Ghani (left) and Trump (right)
The News: Former US President Donald Trump has called Afghanistan’s former President Ashraf Ghani “a total crook,” adding, “He got away with murder.” Trump also said that he suspected that Ghani fled with cash when he secretly left Afghanistan last Sunday. Trump’s suspicion was based on Ghani’s “lifestyle”, “his houses” and “where he lives,” Trump said. Click here to read more (external link).
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
August 19, 2021
Casualties were reported as Afghan demonstrators waving the national flag took to the streets of several cities to mark the country’s Independence Day in the first major display of popular opposition to the Taliban, a day after at least one person was killed when the hard-line Islamist militants cracked down on a similar demonstration.
Taliban leaders have said they want peace and an inclusive government — within the values of Islam — while vowing no revenge against opponents – since seizing control of Kabul on August 15, following a blitz offensive that saw a string of cities fall in quick succession to the fundamentalist group.
But a witness told Reuters on August 19 that Taliban fighters fired on demonstrators waving the Afghan national tricolor at an Independence Day rally, killing several people.
It was not clear whether the casualties came from the shooting or from the stampede it triggered.
“Hundreds of people came out on the streets,” witness Mohammed Salim said from Asadabad, the capital of the eastern province of Kunar. “At first I was scared and didn’t want to go but when I saw one of my neighbors joined in I took out the flag I have at home.”
Protests were also reported in the eastern city of Jalalabad and a district of Paktia Province, but there were no reports of violence.
The previous day, at least one person was killed during anti-Taliban protests in Jalalabad after the militants attacked demonstrators who were reportedly attempting to lower the group’s banner and replace it with the Afghan flag.
The Islamist militants marked Independence Day, which commemorates Afghanistan’s 1919 independence from British control, by issuing a statement declaring that “our jihadi resistance forced another arrogant power of the world, the United States, to fail and retreat from our holy territory of Afghanistan.”
First Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who is trying to rally opposition to the Taliban, expressed support for the protests, saying on Twitter: “Salute those who carry the national flag and thus stand for dignity of the nation.”
Saleh said earlier this week that he has remained in Afghanistan and was the “legitimate caretaker president” after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country as the Taliban captured Kabul. Ghani resurfaced in the United Arab Emirates on August 18, reiterating that he had fled to prevent bloodshed.
Overall, streets in the capital were mainly calm on August 19, with armed fighters roaming Kabul on foot and in vehicles, as businesses started to reopen. Banks and government offices remain closed, however.
But reports that Taliban fighters are manning checkpoints around Kabul’s airport and impeding Afghans from reaching the airfield have sparked panic among some who fear they won’t be allowed to leave the country even as foreign governments ramp up evacuations. Some parents reportedly tried pushing small children over the airport fence in the hopes someone would take care of them.
A total of 12 people have been killed in and around the airport in recent days, Taliban and NATO officials said.
In his first interview since the Taliban swept into Kabul, U.S. President Joe Biden said on August 18 that the militants were cooperating in helping get Americans and allied countries’ citizens out of the country, but that “we’re having some more difficulty” in evacuating Afghan citizens who helped the international mission and others considered at risk under Taliban rule.
Biden told ABC News that U.S. forces could remain in Kabul beyond the August 31 deadline if necessary to evacuate American citizens.
Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said Washington expects the Taliban to “allow all American citizens, all third-country nationals, and all Afghans who wish to leave to do so safely and without harassment,” but the Pentagon has noted that U.S. troops do not have the capability to help people reach Kabul airport to be evacuated because the forces are focused on securing the airfield.
Turkey had offered to control and run the airport following the withdrawal of U.S. troops, but the swift Taliban takeover has cast doubt on the plan.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country still maintained its intention to operate the facility, and that Ankara was “open to any cooperation” with the Taliban.
“With the Taliban maintaining control over the country, a new picture appeared before us,” he said in a television address. “Now we are making our plans according to these new realities.”
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on August 19 that about 100 EU staff and 400 Afghans working with the bloc and their families had been evacuated. He also said hundreds more were still waiting to leave.
Addressing the European Parliament, he described the developments in Afghanistan as “a catastrophe for the Afghan people, for the Western values and credibility, and for the developing of international relations.”
Meanwhile, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and other UN agencies accredited in Afghanistan have started to temporarily relocate to Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty, despite Taliban pledges to protect diplomatic staff and UN personnel as part of a broader public relations bid to reshape its image and avoid international isolation.
The UN and its agencies have about 3,000 Afghan employees, in addition to international staff.
As Western powers face the decision whether to deal with the Islamist insurgents they had fought for nearly 20 years, the International Monetary Fund on August 18 suspended Afghanistan’s access to $440 million in monetary reserves — a move pushed for by the U.S. Treasury to prevent funds falling into Taliban hands.
British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace expressed concerns on August 19 that the events in Afghanistan will be perceived as Western weakness by adversaries such as Russia.
“That is something we should all worry about: if the West is seen not to have resolve and it fractures, then our adversaries like Russia find that encouraging,” Wallace said.
“Around the world, Islamists will see what they will view as a victory and that will inspire other terrorists,” he also said.
Asked about footage of a child being passed over a wall to Western soldiers at Kabul airport, Wallace said that Britain is unable to evacuate unaccompanied children from Afghanistan.
“You will find as you see in the footage…the child was taken – that will be because the family will be taken as well.”
With reporting by AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters, and the BBC
Tolo News: The International Monetary Fund has suspended Afghanistan’s access to IMF resources, including around $440 million in new monetary reserves, due to a lack of clarity over the country’s government after the Taliban took control of Kabul, Reuters reported on Thursday. Click here to read more (external link).
Afghan students enrolled in Indian colleges and universities worry about the future that their country holds for them following the Taliban takeover there. India has a large Afghan student community, with most having come on scholarships offered by the Indian government as a goodwill gesture to promote education in the country. Anjana Pasricha spoke to a group of students enrolled in colleges in Chandigarh city in North India.
Ghani
Daily Beast: The ousted Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said he fled to the United Arab Emirates to avoid being killed by the Taliban, who allegedly promised they wouldn’t enter Kabul. Ghani made his first remarks Wednesday with a video posted on his Facebook page. “If I had stayed in Afghanistan, the people of Afghanistan would have witnessed the president hanged once more,” he said, referring to the Taliban’s 1996 murder of Mohammad Najibullah. Click here to read more (external link).
Related
Zabihullah Mujahid
Frud Bezhan
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
August 18, 2021
Prominent female news presenter Shabnam Dawran is one of Afghanistan’s most recognizable faces.
But after the Taliban’s takeover of the Afghan capital on August 15, she was promptly fired along with all her female colleagues.
A Taliban militant flanked by a white Taliban flag took her place in the Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) studio in Kabul on August 17, tersely reading out statements by the militant group’s leadership.
“When the system changed, I wanted to go to work,” said Dawran, who worked for the state-run network, in an August 18 post on Facebook. “I didn’t lose my courage but unfortunately I was not allowed to [work].”
“My male employees managed to enter the office, but I was threatened and told that I couldn’t continue my work because the system had changed,” she added in the video. “If the world hears my voice, they should help us because our lives are in danger.”
Afghanistan’s thriving media scene had been hailed as one of the biggest achievements of the past 20 years, following the Taliban’s ban of independent media during its brutal former regime that was ousted in 2001.
Afghanistan now has an estimated 170 radio stations, more than 100 newspapers, and dozens of TV stations. Under the Taliban regime there was only state-owned radio, the Taliban’s Voice of Shari’a, which was dominated by calls to prayer and religious teachings.
But there are already ominous signs that the fundamentalist Islamist group is rolling back hard-fought gains in press freedom.
State television is now broadcasting Taliban announcements, Koranic recitations, and Islamic sermons. Private TV networks have removed popular music and entertainment shows, Western-style game shows, and foreign soap operas from their programming.
A female presenter did, however, interview a Taliban official live on Tolo TV, the country’s largest private TV station.
During the day, a Tolo TV female journalist also reported live from the streets of Kabul.
But it remains unclear if those were one-offs or a broader shift in the Taliban’s stance toward independent media and women working outside their homes — something that is generally prohibited by the militant group.
The Taliban has attempted to project a more moderate image since taking power in Kabul, pledging to uphold the free press and women’s rights — though within the framework of Islam.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said on August 17 that the group would be “positively different” from their 1996-2001 rule, when its brutal regime gained notoriety for oppressing women, massacring ethnic and religious minorities, and banning music, television, and many sports.
In the Taliban’s first press conference since taking over the city, Mujahid said private media will “remain independent” but that journalists “should not work against national values.” He also said they were “committed to letting women work in accordance with the principles of Islam,” without offering specifics.
But there are major doubts that the Taliban will follow through with their rhetoric.
Outside Kabul, away from the world’s attention, the hard-line group has effectively stamped out the independent press.
The militant group has forcibly shut down dozens of local radio stations, newspapers, and broadcasters in cities and districts across the war-torn country.
Other media outlets have closed in fear of Taliban reprisals, with many of their journalists fleeing their homes or going underground. The Taliban has been blamed for killing dozens of reporters and media workers in recent years.
The few outlets allowed to operate have been forced to broadcast Taliban propaganda. They have been banned from airing music or women’s voices. News reports have been replaced by Taliban-approved bulletins, recitations from the Koran, and religious sermons.
The Taliban has, thus far, reimposed many of the repressive laws and retrograde policies that defined its extremist former rule.
When it controlled Afghanistan, the Taliban forced women to cover themselves from head to toe, banned them from working outside the home, severely limited girls’ education, and required women to be accompanied by a male relative if they left their homes.
Meanwhile, men were banned from trimming or shaving their beards and were also forced to pray five times a day.
The Taliban also imposed a strict interpretation of Shari’a law, which includes amputations of limbs and stonings for some crimes.
Residents that have been living in Taliban-dominated Afghanistan in recent weeks and months say many of these policies have returned.
That is despite repeated claims by the group that it has changed and that it would not bring back its notorious, restrictive strictures.
Zarif
By Golnaz Esfandiari
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
August 18, 2021
Iranian officials are carefully weighing their options after the surprisingly swift Taliban takeover of Afghanistan amid fears of instability, a refugee influx, and extremist groups such as Islamic State (IS) gaining a permanent foothold in its eastern neighbor.
Tehran, which has cultivated loose ties with the Taliban in recent years and hosted the group’s representatives, has not publicly reached out to the militants since they seized much of Afghanistan within a week and triumphantly took control of Kabul on August 15.
In brief comments issued after the fall of the Afghan capital, new Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and outgoing Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif did not directly mention the Taliban.
“The military defeat and the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan should offer an opportunity to restore life, security, and lasting peace in that country,” Raisi, whose inauguration ceremony was attended by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, was quoted as having said to Zarif on August 16.
Hours earlier, Zarif tweeted that “violence & war — like occupation — never solve problems.” He added that Iran welcomes an announcement by former Afghan President Hamid Karzai on the formation of a “coordination council by Afghan leaders.”
He concluded the August 15 tweet saying that Iranians hope “it can lead to dialogue and a peaceful transition in Afghanistan. Iran stands ready to continue its peacemaking efforts.”
Analysts say Iran is mulling how best to secure its interests in its western neighbor as Tehran has been playing a balancing act by providing public support to the Afghan government while also developing ties with the Taliban.
Iran has previously described the militant Islamist group as “part of today’s reality of Afghanistan” and said it must be “part of the future solution” in the war-torn country.
“The Iranian leadership has put a brave face on. It has celebrated the U.S. withdrawal as a victory for the Afghan people, which by implication offers an endorsement for the Taliban,” Shahram Akbarzadeh, a professor of Middle East and Central Asian politics at Australia’s Deakin University, told RFE/RL.
Akbarzadeh added that Tehran is hoping for “professional if not cordial ties” with Afghanistan’s future government amid worries that the Taliban would be anti-Shi’a, persecute the Hazara minority, and adopt anti-Iran policies.
“This would be extremely concerning for Iran. From the geostrategic point of view, this would facilitate Saudi influence in Afghanistan. An anti-Shi’a and anti-Iran government in Afghanistan could present serious security challenges for Iran and make Afghan territory a haven for anti-Iran terror groups,” he said.
A Tehran-based observer who requested anonymity said Iran is finding a balance between “its anti-American stance and preserving its national interests, including security” on its borders.
‘Most Negative Consequences’
Iran’s former charge d’affaires in Afghanistan, Abdolmohammad Taheri, was quoted by the official government news agency IRNA as saying on August 18 that his country has the “authority” as well as the experience with various groups in Afghanistan to pressure the Taliban to prevent more suffering for the Afghan people while also keeping Iran safe.
Taheri described the withdrawal of U.S forces from Afghanistan as a “betrayal” that paved the way for the Taliban’s lightning advances. He added that Tehran would face the “most negative consequences” of the upheaval, including an influx of refugees that he said could include members of IS and the terrorist group Al-Qaeda.
Iran, which shares a 900-kilometer border with Afghanistan, already hosts more than 3 million Afghans, according to the United Nations refugee agency.
Taheri said Iran cannot tolerate an enemy such as the United States in its vicinity while also warning that the Taliban and the Islamic republic do not share an “affinity” for one another.
The two sworn enemies have forged ties in recent years despite the 1998 killing of seven Iranian diplomats and a journalist in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif after it was overrun by Taliban militants.
There are also reports that Iran has sent arms to the Taliban during its long war against government forces, an accusation that Tehran denies.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry called on the Taliban to ensure the safety of Iranian staff at the consulate in Herat after the group seized the western Afghan city on August 13.
Tehran said on August 17 that the staff of three of out of its five missions in Afghanistan are working from Kabul while adding that the number of staff has been drastically reduced.
But Iran said on August 17 that it is one of four countries still operating at their embassies in Kabul (Russia, China, and Pakistan are the others).
Inside Iran, many have been watching the Taliban takeover with great concern. Some of the Afghans living in Iran have staged protests in Tehran, Isfahan, and Qom in which some chanted “Death to the Taliban.”
The Taliban’s rule from 1996 to 2001 was marked by horrific atrocities and serious human rights violations, including the deprivation of women’s most basic rights.
Amid the concerns, Sunni religious leader Molavi Abdol Hamid created controversy by praising “the Taliban’s impressive” seizure of Afghanistan, claiming that the group’s views have changed in the past 20 years.
“They have gained experience and their views have changed and if there are shortcomings they can be amended,” Abdol Hamid, the Friday Prayers leader of the southeastern city of Zahedan in the Sistan-Baluchistan Province, said on August 17.
Other clerics, including Grand Ayatollah Safi Golpayegani, have warned in past weeks that the Taliban should not be trusted.
“It would be a grave, irreparable error to trust” the Taliban, which has “a history of evilness and murder,” said Golpayegani in July.
Meanwhile, Ayatollah Asadollah Bayat Zanjani warned earlier this month against those attempting to whitewash the policies of the Taliban, which he described as “violent, radical, and terrorist.”
Bruce Pannier
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
August 18, 2021
The events that the governments of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan have been increasingly dreading in recent weeks have begun to happen.
The Afghan government has fallen to the Taliban and despite the Central Asian governments having had years to contemplate and plan for such an occurrence, the initial shock waves from south of the border seem to have particularly caught Tajikistan and Uzbekistan off guard.
Tajikistan has been preparing since early June to accept refugees in the event the situation in northern Afghanistan deteriorated — and it was not long thereafter that refugees crossed the border.
But most of those crossing from Afghanistan into Tajikistan in late June were soldiers or paramilitaries, nearly 150 of them, out of food and ammunition, with no other recourse than to flee Afghanistan.
By July 6, hundreds more had come — some 2,300 according to the Afghan government — all of whom were reportedly put on planes bound for Kabul.
Uzbekistan faced a similar situation in late June on a smaller scale as dozens of Afghan soldiers and paramilitaries tried to cross the border but were sent back.
And in early July, about 1,000 Afghan civilians crossed the border into eastern Tajikistan.
But starting on August 14, when the biggest city in northern Afghanistan, Mazar-e Sharif, fell to the Taliban, the exodus of people from Afghanistan was literally a “flight” — by plane and helicopter — which seems to have surprised Tajik and Uzbek authorities.
Getting The Story Straight
How many aircraft crossed into Central Asia is unclear and there are significantly different figures being reported.
One report said that, on August 14-15, at least 22 military planes and 24 helicopters crossed from Afghanistan into Uzbekistan and that “they were forced to land at the international airport at [the Uzbek border city of] Termez.”
There were reportedly 585 Afghan soldiers aboard those aircraft.
Another 158 civilians and soldiers crossed the Amu Darya River that marks the Afghan-Uzbek border, on August 15.
The Uzbek prosecutor-general posted a statement on August 17 that said between August 14 and 15, 46 Afghan planes and helicopters (22 planes and 24 helicopters) “illegally” crossed the border and were forced to land at Termez.
That statement was later removed, the Prosecutor-General’s Office said, due to factual errors.
The office made no attempt to explain how — with so many civilian and military officials having been to the region recently — there were factual errors in the original post.
Janes, an open-source company specializing in military and security intelligence, reported on August 18 that satellite images showed “21 small, fixed-wing aircraft” and “about 26 helicopters” of the Afghan Air Force were at the Termez airport as of August 16.
Other conflicting reports concerned one Afghan military plane that originally was said to have crashed on August 15 in Uzbekistan’s Surhandarya Province, which borders Afghanistan.
Gazeta.uz reported two Afghan servicemen were taken to the local hospital, presumably after bailing out of the plane.
Later it was reported that the plane was shot down by Uzbekistan’s air defenses when it illegally flew across the border from Afghanistan.
To add to the confusion, there were reports on August 16 that three Afghan military planes had entered Uzbek air space on August 15 and requested permission to land at Uzbekistan’s Khanabad military base.
But Uzbek air-traffic controllers directed the Afghan planes to land at Termez and sent two Uzbek Mig-29s to escort them.
One of the Afghan planes reportedly collided with an Uzbek plane and crashed in the Sherabad district of Surhandarya Province. The pilots of both planes are said to have ejected.
On August 14, Uzbek authorities allowed 84 Afghan soldiers to cross into Uzbekistan for medical treatment and temporary shelter, though there was a report that “hundreds” of Afghans had crowded onto the Dustlik (Friendship) Bridge that connects the two countries.
The Uzbek Foreign Ministry said at that time that negotiations were under way to return the Afghans.
The Prosecutor-General’s Office said it will charge them with illegally crossing into Uzbekistan. For many of these soldiers, an Uzbek prison cell is probably preferable to what would await them in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
Afghanistan’s Tolo TV reported that on August 15-16 there were 45 flights from Afghanistan to Tajikistan and the Uzbek city of Termez.
RFE/RL’s Tajik Service, known locally as Ozodi, reported on August 16 that sources in the State Committee for Emergency Situations said three planes and two helicopters from Afghanistan landed in Tajikistan’s southern town of Bokhtar carrying 143 Afghan soldiers.
According to the independent Tajik news website Asia-Plus, the Tajik Foreign Ministry said “We received an SOS signal, after which, in accordance with the country’s international obligations, a decision was made to allow the Afghan military [aircraft] to land at the airport in Bokhtar.”
The Foreign Ministry said there were only two planes and that both “flew back” to Afghanistan after dropping off their passengers.
The Afghan soldiers were reportedly being housed at the dormitory of a local university.
Asia-Plus also reported a source at the Afghan Embassy in Tajikistan claiming that 18 Afghan planes — two passenger and 16 military — had flown to Tajikistan.
Conversely, there is little information about the situation along Turkmenistan’s border with Afghanistan.
Turkmen state media outlets, as expected, have not reported on any of the monumental events that have recently taken place in Afghanistan.
But RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service, known locally as Azatlyk, reported that Turkmen authorities are preventing any Afghans — military or civilian, including ethnic Turkmen — from crossing the border into Turkmenistan.
Notable Afghans Officially Not In Central Asia
When Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled his country on August 15 there were reports he was headed to Tajikistan.
Tajik officials denied Ghani landed in Tajikistan even though it was reported that Ghani flew toward Tajikistan when he departed Kabul.
And there is at least one version that Ghani had a deal to fly to Tajikistan but, at the last moment and “for unclear reasons,” Tajikistan refused to accept him.
Officials in the United Arab Emirates stated on August 18 that Ghani and his family were in Dubai, though it is not known when he arrived there.
On August 14, former Afghan Vice President and notorious warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum — who had been put in charge of Afghan government forces in northern Afghanistan just days earlier — and former Balkh Province Governor Ata Muhammad Nur reportedly fled Mazar-e Sharif with many troops and vehicles and tried to cross into Uzbekistan.
There were reports Dostum and Nur were still in Uzbekistan but, according to RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service, known locally as Ozodlik, Uzbekistan’s Foreign Ministry denied that Dostum, Nur, or Ghani were in Uzbekistan.
What’s Next?
Tajikistan has not indicated it will send any of the Afghans currently on its territory back to Afghanistan.
But Uzbek authorities are trying not to upset their ties with the Taliban, which is why they are seemingly rejecting refugees.
The Uzbek Foreign Ministry released a statement on August 17 saying it was in close contact with the Taliban and that “any attempts to violate the state border will be strictly suppressed.”
Turkmen officials, as mentioned, do not make any public comments about the situation in Afghanistan beyond previous calls for stability in the neighboring country, and Ashgabat almost never says anything about the situation along Turkmenistan’s border with Afghanistan.
Turkmen officials have met with Taliban representatives at least three times in 2021, but despite whatever reassurances the two sides gave each other, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov seems unsure about his country’s security.
Besides pouring troops and military equipment — much of the hardware bought in the last six years — into areas along the Afghan border, Berdymukhammedov has also accepted an invitation to be a guest in Tajikistan in mid-September for a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which Berdymukhammedov has attended twice before — in 2007 and 2016.
He is also going to a meeting in Dushanbe of the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization, which Berdymukhammedov has never attended before.
If what happened in the first few days after the Afghan government fell to the Taliban is the worst the Central Asian states have to deal with in the future, they will probably consider themselves fortunate.
But it is a reminder that Central Asia and Afghanistan are closely connected, and whatever happens in Afghanistan is difficult to keep from spilling into Central Asia.
Rabbani
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
August 18, 2021
ISLAMABAD – Top leaders of Afghanistan’s Tajik community warn if the Taliban fail to deliver on their recent commitment to form an “inclusive” government in Kabul, they will not be able to maintain their hold on power.
These former staunch Taliban foes, however, say they are willing to cooperate with all factions in the country to help bring much needed peace to Afghanistan.
Former Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani, who heads Afghanistan’s Jamiat-e-Islami party, and former diplomat Ahmad Wali Massoud, brother of slain commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, who waged a strong insurgency against the Taliban’s rule in the 1990s, spoke to VOA reporter Ayaz Gul about peace prospects days after the Taliban took control of the country.
The transcript has been edited for clarity.
VOA: What is your reaction to the Taliban regaining power and whether it can lead to peace in Afghanistan?
Salahuddin Rabbani: The developments in the last few days were, as you said, very rapid and the situation is still very confusing and fluid. Will it result in peace? At the moment, of course, there’s one group that is now responsible. But, as we have said, Afghanistan is a country that cannot be controlled (by one group) or one group cannot bring peace and stability. It has to have an all-inclusive system that ensures social justice inclusivity and the rights of all citizens. If they (the Taliban) agree on establishment of such a system, then all Afghans (could) work (together) to bring peace and stability to Afghanistan.
VOA: What was your immediate response to President (Ashraf) Ghani’s departure from the country?
Rabbani: Of course he did a big disservice to the people of Afghanistan. He betrayed his people, the very same people that he led for seven years. He left Afghanistan in disgrace and this will be part of his legacy for the rest of his life.
VOA: Your brother, Ahmad Shah Massoud, waged a strong resistance to the Taliban’s rule in the 1990s and, in fact, successfully defended areas under his control. Will you and your community be willing to reconcile with the Taliban now that they have regained power in Kabul?
Ahmad Wali Massoud: We should learn from the past. Now, this is the time, if there are challenges there is an opportunity as well to move forward because we should not be stuck in the past. Therefore, if the Taliban have come to that realization that they have changed, then they have see it with open heart to come and start a dialogue with us to see what we can do for peace in Afghanistan. This is the time to do that. We cannot continue (fighting) for years and years to come because this is the 21st century and the whole world has changed, Afghanistan has to change as well because we have to really benefit from today’s world and not to get stuck in the past.
VOA: If you today were the leader Afghanistan, would you put Ghani on trial for his alleged misrule or offer pardon him?
Massoud: He has to come (back to Afghanistan) one day to really answer to the people of Afghanistan on why he left the country, why he fled with the money, why there was so much corruption (under his rule), why his colleagues fled with him after doing so much corruption? They were corrupt as well; they are all responsible. So, to pardon him, it’s injustice to the people of Afghanistan.
VOA: President (Joe) Biden says the U.S. gave ANDSF (Afghan security forces) money, equipment and training but could not have bought them the will to fight the Taliban?
Massoud: Yes, of course, they gave the money, they give the equipment, but at the same time they gave us the leadership as well. That was a failed leadership.
Taliban militants (file photo)
Ariana: An Ariana News journalist, a Pajhwok Afghan News photographer and a reporter for Khorshid TV were allegedly assaulted by Taliban members on Wednesday. The Ariana News reporter, Mahmoud Naimi, and Pajhwok photographer, Babrak Aminzadah, were both allegedly beaten while covering a demonstration in Nangarhar, while the Khorshid TV journalist, Nawid Ahmad Kawesh, was allegedly beaten at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Wednesday. Click here to read more (external link).