This archive report was first published on 18 July 2020.
Published on July 18, 2020, the Taliban's leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, has made significant changes to his negotiation team in a bid to strengthen his control over the group's representatives in talks with the Afghan government.
The appointments, made last month, include four new members: Sheikh Abdul Hakeem, the Taliban chief justice; Maulvi Saqib, a former chief justice during the Taliban's rule in the 1990s; Mullah Shireen, a close aide and bodyguard of the late Taliban founder Mullah Omar; and Maulvi Abdul Kabir, a former governor of Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province.
These new additions are expected to help the team make quicker decisions, according to two sources within the Taliban movement who confirmed the move.
The reshuffle also saw three to four earlier members of the team removed, including Mullah Amir Khan Muttaqi, a senior militant leader.
The move comes after Akhundzada appointed Mullah Yaqoob, the son of Mullah Omar, as head of the group's military wing, with the commander describing Yaqoob as 'young, energetic and experienced.'
The Taliban have a political office in the Qatari capital Doha, which is likely to host the initial round of peace talks after the militants and Kabul complete an ongoing prisoner exchange.
The peace negotiations hinge on a prisoner swap, in which Kabul pledged to free about 5,000 Taliban prisoners in return for around 1,000 Afghan security force captives held by the insurgents.
So far, Afghan authorities have released about 4,400 Taliban inmates, while the Taliban have been accused of continuing to carry out deadly attacks across the country.
