Taliban to hold government inauguration on 9/11 to 'troll' the US, says Russian media

The Taliban is considering inaugurating its new government on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Russian state media reports, in a move calculated to antagonise the United States weeks after its chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

While formally denying that a date had been set for the inauguration, the Taliban on Thursday demanded the United States lift sanctions on members of its announced cabinet, accusing the Biden administration of violating the Doha agreement.

On Wednesday, state-owned Russian news agency RIA Novosti cited an unnamed Taliban source claiming the group’s cabinet would be inducted on September 11.

That report was amplified by the influential head of the RT channel and the media conglomerate that includes RIA Novosti, Margarita Simonyan, who said the symbolic date choice was deliberate.

“The inauguration of Afghanistan’s new government has been scheduled for 9/11. The Talibs are good not only at generating memes but also at trolling,” she tweeted.

Moscow’s ambassador in Kabul would attend the inauguration of the new government, Russia’s envoy for Afghan talks said.

However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday would not confirm the date of the event

The Taliban announced its “caretaker” government on Tuesday, stacking its cabinet with old-guard hardline figures.

Among the most notorious is incoming interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, a US-designated terrorist with a $10 million bounty on his head.

“In the Doha Agreement all officials of the Islamic Emirate without any exception were part of the interaction with the US and should have been removed from the UN and US blacklists,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed said on Thursday.

Under the Doha agreement the Taliban promised to stop Al Qaeda and other terror groups from using Afghanistan as a base.