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.
Juma Khan Hamdard is an Afghan politician. He served as the security adviser to President Ashraf Ghani. He served as governor of Paktia Province from 2007 to 2015,previously serving as governor of Baghlan and later Jowzjan province. He is the head of the alliance of H.A.A Councils.
The National Assembly,also known as the Parliament of Afghanistan or simply as the Afghan Parliament,was the legislature of Afghanistan in various forms from the monarchy,republican,communist and democratic periods between 1931 and 2021. It was a bicameral body,comprising two chambers:
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.
The National Directorate of Security was the national intelligence and security service of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. The headquarters of the NDS was in Kabul,and it had field offices and training facilities in all 34 provinces of Afghanistan. The NDS was part of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF).
Afghanistan–Pakistan relations refer to the bilateral ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan. In August 1947,the partition of British India led to the emergence of Pakistan along Afghanistan's eastern frontier,and the two countries have since had a strained relationship;Afghanistan was the sole country to vote against Pakistan's admission into the United Nations following the latter's independence. Territorial disputes along the widely known "Durand Line" and conflicting claims prevented the normalization of bilateral ties between the countries throughout the mid-20th century. Various Afghan government officials and Afghan nationalists have made irredentist claims to large swathes of Pakistan's territory in modern-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Pakistani Balochistan,which complete the traditional homeland of "Pashtunistan" for the Pashtun people. Afghan territorial claims over Pashtun-majority areas that are in Pakistan were coupled with discontent over the permanency of the Durand Line which has long been considered the international border by every nation other than Afghanistan,and for which Afghanistan demanded a renegotiation,with the aim of having it shifted eastward to the Indus River. During the Taliban insurgency,the Taliban has received substantial financial and logistical backing from Pakistan,which remains a significant source of support. Nonetheless,Pakistan's support for the Taliban is not without risks,as it involves playing a precarious and delicate game. Further Afghanistan–Pakistan tensions have arisen concerning a variety of issues,including the Afghan conflict and Afghan refugees in Pakistan,water-sharing rights,and a continuously warming relationship between Afghanistan and India,but most of all the Taliban government in Afghanistan providing sanctuary and safe havens to Pakistani Taliban terrorists to attack Pakistani territory. Border tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan have escalated to an unprecedented degree following recent instances of violence along the border. The Durand Line witnesses frequent occurrences of suicide bombings,airstrikes,or street battles on an almost daily basis. The Taliban-led Afghan government has also accused Pakistan of undermining relations between Afghanistan and China and creating discord between the neighbouring countries.
Abdullah Abdullah is a Pashtun 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.
Mohammed Masoom Stanekzai is a former Minister,Chief Peace Negotiator,and chief of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
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.
Afghan-India Friendship Dam (AIFD),formerly Salma Dam,is a hydroelectric and irrigation dam project located on the Hari River in Chishti Sharif District of Herat Province in western Afghanistan. The Afghan cabinet had renamed the Salma Dam to the Afghan-India Friendship Dam to express gratitude to India,which funded and helped with completing the partially constructed project.
Events from the year 2010 in Afghanistan.
Engineer Ibrahim Spinzada is a politician in Afghanistan who had been appointed to several government positions by President Hamid Karzai. In 2004 the Los Angeles Times described Spinzada as Karzai's brother-in-law. The Congressional Research Service also called him "a Karzai brother-in-law",when it reported he was the first deputy adviser on Afghanistan's National Security Council in 2010.
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.
The following lists events from 2014 in Afghanistan.
Adib Fahim is the former deputy director general of Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security. His father,Marshal Mohammad Fahim,was the first vice president of Afghanistan. Following the death of his father in March 2014,Adib was appointed as his father's successor in the social arena at a ceremony organized by then president Karzai in Afghanistan's Presidential Palace. He was featured on the Time Magazine and the National Public Radio (NPR).
On 21 January 2019,in central Afghanistan,the Taliban attacked a military compound in Maidan Shar,killing officers of the Afghan National Directorate of Security. The Taliban attacked while engaging in the process of negotiating a truce with the United States. The attack began when an explosives-laden car rammed through a military checkpoint and onto the grounds of the compound,where the vehicle detonated. After the explosion,two gunmen entered the base and opened fire on Afghan soldiers,before the two were shot down. A senior official in the Afghan defense ministry said that 126 people were killed in the explosion. The Taliban claimed responsibility and stated that over 190 people were killed in the attack. The Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) reported that 36 military personnel were killed in the attack. Afghan president,Ashraf Ghani condemned the attack and said that the 'Afghan intelligence agency personnel were target of the attack'.
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.
