Taliban Forced To Holds Talks With National Resistance Front in Afghanistan
Soon after the Biden administration announced the pull out and end to its military operations in Afghanistan, it started the launch of its troop pullout. The Taliban (outlawed in Russia) was just waiting for the situation and it immediately embarked on an offensive against Afghan government forces.
On August 15, Taliban fighters swept into Kabul, surprisingly, without encountering any resistance, and gained full control over the Afghan capital within a few hours.
Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani announced that he had stepped down to prevent any bloodshed and subsequently fled the country. Vice President Amrullah Saleh declared that under the constitution, he becomes “the caretaker president” in the absence of the president and called for armed resistance against the Taliban. The northern province of Panjshir thus became the only pocket of resistance to the Taliban.
The Afghan television channel reported that a Taliban delegation had been forced to set off for negotiations with representatives from Panjshir, which was refusing to recognize the Taliban’s seizure of power in Afghanistan. According to its sources, the Taliban delegates are to talk leader of the Panjshir resistance Ahmad Massoud, a son of Ahmad Shah Massoud (1953-2001), a once influential leader of Afghanistan’s Tajik community who fought against the Taliban back in the 1990s, into resolving the differences by means of dialogue to avoid armed confrontation.
The first direct talks between delegations from the National Resistance Front (NRF) and the Taliban radical movement (outlawed in Russia), which has seized power in Afghanistan, were held on Wednesday, Abdul Hafiz Mansoor, who represents the norther province of Panjshir, a pocket of resistance to the Taliban, wrote on his Facebook account.
“The National Resistance Front’s delegation held talks with the Taliban representatives in the city of Charikar (the capital of Parwan Province – TASS). The talks were held in a good atmosphere. <…> It was the first time when delegates of the two sides had a direct dialogue,” he wrote.
According to Mansour, who previously took part in the intra-Afghan consultations as a member of the delegation of the Afghan government toppled by the Taliban, the Taliban delegation had seven members, while the NRF was represented by 12 people. “The sides agreed to continue dialogue on peace to avoid armed attacks on each other’s positions,” he added.
A source told TASS earlier that Massoud had turned down the Taliban delegation’s proposals on peaceful settlement of the situation as unacceptable. According to earlier reports, Massoud embarked on talks with the Taliban on the establishment of an inclusive government and settling political contradictions.
