Baradar meets Shiite ulema; says IEA does not want a monopoly of power

First Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar on Friday met with a delegation of Shia clerics and tribal elders and told them the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) does not want a monopoly of power.

Baradar said that Afghanistan is the “common home of all Afghans” and its development is the “common responsibility of all Afghans”.

“The position of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is clear, it does not want monopoly of power,” Baradar told clerics and elders.

According to the clerics and tribal elders, they have always supported an Islamic system and they support the Islamic Emirate.

“We have always supported the Islamic Emirate and … we condemn all actions and efforts to weaken the existing Islamic system,” they said.

They also described the Islamic Emirate as the “core of unity and solidarity among the tribes living in Afghanistan” and that the “ulema has always prevented any kind of insurgency and insecurity in Shiite-populated areas”.

“The Bonn Conference is a document of the birth of occupation, ethnic and regional prejudices, and on the contrary the Doha agreement is a document of freedom and unity and brotherhood between nations,” they said.

Former ethnic dictators and other intelligence operatives who have maintained their interests in dividing the nation no longer exist here,” they stated.

The delegation also put forward some suggestions which they shared in writing with Baradar, the First Deputy Prime Minister’s Office said.

The door of the Islamic Emirate is open to every citizen of Afghanistan, Baradar said. Adding that “we welcome anyone who serves Afghanistan and the Afghan people.”

He stated that the welfare and economic stability of the people is an important program for government which aims to improve the economic situation in the short term, provide jobs to the people and increase the country’s national revenue.