By Independent Persian
Saddar Ibrahim is a hidden face of Sepah-e- Pasdaran of Iran,. He was a prominent commander in Helmand and had a prominent role in success of Taliban. They have appointed him as Deouty Interior Minister, but he has no presence on social media or any publications of the Ministry and no details are held about his location and activities. only a vague picture of him is available on social media.
Supporters of Sirajuddin Haqqani and Mullah Yaqub are constantly busy on social media propagating against Saddar Ibrahim.
Rahmatullah Nabeel ex chief of NDS in his speech at Strat Studies Institute of Afghanistan, made mention of Saddar Ibrahim as Dy Interior Minister and Qayum Zakir as Dy Defence Minister, having close ties with Iran. He said Iran has some unhappy Tb Comds of 2nd and 3rd tier at their disposal on whom they invest like Saddar Ibrahim and Qayum Zakir.
The term “Unhappy” is used for Saddar Ibrahim and Qayyum Zakir because contrary to expectations, their names did not appear in the first list of the Taliban cabinet that was announced on 7 Sep 2021, and this was despite the fact that before that, Saddar Ibrahim was doing as Taliban’s shadow Interior Minister. Saddar Ibrahim and Qayyum Zakir were announced as deputy Ministers of Interior and Def of the Tb.
Saddar Ibrahim was expecting that he would get an important Military position after the overthrow of the Afghan govt, but this did not happen and he lost the competition to Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Talban’s Interior Minister, and Mullah Yaqoob, the Defense Minister, and Abdul Haq Wasiq, the head of the Taliban Intelligence.
In the middle of October last year, an explosion occurred in the mosque of the Taliban Ministry of Interior and it was rumored that Saddar Ibrahim, the Deputy of this Ministry, was killed; But Taliban media officials denied the death of Saddar Ibrahim. This attack happened while Saddar Ibrahim was present in Kabul after months of isolation and seclusion in the southern provinces.
Saddar Ibrahim was close to Mullah Akhtar Mansour, the second leader of Taliban, who was killed in an airstrike on his way from Iran in May 2016, in Pakistan. With the death of Mansour, some believed that Iran’s influence among the Helmand Taliban would decrease, but Saddar Ibrahim and Zakir Qayyum were able to maintain their relation with Iran.
Rahmatullah Nabil ex Chief of NDS of Afghanistan said that Mullah Akhtar Mansour was managing most of the drug traffic and Quds Group of the IRGC had provided a safe route for drug traffic inside Iran.
He added: “A number of Ishaqzai, Alizai and Noorzai tribes were on the same border with Iran and had close ties with Iran from the past. In order for Iran and the Quds Force in order to get their operational funds like for supporting Hezbollah and others, they cooperated in drug smuggling and its safe delivery from one border to another through Iran. “Iran used to charge 2,000 USD as tax on each kilogram of drugs.”
According to Nabeel, Iran had partnered forces affiliated with Akhtar Mansour in some oil and gas export contracts to Afghanistan. After the killing of Akhtar Mansour, Saddar Ibrahim and Qayyum Zakir continued their relations with Iran and managed the transit line of drugs through Iran.
The Taliban forces, which were armed by Iran in the western and southern provinces of Afghanistan, were mostly engaged in subversive activities; Forces affiliated with the Helmandi Taliban and Saddar Ibrahim were in charge of some of these activities.
Rahmatullah Nabeel said: “Most of the Tb who were sp by Iran were mostly focused on Shindand Airport (Herat province) and Bakhshabad and Kamal Khan dams.
Shah Mahmood Miakhil, the Acting Minister of Defence in the previous government, also said in a tweet that relations between Iran and the Taliban began in 2003 and that Iran in the western provinces and Helmand.
Unlike Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban Interior Minister, Sadrdar Ibrahim does not have close relations with Pakistan, and the killing of Akhtar Mansour, increased his suspicion towards Pakistan.
Pakistan is concerned about the Taliban relationship with Iran, because according to a narrative, Taliban are considered its “Strategic Assets”.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the dy PM of the Taliban , had previously spent several years in Pakistani prisons.
Iran handed over the Afghan Embassy and consulates to Taliban and accepted Mohammad Afzal Haqqani, a close associate of Saddar Ibrahim, as Ambassador due to his close relations with Sadr Ibrahim.
It is said that more than four million Afghan citizens live in Iran and with this presence, the Embbassy and diplomatic Missions have high income.
Saddar Ibrahim is in contact with the IRGC and it seems that by taking advantage of the influence of the IRGC in the diplomatic system of Iran, the Afghan embassy was handed over to the desired representative of Saddar Ibrahim.
During the Taliban regime, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, a member of the IRGC’s overseas best known as the Quds Force, was appointed as Amb in Kabul and Hassan Mortazavi, the Dy Amb. Seyyed Hasan Mortazavi is one of the commanders of the Quds Force and the founder of the Fatemiyoun Brigade.
The Taliban do not have control over Afghanistan’s Airspace. Mullah Yaqub, the Taliban’s Def Min, admitted this on 4 Mar that the Airspace of Afghanistan is not under the control of the group and described this situation as “occupation”.
One of the reasons why Saddar Ibrahim does not reveal his face and location is that he does not want to be the target of an airstrike due to have relations with Iran.
Ayman al-Zawahiri, the former leader of al-Qaeda, was allegedly killed in August last year in a US drone attack in Shirpur, a diplomatic area of Kabul, which the Taliban denied that Zawahiri was killed in Kabul.
