Taliban Spokesperson Denies He Gave Interview to Israeli Reporter

The Taliban’s international media spokesperson denied that he conducted an interview with an Israeli journalist, suggesting that a reporter for the Israel public broadcaster may have been “masquerading” in order to get the one-on-one. Suhail Shaheen on Tuesday night in a telephone interview with Roi Kais of Kan News said the Islamist group will respect the rights of minorities in Afghanistan, including for the last Jewish man living in the country. “We don’t harm minorities,” Shaheen said, adding: “People don’t need to fear and run away.” He also said he did not know of Zebulon Simentov, the last Jewish man living in the country. Kais identified himself as being from Kan News, but Shaheen apparently was not aware that the station is located in Israel. After social media exploded with interest in the concept of the Taliban speaking to an Israeli reporter, Shaheen late Tuesday night tweeted: “I do many interviews with journalists every day after the falling of provincial centers of Afghanistan and the capital Kabul to the Islamic Emirate, some journalists may be masquerading but I haven’t done an interview with anyone introducing himself he is from an Israeli media.”