The Taliban military organization, which last month took control of Afghanistan, said its government doesn't want "any ties" with Israel.
The spokesman for the group made the statement during a press conference on Tuesday after it announced a new government, which contains only men.
"Of course, we will not have any relations with Israel. We want to have relations with other countries, Israel is not among these countries," Spokesman Suhail Shaheen told Russia's Sputnik news agency.
Shaheen said the Taliban were even willing to cooperate with the United States after they swiftly toppled the 20-year-old Western-backed government last month just as U.S. President Joe Biden was completing a pullout to end America’s longest war.
"Yes, of course, if America wants to have a relationship with us, which could be in the interest of both countries and both peoples, and if they want to participate in the reconstruction of Afghanistan, they are welcome," Shaheen said.
The Taliban on Tuesday named a provisional government that included several people wanted for terror offenses.
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Then-Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif receives then-Afghan Foreign Minister Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund (right) in Islamabad in 1999
(Photo: AFP)
Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, a veteran of the group who is on a UN sanctions list and served in the Islamists' brutal 1996-2001 regime, was named as acting prime minister.
The acting interior minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is wanted by the FBI for suspected involvement in a 2008 terror attack in Kabul that killed six people, including an American, and other alleged offenses.
Mujahid also said that Taliban co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar will be the deputy leader. Previously he served as the head of his movement’s political office, overseeing the signing in 2020 of the U.S. withdrawal agreement.
Mullah Yaqoob, the son of the Taliban founder and late supreme leader Mullah Omar, was named defense minister, while the position of interior minister was given to Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the feared Haqqani network who also doubled up as a Taliban deputy leader.