\u0027The Taliban are not the Taliban of the past. They have changed to become crueler.\u0027
“Join the resistance.” That unequivocal clarion call came from the Panjshir Valley on Tuesday in a declaration by Amrullah Saleh, Afghanistan’s first vice-president and the country’s legendary spymaster, who has consistently vowed that he would never submit to Taliban rule. Saleh invoked an article in Afghanistan’s constitution stipulating that in the absence, resignation or death of the president, the first vice-president takes over until elections are called.
As for Ghani’s whereabouts, the United Arab Emirates’ foreign affairs office has confirmed that the former president, who had grown increasing marginalized, isolated and morose following the Trump administration’s February 2020 “peace agreement” with the Taliban, has been admitted to the UAE, on humanitarian grounds.
The likelihood of a guerrilla war if the U.S. went ahead and cut a deal with the Taliban has been long and widely understood as a certainty in Afghanistan. Forcing the Afghan government to enter into a “reconciliation” with the Taliban was a core policy of Barack Obama’s administration.
A year before his murder, Rabbani told me that he thought it highly unlikely that Afghans would tolerate any re-imposition of Taliban “values” in a power-sharing deal, and that a “return to the mountains” would be the likely result.Article content Last weekend, more than 1,000 Afghan soldiers fled to Uzbekistan, some on foot and some aboard 22 fixed-wing aircraft and 24 helicopters. In the confusion, one of the airplanes collided with an escorting Uzbek fighter jet. But at least the airborne materiel won’t be falling into the hands of the Taliban.
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