The government of Afghanistan is currently disputed following the effective collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan during the fall of Kabul to Taliban forces on 15 August 2021 and the subsequent re-establishment of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which now exercises de facto control over most of the country. On 7 September 2021 the Taliban officials in de facto control of most of Afghanistan announced a new interim government headed by Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund as Prime Minister. The government is subject to the oversight of the Taliban's Supreme Leader,Haibatullah Akhundzada. As of 8 September 2021,the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has not yet been formally recognized as the de jure government of Afghanistan by any other country. The representatives appointed by the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan continue to represent the country at the United Nations. These representatives have refused to recognize the Taliban appointed government and have urged other countries to not recognize this government either.
Hamid Karzai is an Afghan politician who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from July 2002 to September 2014,including as the first elected president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan from December 2004 to September 2014. He previously served as Chairman of the Afghan Interim Administration from December 2001 to July 2002. He is the chief (khān) of the Popalzai Durrani tribe of Pashtuns in Kandahar Province.
Mohammad Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai is an Afghan former politician,academic,and economist who served as the president of Afghanistan from September 2014 until August 2021,when his government was overthrown by the Taliban.
Though Afghanistan has had democratic elections throughout the 20th century,the electoral institutions have varied as changes in the political regime have disrupted political continuity. Elections were last held under the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan,which was deposed by the Taliban in August 2021. The Taliban dissolved the Elections Commission in December 2021. In May 2022,when asked if the Taliban would hold elections,First Deputy Leader Sirajuddin Haqqani said the question was "premature". All political parties have been banned since August 2023.
Haji Muhammad Mohaqiq is an Afghan politician who served as a member of the Afghanistan Parliament. He is also the founder and chairman of the People's Islamic Unity Party of Afghanistan. During the 1980s,he served with the mujahideen rebel forces fighting against the Soviet-backed Afghan government during the Soviet-Afghan War. After the withdrawal of the Soviet Union in 1989,Mohaqiq was appointed as the leader of the Hezb-e Wahdat for northern Afghanistan.
Asadullah Khalid is a politician in Afghanistan. He served as head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS),which is the domestic intelligence agency of Afghanistan. Before his appointment as the head of the NDS in September 2012,Khalid served as the Minister of Tribal and Border Affairs. Between 2005 and 2008,he was the Governor of Kandahar Province and prior to that as Governor of Ghazni Province (2002-2005). From 2018 until 2021 he was the Minister of Defense. Khalid is said to be affiliated with the Islamic Dawah Organisation of Afghanistan and has been noted as one of many loyalists of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Mohammad Haneef Atmar is an Afghan politician and former KhAD agent. He served as the Minister of interior until he was removed from the Ministry by Hamid Karzai in the wake of attacks on the June 2010 Afghan Peace Jirga. Before that he worked with several international humanitarian organisations and served as Minister of Rural Rehabilitation and Development and Minister of Education. In 2011,he was part of the Right and Justice party. During his time in office,he has visited several countries to get funding to stabilise Afghanistan.
Kai Aage Eide is a Norwegian diplomat and writer. He was appointed the United Nations Special Representative to Afghanistan and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) on 7 March 2008,a position he held until March 2010 when Staffan de Mistura took over.
Presidential elections were held in Afghanistan on 20 August 2009. The election resulted in victory for incumbent president Hamid Karzai,who received 49.7% of the vote,while his main rival Abdullah Abdullah finished second with 30.6% of the vote.
Mohammad Umer Daudzai is a politician in Afghanistan,who most recently served as President Ashraf Ghani's Special Envoy for Regional Consensus Building on Peace and as Head of the High Peace Council (HPC) Secretariat for a few months. He was later appointed President Ghani's Campaign Manager for the 2019 Presidential elections. After a career with international non-governmental organizations including the United Nations Development Program in Geneva,Daudzai started work as two term Chief of Staff of Afghan President Hamid Karzai from 2003 to 2005 and then from 2007 to around 2010. From 2005 until 2007,President Karzai appointed him as Afghan Ambassador in Iran. He then served as the Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan,tasked with advancing efforts to reach a political solution to the war in Afghanistan. In September 2013,Daudzai was asked to serve as Afghan Minister of Interior in Kabul and ensure security for the challenging 2014 presidential elections.
Abdullah Abdullah is a Afghan politician who led the High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR) from May 2020 until August 2021,when the Afghan government was overthrown by the Taliban. The council had been established to facilitate peace talks between the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Taliban insurgents. Abdullah served as the Chief Executive of Afghanistan from September 2014 to March 2020,and as Minister of Foreign Affairs from December 2001 to April 2005. Prior to that,he was a senior member of the Northern Alliance,working as an adviser to Ahmad Shah Massoud. He worked as an ophthalmologist and medical doctor in the 1980s.
On 28 January 2010,an International Conference on Afghanistan was held at Lancaster House in London,where members of the international community discussed the further progress on the Petersberg agreement from 2001 on the democratization of Afghanistan after the ousting of the Taliban regime. The one-day conference,hosted by the United Kingdom,the United Nations,and the Afghan government,meant to chart a new course for the future of Afghanistan and brought together foreign ministers and senior representatives from more than 70 countries and international organizations. The conference was attended by the Afghan president Hamid Karzai,US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,EU High Representative Catherine Ashton,President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy,British prime minister Gordon Brown,UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen,as seen at right. Participants also included the Afghan Minister of Foreign Affairs Rangin Dadfar Spanta,UN envoy Kai Eide and the British Foreign Secretary David Miliband,as well former Afghan minister of finance Ashraf Ghani. Afghanistan agreed to timetables to take control of certain military and police functions,and launched a program to lure Taliban insurgents back to mainstream life with financial incentives.
Amrullah Saleh is an Afghan politician who served as the first vice president of Afghanistan from February 2020 to August 2021,and acting interior minister from 2018 to 2019. He was the head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) from 2004 to 2010.
Abdul Ghani Baradar is an Afghan militant and religious leader who is the acting first deputy prime minister,alongside Abdul Salam Hanafi,of the internationally unrecognized post-2021 Taliban regime in Afghanistan. A co-founder of the Taliban along with Mullah Omar,he was Omar's top deputy from 2002 to 2010,and since 2019 he has been the Taliban's fourth-in-command,as the third of Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada's three deputies.
Presidential elections were held in Afghanistan on 5 April 2014,with a second round held on 14 June. Incumbent President Hamid Karzai was not eligible to run due to term limits. The registration period for presidential nominations was open from 16 September 2013 until 6 October 2013. A total of 27 candidates were confirmed to be running for office. However,on 22 October Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission disqualified 16 of the candidates,leaving only 11 in the race. By April 2014 three candidates gave up the race and decided to support some of the eight remaining candidates. Opinion polls showed Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani as the front-runners and indeed the results of the first round of the election had Abdullah in the lead and Ghani behind him. The second set of results came after the run-off on 14 June,two months after the first round. Preliminary results were expected on 2 July and the final result on 22 July. However,widespread accusations of fraud delayed these results. As a result,John Kerry,then United States Secretary of State,mediated the negotiations between the two final candidates,Ghani and Abdullah. After a series of negotiations and talks between Ghani,Abdullah and Kerry,the two candidates agreed to sign an Agreement to form a National Unity Government based on 50–50 power sharing. As a result of that political agreement,a separate position was created for Abdullah as Chief Executive. The National Unity Government's term ran out after the next Afghan presidential election was held in September 2019.
Senior leaders of the Afghan Taliban have been stationed in Doha,Qatar,since the early 2010s. The original purpose for being there was to open an office that would facilitate political reconciliation between the Taliban,the government of Afghanistan,the United States and other countries. After the Taliban office building opened in 2013,peace negotiations were suspended following objections by the Afghan government that the office was being presented as the embassy of a government in exile. Taliban leaders remained in Doha with accommodation from the Qatari government,on the condition that the office cannot be used for public dealings.
Hamdullah Mohib is a Pashtun Afghan politician and former diplomat.
The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan was a presidential republic in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2021. The state was established to replace the Afghan interim (2001–2002) and transitional (2002–2004) administrations,which were formed after the 2001 United States invasion of Afghanistan that had toppled the partially recognized Taliban-ruled Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. However,on 15 August 2021,the country was recaptured by the Taliban,which marked the end of the 2001–2021 war,the longest war in US history. This led to the overthrow of the Islamic Republic,led by President Ashraf Ghani,and the reinstatement of the Islamic Emirate under the control of the Taliban. While the United Nations still recognizes the Islamic Republic as the legitimate government of Afghanistan,this toppled regime controls no portion of the country today,nor does it operate in exile;it effectively no longer exists. The Islamic Emirate is the de facto ruling government. The US–Taliban deal,signed on 29 February 2020 in Qatar,was one of the critical events that caused the collapse of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). Following the deal,the US dramatically reduced the number of air attacks and deprived the ANSF of a critical edge in fighting the Taliban insurgency,leading to the Taliban takeover of Kabul.
The Taliban has ruled Afghanistan as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan since taking control by force in 2021,overthrowing the internationally recognized Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. The takeover was widely criticized by the international community,and no countries have extended de jure diplomatic recognition to the new regime,despite nominally maintaining relations with Afghanistan. The Taliban has campaigned for international recognition since the takeover. Several countries have vowed never to recognize the Islamic Emirate,and others have said they will do so only if human rights in the country are respected. Some countries have accredited Taliban diplomats at the chargéd'affaires level despite not recognizing the Islamic Emirate. In September 2023,the People's Republic of China became the first country to formally name a new ambassador to the country since the takeover,and in January 2024 recognized the Taliban's envoy to China;however,the PRC still does not formally recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. The United Arab Emirates also accepted a Taliban appointed diplomat as Afghanistan's new ambassador in August 2024.
Matin Bek,also known as Abdul Matin Beyk,was the Chief of Staff to President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani.
