Neither the National Resistance Front nor the Taliban trust the US, and Washington's efforts to create an inclusive government are in vain.
Author: Farid Ahmad, editor-in-chief of "Sangar"
The US has long been trying to enlist the Resistance in its new plan in Afghanistan - the creation of a pro-American inclusive government. When we say "Resistance", we mean not only the Resistance Front under the command of Ahmad Massoud but also other anti-Taliban forces, including those led by Ustad Sayyaf, Atamuhammad Nur, Salahuddin Rabbani, Marshal Dostum, Mohammad Muhaqqiq and others. As far as we know today, none of these leaders showed favor to the American representatives, especially to the special envoy Tom West.
The reason is that in 2001 the US occupied Afghanistan thanks to these leaders' forces, but in 2021 left them alone on the battlefield and fled on their own. The Americans even handed over power to the Taliban, their historical and ideological rivals. Now, these leaders are scattered across different countries and, according to the laws of these countries, do not even have the right to create an office for activity. The US practically put them under house arrest in different parts of the world, something different and perhaps more painful than Guantanamo. But those who were held in Guantanamo were put in government offices in Kabul.
“Experts”
Recently, the media reported that the leader of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRFA), Ahmad Massoud, refused to meet with the American delegation in Dushanbe. This delegation, which was called experts from the Center for a New American Security (SNAS), headed by Richard Fontaine, arrived in Dushanbe to discuss with the leader of the Resistance Front the issue of creating an inclusive government with the Taliban.
Although it is debatable to call the members of this delegation "experts". In fact, this is another branch of American diplomacy that started along with the “Tom West branch”. Richard Fontaine, head of the Center for a New American Security, and one of his colleagues, Lisa Curtis, were both former employees of the US Security Council and the State Department and have extensive experience in Central and South Asia.
Ms. Curtis can even be called one of the “responsible for the fall of Afghanistan” because from 2017 to 2021 she was assistant vice president and chief director of the US National Security Council for South and Central Asia (under the leadership of three advisers). She also has experience in the CIA. With the exception of what is mentioned in Ms. Curtis's biography, those who worked with her during the Republican era consider her an influential figure in US "Afghan politics".
Apparently, those who came to Dushanbe as "experts" to meet with Ahmad Masud were actually American emissaries, and the Center for a New American Security itself is an institution created by the CIA that works in the same direction of implementing American policy with other research institutions such as RAND and the Atlantic Council.
Before traveling to Dushanbe, the American emissaries met with Muhammad Muhaqiq, interim head of the High Resistance Council for the Salvation of Afghanistan in Turkey, and after Dushanbe in Dubai with Hikmat Karzai and Ahmad Shah Durrani, two candidates for the future head of the pro-American government in Kabul.
But the most important for the Americans was the meeting with Ahmad Massoud, the leader of the NRFA, which did not take place. Ahmad Masud was not in Dushanbe. Their attempts to meet with Amrullah Saleh also failed. He also definitely refused to see the Americans. Coincidence or not, his Twitter account, which had 1.1 million followers, was banned. On the same day, Saleh sharply criticized former US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo for accusing former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani of sabotaging peace with the Taliban and rigging the 2014 election results. According to him, Ghani sincerely wanted peace, but the US handed Afghanistan over to the Taliban to prepare for war with Ukraine.
In Dushanbe, the delegation of the Center for a New American Security, after meeting with the Ambassador of Afghanistan to Tajikistan, Zahir Aghbar, teachers and students of the Somoniyon school, and representatives of Afghan immigrants, met with members of the NRFA political committee, each of them Mahmoud Saiqal (chairman), Hossein Rahmati (Hazara), Zalmay Yunusi (Balkh), Soheila Joya (representative of women) and Wahab Zafari (Uzbek). In general, the Panjshir leaders did not meet them.
From the information received at this meeting, the American delegation allegedly described the US withdrawal as a "shameful flight" and the transfer of power to the Taliban as a "historical disgrace." And members of the Political Committee of the Resistance Front have expressed concern that the Taliban has become more criminal compared to the 1990s, and the Americans are still funding them. The Americans were also told that the Taliban violate human rights, especially women and girls, commit genocide, kill soldiers and officers of the former security forces of Afghanistan abandoned by the Americans without trial or investigation, and so on.
In general, they exchanged words that were said many times and were never noticed by the US and its allies, but the American emissaries had only one message: the Resistance Front must stop hostilities, lay down their arms and join the government, which is supposed to be created under the auspices of the Taliban. The same thing that US Special Representative for Afghanistan Tom West demanded from Ahmad Massoud last summer and received a negative response.
Massouds and the USA
The history of the Massouds and the USA is very long. In a word, Ahmad Shah Massoud, with his character as a fighter for the independence and freedom of his homeland, could never suit the United States and its policy in the region. Massoud himself has never been sympathetic to US imperialist ambitions either. The situation has not changed so far, because the American policy in the region is long-term and must be implemented in any way. The US is using new methods and tricks to get back in the game.
For example, after the jihad against the Soviet Union and the departure of this superpower from Afghanistan, the United States, with the help of Pakistan, deployed the Taliban, which eliminated all jihadist groups, except for the forces of Ahmad Shah Massoud. At that time, the US wanted to install a puppet government in Kabul with Zahir Shah, the former king. Robin Raphel, US Special Representative for Afghanistan, the Taliban's main lobbyist, demanded that Massoud surrenders to the Taliban. Massoud told her that even if the US sent in troops, he would fight. Now, after a “shameful escape” in 2021, they want to return to Afghanistan again with a different puppet government. It is an obvious fact that the US has always wanted to settle in Afghanistan, as in the countries of the Persian Gulf and Europe, from where they could extend their influence to neighboring countries - Iran, China, Central Asia, and further - Russia.
Undoubtedly, an important reason for America's failures in Afghanistan in the past was Ahmad Shah Massoud, and now it is Ahmad Massoud, who is strategically considered a partner of Russia, Iran, China, and the countries of Central Asia - rivals of the United States. The only difference between the Massouds and the Taliban is that the former want to ensure the interests of Afghanistan with foreign support, while the Taliban act as an instrument of the foreign policy of foreigners in Afghanistan. Massouds and their resistance have always served as a factor in the security of the region, the neighbors in the first place, and the Taliban are called upon to destabilize it. The Massouds and their Hindu Kush have always been the front line in the fight against terrorism, and the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and a dozen terrorist groups have always targeted the northern bank of the Amu Darya, Iran, and China. This is the essence of the fact that everyone, even their supposed patrons like Russia and Iran, looks at them with suspicion.
Three times - in 1992, 1998, and 2001 - the US asked Ahmad Shah Massoud to cooperate in establishing its military presence in Afghanistan but was always refused. Gary Schroen, a CIA special agent who has been in contact with Massoud since the days of the jihad, last asked him about it in April 2001 in Europe. When he was refused, he told one of Massoud's relatives as he left the meeting room: "The commander has not changed, but change is coming."
After Massoud's martyrdom, the United States achieved its wish with the help of Massoud's resistance forces led by his "followers", and with a large military presence in Afghanistan, created a pro-American inclusive government, which was overthrown by the Taliban and their regional patrons - Russia, Pakistan, China, and Iran. After 20 years of their presence, they received that “shameful escape”, and the “followers” of Massoud another historic shame, only with expulsion from their homeland.
Region without US
Now no one trusts the US, not even the Taliban, who inherited everything from them - power, $80 billion worth of weapons, and even $40 million in weekly aid. Against the backdrop of these facts, the US efforts to create an inclusive government are indeed laughable. Neither the Taliban nor the Second Resistance, with the exception of those random and corrupt characters of the republic era who really seek favors from their masters, no real force really wants to deal with the Americans.
On the other hand, the world is moving towards multipolarity. New centers of power are being strengthened, including the axis of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. With the membership of Iran, Afghanistan will be practically surrounded by the countries of this organization. These countries must finally solve the problem of Afghanistan in order to achieve peace and security themselves. This means that there is very little time left before America's presence in the region, and if its presence continues, until the final crash of its ship, it will play no other role than an unacceptable and destructive factor in the region's security system.
Therefore, the question is natural, who wants to throw himself on a sinking US ship?
To all appearances, the Taliban, Ahmad Masoud, and other representatives of the anti-Taliban movement understand this. A day ago, Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban's foreign minister, called America, which "used to kill the people of Afghanistan with bullets and bombs, and now by starvation," the cause of all the problems in his country. And this is despite the fact that the Taliban receive $40 million from Washington every week.
Hence, Ahmad Massoud had reasons to refuse to meet with the Americans, as did Amrullah Saleh, who was known in the past as a "CIA spy" and is now one of the staunchest critics of the United States. At the very least, he is the highest official of the former republic, who announced the bare truth that it was not Ghani, but the Americans who surrendered Afghanistan to the Taliban and terrorists.
Ahmad Masood and the Second Resistance, like Ahmad Shah Massoud and the First Resistance, have nothing to do with the US and never will. First of all, their positions differ on major issues of principle, such as the presence and dictate of the US in Afghanistan and the entry into the government of the Taliban. Their disagreement has a moral, principled and ideological character.
For 20 years, the United States has worked hard to crush resistance and remove its leaders from the scene. This series of killings began with Ahmad Shah Massoud. Later, the main leaders of the resistance were killed - Ustad Rabbani, Marshal Fahim, and commanders - Mawlana Saidkhel, Shahjahan Nuri, Daoud Daoud, Pirimqul, Nazirahmad, and others. These killings are still ongoing.
Over the past 20 years, the US, with the help of the Karzai-Ghani governments and their henchmen from the First Resistance (whose names are known to everyone), cleared the anti-Taliban territory of resistance forces and talibizied it in all sorts of ways. All the operations carried out by the Taliban against the resistance forces in Panjshir and Andrab, Badakhshan and other provinces over the past one-and-half year were impossible without the help of American drones that flew in from bases in Kandahar, Kunduz, and Shamsi (Pakistan). Because the US knows very well that when there is resistance or Massoud, they have no chance to advance their plans in the region.
America needs Massoud, not Massoud America. The First Resistance froze the American project for 30 years. Now they are trying to reduce the resistance to the level of a political movement and surrender it to the Taliban. Yes, this is a continuation of the same plan that has been carried out since the day Ahmad Shah Massoud was removed from the scene of the Afghan war. This program will not be interrupted by either a "shameful escape" or a "historical shame."
But the US effort to create an inclusive government, for reasons mentioned above and others, is futile because it has taken the initiative, which, apart from the army of "grant-eaters", no real force in Afghanistan supports. The Taliban, although originally an American project, is fragmented - one part is committed to the United States, the second to Pakistan, the third to Iran, the fourth to Russia, etc. At one time, even Norway had its own Taliban in Afghanistan, not to mention Britain. The territory of the Resistance, which covers the majority of the population of Afghanistan, will never surrender. Finally, US rivals in the region - Russia, China, Iran, India, and the countries of Central Asia will never allow them and the Taliban to plant a medieval backward, and ignorant system as a model on the shoulders of the region's Muslims.
Ahmad Massoud will also follow his father who founded this resistance. It's a choice of history. Neither he nor anyone in the Resistance is ready to kneel before an ideological and principled enemy, much less a product of foreign intelligence, which is what the United States is waiting for. So, perhaps a more realistic diagnosis was made by another politician, Latif Pedram, who called cooperation with the United States “national treason.” We will not judge strictly, but whatever one may say, we will get such a result.