Aug 22, 2021: The Taliban on Saturday claimed progress in their talks aimed at forming a comprehensive government in Afghanistan and ensuring security across the country since taking over the capital Kabul last weekend.

Taliban assured that fears of civil war in the country could be allayed.

The statement from a Taliban official, co-founder of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar’s group, which successfully negotiated an agreement with the United States in Doha last year, arrived in Kabul, where senior militia commanders have already held talks with jihadi leaders.

Mullah Baradar arrived in Afghanistan from Qatar last Tuesday, choosing to touch down in Kandahar, the country’s second-largest city. Within hours of his return, the group announced that this time his rule would be “different.” So far, he has given some details about who be part of his government.

Hours after Baradar’s arrival in Kabul, pro-Taliban social media accounts showed Khalil Haqqani—one of America’s most-wanted terrorists with a $5 million bounty on his head – announcing that Ahmad Massoud—the son of Afghanistan’s most famed anti-Taliban fighter Ahmad Shah Massoud—had “declared allegiance” to the movement.

Earlier this week, Massoud called on the United States to provide arms to his resistance movement in the Panjshir Valley, northeast of Kabul, saying he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father, Ahmad Shah Massoud.

Massoud’s call added to earlier concerns about the outbreak of civil war in the United States. Massoud did not issue a statement on Haqqani’s announcement, but his aides said talks with the Taliban were ongoing.

As the Taliban and other Afghan political leaders continue to discuss the formation of a new government, a senior Taliban official told press that the announcement of a new government framework is expected in the next few days.

This came as former President Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, head of the High Council for National Reconciliation, met with Kabul’s acting governor, Abdul Rahman Mansoor, to discuss security in Kabul and the protection of lives and property.

Abdullah, a senior government official, confirmed in a tweet that he and Karzai had met with the acting Taliban governor on Saturday, who “assured us that he would do everything possible to protect the city.”

Anas Haqqani, another key leader of the network, who was in the capital, also met with Karzai and Abdullah. Afghan officials familiar with the talks in the capital say the Taliban have said they will not announce their government until the August 31 deadline.

Khalil Haqqani has also met with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former bitter rival during the brutal civil war of the early 1990s. And according to Afghanistan’s Khaama News Agency, President Ashraf Ghani’s brother, Hashmat Ghani Ahmadzai, took an oath of allegiance and supported the Taliban. The agency said a video clip showed Hashmat Ghani swearing allegiance to key Taliban leader Khalil-ur-Rehman.

The meetings come amid reports of anti-Taliban forces claiming to have captured three districts near Panjshir. Defense Minister Bismillah Mohammadi, who has vowed to resist the Taliban, said in a tweet that Deh Saleh, Bano and Pul-e-Hisar districts of Baghlan province north of Panjshir had been captured. It was not immediately clear which forces were involved.

The United States, meanwhile, urged its citizens in Afghanistan on Saturday to refrain from traveling to Kabul airport, citing “potential security threats” near its gates. The warning, posted on the website of the US embassy in Afghanistan and tweeted by the State Department in Washington, did not elaborate on the nature of the threat.

The potential threat of Islamic State (IS) against the Americans is forcing the US military to devise new evacuation methods at Kabul airport, a senior US official said.

A senior Taliban official warned that security threats at Kabul airport, where thousands of people try to leave every day, could not be ruled out.

The Taliban are working to improve the situation at the airport over the weekend and provide a smooth route, he said.

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