KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Fasihuddin Fitrat, the Taliban’s Chief of Army Staff, blasted discussions about Afghanistan’s future beyond Taliban rule, saying that a post-Taliban Afghanistan “will never exist.”
Speaking on Thursday (February 22) at a ceremony at Mohammad Daud Khan Hospital in Kabul, Fitrat dismissed recent efforts by opposition groups to map out the country’s future.
“They believe they are planning for a post-Taliban Afghanistan, but there is no post-Taliban Afghanistan,” he said.
He further claimed that those involved in such discussions are individuals “the Afghan people do not want back.”
His remarks were in response to the fifth Vienna Process for a Democratic Afghanistan held on Tuesday and Wednesday in Vienna.
The two-day conference, organized by the Austrian Institute for International Affairs, brought together over 90 opposition figures, activists, and journalists. Among them were Ahmad Massoud, leader of the National Resistance Front, and Yasin Zia, head of the Afghanistan Freedom Front—two key armed resistance factions against the Taliban.
In their final resolution, conference participants declared the Taliban’s rule “illegitimate” and accused the group of enforcing gender apartheid, forced displacement, and genocide while supporting international terrorism.
They also approved a roadmap for Afghanistan’s future and urged the international community to assist in forming a transitional government.
No country has formally recognized the Taliban as Afghanistan’s legitimate government, largely due to concerns over human rights abuses, particularly their treatment of women and girls.
