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Afghanistan’s acting foreign minister, Salahuddin Rabbani, has resigned his post, saying the country’s ministry has been sidelined.
In a resignation letter to President Ashraf Ghani on Wednesday, Mr Rabbani said the Foreign Ministry was being treated as a non-government organisation.
“It is unbearable,” he said on Twitter. “The continued process of state institutions being damaged, undermined and pushed aside in various ways was no longer tolerable.
After five years of service as Minister of Foreign Affairs, I have resigned from my position.The continued process of state institutions being damaged, undermined& pushed aside in various ways was no longer tolerable. I’ll continue to work for & remain in the service of our ppl. pic.twitter.com/bN64yto7VH
— Salahuddin Rabbani (@SalahRabbani) October 23, 2019
Mr Rabbani said he would continue to work for the people of Afghanistan.
He began his tenure as foreign minister in 2015, and continued in as acting foreign minister amid political infighting.
His resignation is a further blow to Mr Ghani, who had several differences of opinion with his foreign minister.
Mr Rabbani said he witnessed the creation of parallel structures during his tenure in the name of administrative reform, damaging national unity.
There were other differences of opinion between the president and Mr Rabbani, and he was sometimes not invited to meetings at the presidential palace.
He supported the Chief Executive, Dr Abdullah Abdullah, Mr Ghani’s opponent, in presidential elections on September 28. The results have not been announced.