IEA to establish a ‘much smaller’ military force: Muttaqi

Afghanistan’s acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said on Friday in Islamabad that the country no longer needs a large military and that not all former Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) will be re-employed.

“The army that was created by foreign intervention, we are no longer in need of having such large numbers,” said Muttaqi during a discussion with the Institute of Strategic Studies.

He was responding to a question about the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s strategy for integrating IEA fighters and ANDSF personnel into one military.

He said his country needed a small army “made up of people with fidelity and commitment and patriotism ingrained in them.”

Muttaqi was in Pakistan for discussions on numerous issues including the reopening of trade routes.

On Thursday, he also met representatives from the United States, China, and Russia, who were in Pakistan for a Troika Plus meeting on Afghanistan.

In response to the international community’s calls for an inclusive government, Muttaqi said the current administration is inclusive as it includes people from different ethnicities.

He said the international community is trying to force the IEA to include their political opponents, which is not the norm in other countries.

“We have never asked [U.S.] President [Joe] Biden to include [former] president [Donald] Trump in his cabinet,” he said.

On the issue of women’s rights, he claimed the IEA has not fired a single woman from her job since they came to power.

Human Rights Watch’s Heather Barr disagreed. She said: “Maybe they didn’t say to any women you are fired from your job, but they’ve certainly told many, many, many women that they shouldn’t come to work, and they shouldn’t come to work indefinitely.”

Muttaqi meanwhile said the IEA is trying to take a balanced approach in international relations.

“As for international recognition, what we are experiencing is that we are being recognized and treated as an official government of Afghanistan in our travels and in other cases,” he said.

“Embassies are open inside our country, and we have embassies and representation in foreign countries.”