d says Ibraheem Bahiss, a consultant on Afghanistan with the International Crisis Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For years after his arrest, Mr. Karzai\u2014who belongs to the same influential branch of the Pashtun Durrani tribe as Mullah Baradar\u2014pressed Pakistan to free the Taliban leader in the hopes that his release could help jump-start peace talks with the insurgent group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was only in 2018, in response to U.S. pressure, that Mullah Baradar was finally released by Pakistan. Early doubts over his authority, and his health after years under arrest, lifted quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To the Americans, he brought a change in the tone of the negotiations. Where discussions had previously been heated over civilian casualties, with each side accusing the other of brutalities, Mullah Baradar was rarely seen to raise his voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Negotiators describe him as quiet, contained, and difficult to read. But when working-level talks with the Americans reached a deadlock, Mullah Baradar could be depended on to step in and facilitate a breakthrough. He was inclusive, frequently stepping aside to allow others in the delegation to speak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe is not one of those guys who commands the room through his words,\u201d said a person familiar with the talks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But others were frustrated by how tightly communication was controlled. In a recent meeting with a European delegation, he read out a statement in Pashto, which was translated, leaving little room for dialogue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere was very little genuine dialogue based on which I could form an opinion about his personality,\u201d one European diplomat said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the days leading to Kabul\u2019s collapse, Mullah Baradar was the face of the organization that promised American diplomats that the Taliban wouldn\u2019t enter Kabul until the evacuation of the embassy was complete. But after the government fled without warning, the Taliban rolled into the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group claimed it was to avoid chaos. International officials can only guess who is really in control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Taliban is now entering its most precarious period. Kabul is in chaos, reports of beatings and killings are spreading terror among residents, and international observers fear that opportunistic groups may use the vacuum to loot and kill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey took the country pretty easily, but so did we after Sept. 11,\u201d the person familiar with the talks said. \u201cThe idea of a protracted civil war is still possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Western officials say they hope the Taliban will respect international conventions on human rights and preserve some of the hard-won freedoms for women achieved during decades of U.S. influence. In return, Western diplomats are offering international legitimacy, and potentially even assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As recently as two months ago, Mullah Baradar declared an interest in engaging with international partners and a continued international presence in Kabul, according to diplomats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll see. We\u2019ve talked about that with them before,\u201d an EU diplomat said of the Taliban. \u201cWe\u2019ll try to keep in touch with them to talk about these things over the next couple of days.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The new face of Afghanistan\u2019s Taliban rulers owes his freedom to the U.S. In 2001, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the Taliban, tried to arrange the group\u2019s surrender to the new U.S.-backed Afghan government. It was rejected. He spent most of the past decade under arrest in Pakistan. He returns to power 20 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"relative_dates":{"created":"4 years ago","modified":"3 years ago"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/times.kaizenhighschool.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/times.kaizenhighschool.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/times.kaizenhighschool.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/times.kaizenhighschool.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/times.kaizenhighschool.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/times.kaizenhighschool.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":255,"href":"https:\/\/times.kaizenhighschool.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions\/255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/times.kaizenhighschool.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/times.kaizenhighschool.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/times.kaizenhighschool.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/times.kaizenhighschool.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}