Taliban-appointed prime minister meets with a top Pakistan politician in hopes of reducing tensions

Afghanistan’s Taliban-appointed prime minister has met with one of Pakistan’s most senior politicians in an attempt to reduce lingering tensions between the two countries

ISLAMABAD -- Afghanistan's Taliban-appointed prime minister met Monday with one of Pakistan's most senior politicians in an attempt to reduce lingering tensions between the two countries, a spokesman for the Taliban government said.

Fazlur Rehman, whose Jamiat Ulema Islam party is known for backing the Afghan Taliban, is the first senior Pakistani politician to visit Kabul since the Taliban seized power in neighboring Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO troops withdrew from the country after 20 years of war.

The Pakistani delegation met with Prime Minister Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhund in Kabul, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement.

Rehman’s party in a social media post confirmed the meeting. Rehman has no current position in Pakistan's government, but he is close to the military.

His visit comes less than a week after Mullah Shirin, the governor of Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, traveled to Islamabad and met with Pakistan’s caretaker Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani. They discussed issues including Pakistan's ongoing expulsion of Afghans without valid documents.