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Oman’s grand mufti hails Taliban’s ‘clear victory’ in Afghanistan

August 17, 2021 at 9:24 am

The Grand Mufti of the Sultanate of Oman, Sheikh Ahmed Bin Hamad Al-Khalili [FAISAL AL-TAMIMI/AFP/Getty Images]

Oman’s Grand Mufti, Ahmed Bin Hamad Al-Khalili, yesterday congratulated the Afghan people for what he described as “clear victory and the grand conquering of the aggressor invaders.”

“We also congratulate ourselves and the entire Islamic nation for the fulfilment of God’s sincere promise,” he said on Twitter.

Al-Khalili’s remarks, the first by an official from an Arab country, came as Afghanistan’s President, Ashraf Ghani, who was reported to have fled to Oman after he was refused entry to Tajikistan.

On Sunday, the Taliban announced its control over 31 Afghan provinces, including the capital city of Kabul, Laghman, Maidan Wardak, Bamyan, Khost, Kapisa, Nangarhar, and Daykendi.

The final US forces are due to withdraw from Afghanistan within three weeks, with the Taliban making gains that have brought into question the purpose and success of the international coalition’s mission in Afghanistan and the 20 years it has spent in the country.

READ: Taliban reportedly agree to allow Kabul airport evacuation to proceed

Ghani’s office told Reuters that they could not disclose anything about the president’s movements “for security reasons.”

US President Joe Biden has said that he was not “regretting his decision to continue the withdrawal of the American forces from Afghanistan.”

“We went to Afghanistan almost 20 years ago with clear goals: get those who attacked us on September 11, 2001 – and make sure Al Qaeda could not use Afghanistan as a base from which to attack us again,” he said on Twitter.

“We did that—a decade ago. Our mission was never supposed to be nation-building.”