...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
government front man Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted a picture of him meeting with Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", leaders in Istanbul. In the tweet, Mujahid said that he discussed issues of Afghanistan and Paleostine, including the status of al-Aqsa Mosque, with a delegation that included Ismail Haniyeh
...became Prime Minister of Gaza after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank...
, Hamas's political chief.
Mujahid has been in
...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire...for more than one week now, where he has been attending a conference of Islamic scholars and meeting with Afghan business owners, whom he hopes to convince to invest back in their cash-strapped home country.
Though Ankara does not yet officially recognise the Taliban's Islamic Emirate as the government of Afghanistan, Turkey has maintained ties with the Taliban that date back to when they were an armed opposition movement fighting the former western-backed Islamic Theocratic
Republicadministration.
However,
Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried...
the news of Mujahid's meeting with Haniyeh has caught experts in Afghanistan and the Middle East by surprise.
Still, Haniyeh has expressed his apparent support of the Taliban in the past. Shortly after the group returned to power in August 2021, the Hamas leader shared details of a phone call he had with senior Taliban official Abdul Ghani Baradar.
In his congratulatory phone call, Haniyeh said that the end of the western occupation of Afghanistan was "a prelude to the demise of all occupation forces, foremost of which is the Israeli occupation of Paleostine".
The following October, Haniyeh had a similar phone call with the Taliban's acting foreign minister, Amir Muttaqi. In that conversation, Haniyeh urged the Islamic Emirate to keep "Paleostine present in the speeches of the Afghan foreign ministry, especially Jerusalem and the ongoing [Israeli] violations there".
Haroun Rahimi, an Afghan academic and author currently based in the US, said the most recent in-person meeting could be a part of the Taliban's efforts to secure some sort of international recognition, and that standing with Paleostine would send a very specific message.
"The Taliban is trying to tap into the anti-imperialist and anti-western sentiment amongst [some] Moslems as a way to put pressure on other Moslem leaders," Rahimi told Middle East Eye.
Rahimi said Mujahid's face-to-face meeting with Haniyeh is also important for its symbolism: "Being associated with the Paleostinian cause, and gaining the endorsement and support of Paleostinian leaders, could help improve the Taliban's standing in the Moslem world."
The Taliban may also be seeking to link Afghanistan and Paleostine as two occupied countries, as Haniyeh had done.
"The Taliban also saw Afghanistan as being occupied by western powers, and would like to portray themselves as the freedom fighters who have freed the country from American imperialism," Rahimi said, an idea he believes the Taliban could use in an effort to bolster support among other Moslem communities.
Ultimately, though, Rahimi said the Taliban is still very much driven by its desire to be seen as the legitimate government of Afghanistan, which was also likely a factor in Mujahid's decision to meet with the Hamas leaders.
"The Taliban wants to have as much diplomatic activities as possible and having interactions with Paleostine also makes ideological sense for [the group]," Rahimi said.
'WHAT PROBLEM DO WE HAVE WITH ISRAEL?'
Authorities in Afghanistan have repeatedly expressed support for the Paleostinian cause over the past 20 years.
In 2019, Afghanistan's then ambassador to Turkey donated $1m in aid to Paleostinian refugees, following on from $500,000 given to the people of Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
five years earlier.
The Afghan senate denounced Israel's war on Gaza in 2014, and the western-backed government also criticised the 2021 Israeli attacks on worshippers and civilians at al-Aqsa Mosque.
The Taliban, meanwhile, has even had to distance itself from Israel.
In August, Taliban front man Muhammad Naeem came under criticism when he refused to rule out ties with Israel during an appearance on Al Jazeera Arabic. When asked if the Islamic Emirate would be willing to engage with Israel, Naeem said the Taliban was open to relations with anyone who was receptive to the idea.
"What problem do we have with Israel? Next thing someone will ask whether we are willing to have a dialogue with Mars," he said during the appearance. However,
Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried...
Naeem soon retracted his statement, saying his words had been misinterpreted.
Earlier this month, Mujahid criticised an Afghan media report claiming the Islamic Emirate was looking to establish ties with Israel as "fake news".