Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Mottaki says Afghanistan no longer needs a large army and will not include members of the previous regime’s national security and defense forces in its ranks. Mottaki made the remarks at the Pakistan Institute for Strategic Studies in Islamabad yesterday. He said there is no longer any need for an army that had made foreign intervention. Although the Taliban has previously said it would add security and defense forces to the former regime’s security forces, Mottaki said the country needed a smaller army and that it needed to be made up of people loyal to their country.
He accused the international community of using the issue of human rights for political purposes. Mottaki also claimed that the current cabinet includes members from different parts of Afghanistan, adding that the international community is trying to force the Taliban to include political opponents in the cabinet.
