Ahmad Massoud's Political Movement Against The Taliban - And Some Reactions By Pro-Taliban Apologists
Ahmad Massoud is the leader of the Resistance Front, which is the main anti-Taliban opposition group in Afghanistan. From 25 till 27 April 2023 Massoud held a political meeting in Vienna, Austria, where he also gave several interviews.
Background and Sabotage
Prior to the translations some background information:
On 27 April 2023 Ahmad Massoud, leader of the Resistance Front in Afghanistan, held a press conference in Vienna, Austria, concerning the oppressive Taliban rule in Afghanistan.
While he was in Vienna, some pro-Taliban politicians and lobbyists tried to sabotage Massoud's political activities in Vienna.
This sabotage culminated in the statement by US Pentagon on 25 April 2023 declaring that the Taliban had killed a high-ranking ISIS terrorist:
"Late Tuesday night, Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder issued a statement confirming that the plotter had been killed by the Taliban. “The United States was not involved in this operation,” Ryder said."
To understand why this statement was given by the US government in order to sabotage the resistance in Afghanistan, some short background knowledge is essential.
1) Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations
On 17 April 2023, in a controversial statement at Princeton University, Amina Mohammed said that the initial steps to recognize the Taliban's rule should be evaluated.
The excerpt of her speech can be seen on YouTube:
The script of Amina Mohammad's given statement was published on unwatch.org:
"Amina Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary-General: We have some amazing envoys that work on Afghanistan, and we have Afghan women too. And what we are hoping is that we will gather them now, in another two weeks in the region, and they will have that first meeting of envoys across the board, the region and internationally, with the Secretary General for the first time. And out of that, we hope that we will find those baby steps to put us back on the pathway to recognition. Is it possible? Don’t know.
Jamal Amaney, Dean of Princeton’s SPIA: Recognition of?
AM: Of the Taliban. A principled recognition. In other words, there are conditions I mean, you…
JA: Quid pro quo?
AM: Let’s see, let’s see what that does. Because that discussion has to happen. I mean, there are some that believe this can never happen. There are others that say, well, it has to happen.
JA: Does the Taliban want recognition?
AM: Yes. The Taliban clearly want recognition. And that’s the leverage we have."
Being a UN official doesn't give that person the legitimacy to talk about the recognition of a terrorist organization. This seems to be a way for lobbying for the Taliban through bypassing the people in Afghanistan and even Afghans outside of Afghanistan, for that matter.
2) Zalmay Khalilzad, former U.S. envoy to Afghanistan
The influence of Afghan-Pashtun diaspora lobbying for the Taliban, whose leaders are all Pashtun, is very big in the USA. Historically the USA is more inclined to work together with Pashtun politicians than Tajik politicians. The reason might be that Pashtuns made US and world politicians believe that they are the only ethnicity to be supported in Afghanistan.
One major lobbyist for the Taliban is Zalmay Khalilzad, former U.S. envoy to Afghanistan, who was one of the masterminds behind the negotiations with Taliban in Doha, Qatar, which finally brought the Taliban to power in August 2021. Khalilzad is also of Pashtun background.
During Massoud's political movement in Vienna, Khalilzad published a series of his pro-Taliban statements, more like political rants, on twitter.
On 25. April 2023 he opened a thread on twitter:
"A few days ago, the
@washingtonpost
headlined on its front page that "Afghanistan has become a terrorism staging ground again." They sourced this judgment to a leaked Pentagon document. However, this sensationalist hyperbole is unwarranted.
An upswing in terrorism from #Afghanistan had been one of the fears associated with the US withdrawal. But that has not happened.
Al Qaida has declined significantly and is currently at its weakest in Afghanistan. In regard to ISIS-K, the Taliban regard them as their mortal enemies and have carried out ongoing deadly attacks against them, killing many of their leaders.
ISIS-K does remain a threat, and it remains to be seen if the Talibs can eliminate them. They face challenges. For example, Tajikistani extremists have been able to cross into Afghanistan and join ISIS.
Controlling the Afghanistan borders was one of the biggest challenges when our forces were in Afghanistan. The neighbors, especially Tajikistan, Pakistan, and Iran must do their part to prevent ISIS terrorists from crossing into Afghanistan.
The US and the Taliban have a common interest against ISIS-K. Thus, the current bottom line is that from a US standpoint, things have improved in regard to Al Qaida and have remained more or less the same regarding the threat from ISIS in Afghanistan.
When the US still had forces in Afghanistan, ISIS-K had plans and intentions to attack the US and the West. According to the DNI's Annual Assessment, published in February, it "RETAINS the intent to conduct operations against the West"
(...)
The experience of the last two years is better than many expected—with no US loss of life since the withdrawal and with the saving of some $40 billion that we spent on the war there annually.
[End]"
Link: https://twitter.com/realZalmayMK/status/1650886151534972929
On 26 April 2023 Khalilzad continued:
"Now, 3 other steps are needed: The May 1 meeting in Doha hosted by the UN Secretary General must produce a road map for international engagement with Afghanistan. Such a step will define the ambassador's mission.
(...)
3. There should be a meeting with the Taliban during the Doha gathering to determine their commitment to full and complete implementation of the Doha agreement.
It seems that Khalilzad must have some sleepless nights that anti-Taliban political movements are gaining momentum. And either he is getting his orders or is a Taliban lobbyist himself. In any case he is an extremely ruthless person and a psychopath, who must not have any political powers."
Link: https://twitter.com/realZalmayMK/status/1651014592984928257
In any case the US government adopted Khalilzad's rhetoric and published the statement that the Taliban had killed a high-ranking ISIS member, without giving details of who he was. How it is possible to kill a high-ranking terrorist without knowing or mentioning the name of the terrorist remains a mystery, which not even the US government can explain.
The title of the Washington Post article is noteworthy to mention: "Afghanistan has become a terrorism staging ground again, leak reveals"
It was published on 22 April 2023 and can be read under the following link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/04/22/afghanistan-terrorism-leaked-documents/
An article on FDD's Long War Journal has reacted very quickly and published a thorough refutation of Khalilzad's remarks under the title "FDD’s Long War Journal’s response to Zalmay Khalilzad’s Twitter thread" on 27 April 2023. The website's article has broken down Khalilzad's arguments and refuted them one by one.
About Khalilzad's arguments the article states: "Khalilzad’s points are at-best demonstrably false, and at worst, entirely dangerous. For instance, Khalizad’s stance that the Doha Agreement is enforceable in any way, shape or form enforceable is both. The U.S. drone strike that killed Al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri as he sheltered at a Taliban run safe house in Kabul last summer should have put Khalilzad’s proposition to rest. And yet Khalilzad continues to push for engagement with the Taliban."
The entire article can be read under the link: https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2023/04/fdds-long-war-journals-response-to-zalmay-khalilzads-twitter-thread.php
Few articles have been written about Massoud's recent political movements in German and Persian.
Some German articles are listed below:
https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/afghanistan-ahmad-massud-interview-1.5825222?reduced=true
https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/afghanistan-opposition-ahmad-massud-1.5825156?reduced=true
https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/europa/afghanistan-opposition-treffen-100.html
Nevertheless, Ahmad Massoud has addressed this issue during his political activities from 25 April till 27 April 2023.
The translation of a report on the meeting is presented below:
Afghanistan's opposition
"We are left all alone"
As of: 04/27/2023 6:42 p.m
In Afghanistan, the power of the Taliban seems to have been consolidated. But the opposition hopes to be able to drive them out in a few years - if the West helps. In Vienna it met to find ways to get there.
by Wolfgang Vichtl, Vienna
The clergyman Mashkur Kabuli smiles a little tormented: "Oh, we are Afghans," he says. "The fight against our ego comes before the fight against the Taliban." The opposition to the Taliban lacks the solidarity of the different ethnic and social groups.
But here in Vienna, in the Bruno Kreisky Forum, progress has been made, it is now "under a common umbrella", joint working groups have been agreed, and in the end there was a joint declaration.
"We have nothing"
Everything else sounds rather hopeless. Two dozen demonstrators stood in front of the old villa in the Heurigen district of Vienna-Grinzing, wanting to signal those inside: You are not alone. This is exactly what Ahmad Massoud laments after the meeting, which lasted several days: "We are completely alone and we have been given up. In the region, in the world. We have nothing.„“
Massoud is the self-proclaimed leader of the Afghan opposition, but he is accepted by almost everyone here. He continues his father's struggle. Ahmad Shah Massoud, better known in the West as "The Lion of Panjshir", was one of the main Taliban opponents and was killed two days before the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.
'No longer a priority problem for the world'
That was a long time ago. Now, in gray and rainy Vienna, Ahmad Massoud is left with only the sober realization: "Afghanistan is no longer a priority problem for the world. The situation is: Afghanistan has been forgotten in a certain way!„“
Or maybe given up? Because the Taliban currently have unchallenged power in Afghanistan and are happy to demonstrate it?
When asked what he thought of the news that the Taliban had killed the mastermind of the Kabul airport attack in the summer of 2021, a leader of the terrorist group "Islamic State" (IS), Massoud rhetorically asked what mastermind really meant. He calls the message a tactical maneuver and uses the opportunity to equate the Taliban and IS: "What does IS do that the Taliban don't do?"
The only difference is that the Taliban only carry out their terror within Afghanistan and the IS doesn't care about borders: "The Taliban don't give a damn about anything, what the world says, what the region says or what the people in Afghanistan say."
Appeal to the world
That will change, says Massoud; he has warmed himself up, and his colleagues at the table agree. However, his retrospect does not bode well: at the beginning you would have tried everything to talk to the Taliban. But they only wanted their opponents to capitulate.
All that remains for now is the appeal to the world not to hold the entire Afghan people responsible for this. The people of Afghanistan were not responsible for the failure of democracy, Massoud implores those who are listening to him. They went to the polls and stood by democratic values and women's rights - but lost everything.
Women ask for more support
A group of Afghan women are sitting in the conference room next door, discussing the joint declaration. None of them wear a headscarf, only at the press conference, when the world is watching, a thin scarf is placed over the back of their heads.
Anya Yilmaz represents the cause of Afghan women and repeats what everyone knows: "The Taliban don't accept women as human beings, they don't accept them in roles outside the household.„“
Everyone nods, but the more important message shouldn't be forgotten: the women from Afghanistan, in the resistance, also urgently want more support, warns Yilmaz.
Hope for a fall of the Taliban
The mood at this second meeting of the Afghan resistance, supported by non-governmental organizations, is positive and combative. They pat each other on the back. Or is it a mutual clinging?
The "chaplain", as he calls himself, Massoud's comrade-in-arms Mashkur Kabuli, is responsible for the hopes in Vienna - according to a very personal creed: "Without democracy I can't breathe," he says; he has been living in Germany for a long time. Kabuli also ventures a prognosis that all of the other respondents, without exception, have denied: "One year, two years, no more than five years," and then the Taliban will be gone.
Meanwhile, the others are already distributing the "Vienna Declaration" of the Afghan opposition's common ground. That was only the second meeting, there should be a third, fourth. In Vienna. Certainly not anytime soon in Kabul.
Original Source of the article (in German): https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/europa/afghanistan-opposition-treffen-100.html
Published: 27 April 2023
Retrieved: 29 April 2023
Final note by the author of this blog:
The reading of the following article about Ahmad Massoud's presence in Vienna is strongly recommended: https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/2023/04/27/young-lion-of-panjshir-fights-afghanistans-epic-prison/
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