The Taliban on Tuesday declared that no threat will be posed to any country from Afghanistan as the terrorist group took charge of the strife-torn country following a shockingly rapid collapse of its democratic government with the departure of most western troops.

“The Islamic emirate is pledging to all world countries that no threat will be posed to any country from Afghanistan,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told reporters at their first press conference in Kabul in which he announced an Islamic government will be established in Afghanistan soon.

Claiming that there will be no discrimination against women, the Taliban spokesperson said they are committed to providing women their rights based on Islam. Women can work in the health sector and other sectors where they are needed, he said.

Afghanistan’s first vice president Amrullah Saleh on Tuesday added a new twist to the ongoing crisis, claiming he is now the caretaker president after Ashraf Ghani fled the war-torn country. Citing the provisions of the Constitution of Afghanistan, Saleh said that the first vice president automatically becomes the caretaker president in the event of the president’s absence, escape or resignation.

Saleh has not accepted the takeover by the Taliban, saying he will never be under “one ceiling” with the Islamist fundamentalists.

On Sunday, Ashraf’s Ghani former deputy said he’ll never betray the “soul” and “legacy of my hero Ahmad Shah Masoud”, the late Afghan politician and military commander who fought against the Soviet occupation between 1979 and 1989.