KABUL – Winds of war blow over Afghanistan again. According to the Taliban, the “foreign occupation” (US and UK) must end and as of today there is a date: 31 August. “It’s a red line. President Joe Biden has announced that on August 31 the US will withdraw all its military forces. So if they decide on an extension it will mean they will be extending the occupation while there is no need”, Suhail Shaheen, spokesman for the Taliban, told Sky News. And then he added: “If the United States or the United Kingdom take longer to continue the transfers, the answer is ‘no’. Or there would be consequences”.
Suhail Shaheen also said that “they occupied our country. If we occupied yours, what would you say?”. But the question should be turned to those who, in these hours, are resisting the Taliban “from within”. Like the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF). Ali Nazary, head of foreign relations for the NRF (headed by Ahmad Massoud, son of the ‘Lion of Panjshir’ Ahmad Shah Massoud and considered the leader of the resistance to the Taliban), said that in the Panjshir Valley “the anti-Taliban resistance can count on thousands of people ready to fight”. But it is a resistance under siege. As can be seen in the map published today on Twitter by Awm – Afghanistan war map (in the pic above and updated every day at https://twitter.com/AWMUpdates), Afghanistan is almost completely in the hands of the Taliban, except for some areas “contested “and, in fact, the Panjshir still controlled by the Northern Alliance.
The Taliban are negotiating with Northern Alliance forces “to find a peaceful solution,” as Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said. But the clash is upon us and just today the images of the children armed with the flags of the Northern Alliance tied to guns went around the world.
The Taliban, moreover, have already claimed the reconquest of three districts in Panjshir that last Friday had been taken by the forces of the anti-Taliban resistance. And the advance continues.
The resistance forces are “ready” but at the same time willing, in turn, to “negotiations” in the name of “peace” before the start of “any kind of war or conflict”, as Ali Nazary told BBC there was also an appeal to the Taliban for “sincere” negotiations. “The Afghanistan Resistance Front believes that for a lasting peace it is necessary to address the underlying problems”, he said, adding that “the number one problem is the centralized political system. Afghanistan is a country made up of ethnic minorities. It is a multicultural state – he continued – and power must be shared. If a political force, whatever it is, tries to dominate politics, it creates the conditions for an internal war and the continuation of the current conflict”.
Meanwhile, as chaos continues to reign at Kabul airport due to attempts to escape the country, world leaders are preparing for the virtual meeting of the G7 – which includes the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan – convened to discuss the situation and will try to come up with a plan for Afghanistan. Among the objectives, there is that of asking the Taliban for an “extension” to the date of 31 August for the evacuation of those who want to leave the country. But there will also be talk of sanctions on “Taliban” Afghanistan, already proposed by Great Britain and which immediately found the support of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: “The Taliban are already recognized as a terrorist entity in Canada, but we will talk to our counterparts of the G7 to see what the next steps will be”, he said.
