He co-founded the Taliban, helped it rebuild during two decades of war with the U.S. and then brokered a deal to get American troops out. Now, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar’s job is about to get even harder.
Baradar, named as deputy prime minister in a Taliban government unveiled on Tuesday, is still the most well-known figure to the outside world in the new administration. Taliban supreme commander Haibatullah Akhundzada hasn’t been seen in public since becoming the group’s leader in 2016, and little is known about new Prime Minister Mullah Mohammad Hassan.
To get access to international aid and billions in central bank assets, Baradar will have to convince world leaders that this is a different Taliban, a more moderate version of a group infamous for banning girls from school and stoning women to death during its rule in the 1990s.
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