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Sayyid Muhammad Tayyab Agha (Pashto:سید محمد طیب آغا,Sayyid Muḥammad Ṭayyab Āghā; born 1976) is a prominent figure in the AfghanTaliban. He was the head of the political wing of the Taliban from 2009[citation needed] to 2015 and was the aide and representarive of Taliban founderMohammed Omar.[1][2] During the Taliban government of theIslamic Emirate of Afghanistan (1996–2001), he served aschief of staff to Omar, as well as his personal secretary, translator, and press spokesman.
Agha was born in 1976 in Jelahor village,Arghandab District,Kandahar Province, and belongs to a prominentPersian-speaking religious family from aSayyid tribe. He speaksEnglish,Arabic,Urdu, andPersian, in addition toPashto.[3]
In early 2010 Agha metBernd Mützelburg, Germany's special envoy to Afghanistan, at a location in the Persian Gulf region. In November that year he and two close associates metUnited States Department of State diplomats and US intelligence officials in Munich. He was concerned he could be arrested en route and interned atGuantanamo Bay detention camp, so he was fetched from the Persian Gulf in an airplane of Germany'sFederal Intelligence Service,[4] andU.S. National Security Council staff avoided telling theCentral Intelligence Agency about the flight.[5]
He moved toDoha, Qatar, in January 2012 to form theTaliban's political office there.[6] On 3 August 2015, following the delayed acknowledgement of the death of Omar, and the appointment ofAkhtar Mansour as leader of the Taliban, Agha resigned as head of the political office. He questioned the way in which Mansour was appointed, suggesting that it was driven by people who were living outside Afghanistan. He was also critical of Omar's death being kept secret for nearly two years. He said he was stepping down to avoid "expected future disputes".[7] He was succeeded bySher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, a former anti-Soviet fighter and deputy health minister.[8]
Agha's opinion on how the Taliban should change its approach was published in October 2016 byRadio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, who described him as "a key Taliban ideologue". He thought the Taliban should drop the name "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" and call themselves a "movement", as they could not be considered a shadow government when they controlled only rural territory and most of the leadership were living in a foreign country, i.e., Pakistan. Agha called for independence from foreign influence, saying the leadership should leave Pakistan, and calling for the removal of those who were in contact with Pakistani, Iranian, Indian or other foreign intelligence services. He also called for restrictions onAl-Qaeda and other foreign jihadists within Afghanistan, referring to Central Asian jihadists whom the Talibanfought in Zabul in 2015 after they joinedISIS, and how the activities of Al-Qaeda led to the fall of the Taliban regime.[9]