INTER-AFGHAN TALKS IN ROME IS REMINDER OF THE DIFFICULTIES AHEAD
ROME 30 Sept. (IPS) Afghan Northern Alliance opposed to the ruling Taleban described their first round of meeting with former King Mohammad Zaher Shah as "rather unsuccessful", but said they would continue negotiations.
The delegation, led by Mr. Mohammad Yunes Qanooni also met with a team of ten US congressmen and told them the best Washington could do was to provide arms and finances anti-Taleban forces to oust the Taleban by themselves, an informed source at the meeting told Iran Press Service.
"We have not reached a consensus on several points", Dr Abdollah, the Northern Front’s Foreign Minister said, without explaining the points on which the two sides differed.
It seems that the two side did not agreed on the role and the place that must be reserved for the Taleban in any future Afghan government, one analyst at the meeting place told Iran Press Service.
Zaher Shah think that moderate Talebans must be part of any future interim government, but the men from the Northern Alliance do not agree, the source explained, adding that the former King has apparently told the same thing to the American lawmakers.
But in the opinion of Mr. Yunes Qanooni, the head of the Northern Alliance delegation, "some of the Taleban might be good persons, but no one can change their nature and anyway, they are not the deciders", he told Mr. Ahmad Ra’fat, Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty’s Persian service correspondent.
What we heard from them all is very interesting for us", one US congressman told journalists at the end of their first round of talks.
A spokesman for the Congress bipartisan delegation that met Zaher Shah, the Northern Alliance team and some other Afghan personalities expressed satisfaction at the talks.
"All the Afghan delegates told the American congressmen that they must be wary of the Pakistanis", one source at the meetings told Iran Press Service.
"Zaher Shah told the US delegation that the next Afghan government should have the full backing of the United Nations", sources told IPS, adding that all the Afghans present warned their Americans counterpart not to be "duped" by Pakistan.
"Taleban are Pakistan’s children", Mr. Qanooni told the American lawmakers, Mr. Ra’fat reported from the scene.
"Pakistan is trying to deceive the United States by changing few pawns in Kabol in order to continue with its occupation of Afghanistan. Islamabad won’t change strategy, but tactics", he added in the interview.
"The Afghan people can push the terrorists out of Afghanistan themselves", provided the Americans put enough pressures on Pakistan in order to stop them sending arms, supplies and men to the Taleban", he added.
"Give us the tools and we shall finish the job", Mr. Mostafa Zaher, special a nephew and assistant to the 86-year-old former King told the US delegate, sources at the meeting added.
Qanooni said the United States could be very helpful in breaking Pakistan's "stranglehold" on Afghanistan and rid Afghanistan of terrorism", but not through direct military action.
Mostafa Zaher, the ex-monarch's grandson, also called on Washington to bring pressure to bear on Pakistan, the French news agency AFP reported.
"Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency had become a government within a government in Pakistan and was assisting its Taleban allies in oppressing the Afghan people", he was quoted by the agency.
"The danger to Pakistan may be even greater than to Afghanistan through the process of Talebanisation of the armed forces" Mostafa Zaher told AFP.
"The biggest obstacle to peace in Afghanistan was its powerful neighbour. "They (Pakistanis) have brought the terrorists, and now they just want to change their image so that they can continue to wield influence in Afghanistan. The Taleban were merely tools for the long-term strategy of Pakistan", he told Mr. Ra’fat.
Explaining the difficulties ahead, Qanooni said forming an interim government under present situations and conditions that prevails both in Afghanistan and in the world is "not an easy task".
"We need reaching understanding, we need co-operation from all sides and we need national participation in the one hand, on the other, we face Pakistan’s manipulations, as it wants to keep Afghanistan for itself", he told the Prague-based Radio station.
Washington, the United Nations as well as the European Union alike consider King Zaher as the "catalyst" for peace in the war-torn Afghanistan.
"That language was also adopted by the King in his meeting with the US lawmakers", the sources said, adding that Zaher Shah also told them that moderate Taleban personalities must also be part of the future Afghan government.
According to the King, who was deposed 28 years ago by his cousin, the future of the country must be decided by the Loya Jirga, or a Grand Assembly of Afghan elders.
He has also indicated that he does not seek to reinstall the Monarchy.
"Any future regime for the country must be decided by the Loya Jirga", he has repeated several times, proposing the convention of an Extraordinary Loya Jirga to name an interim Prime Minister.
But a spokesman for former Afghan president Borhaneddin Rabbani has warned that any outside attempts to restore the former Monarch to power would provoke further turmoil.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the former Afghan president Borhaneddin Rabbani has warned that any outside attempts to restore the former Monarch to power would provoke further turmoil.
"Zaher Shah could help find a solution to the country's woes, but could not return to power on terms set by Western countries. If he comes with the support of foreigners, then his destiny is clear", the spokesman, Mr. Najibollah Hashemi, pointed out, adding" "Any foreign intervention as such is unacceptable for us and is not justified".
Taleban's supreme leader Mollah Mohammad Omar Akhound has also said that Zaher Shah was not "fit" to rule the war devastated central Asian nation.
"Not only he is weak (of health) but also any ruler that is imposed by foreigners on Afghan people would never last long", he told the Iranian daily "Entekhab"
Though the Northern Alliance delegation, that comprises some officers, have told journalists in Rome that they did not want US intervention in Afghanistan and that they could fight the Taleban provided they have enough modern warfare and ample ammunitions, but other informed sources believe the Alliance could not rule alone in Kabol after the Taleban are booted out.
"The majority of the Afghan population is of Poshtoon ethnics while most of the Northern Alliance people are of other minorities such as Tajiks, Uzbeks or Hazarajat", one Afghan analyst noted. ENDS ZAHER SHAH 30901