‘Surrender is not a word in my vocabulary’
The leader of a resistance movement to the Taliban has vowed to not surrender, but is open to negotiations with the new rulers of Afghanistan, according to an interview published by Paris Match on Wednesday.
Ahmad Massoud, the son of Afghan rebel commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, has retreated to his native Panjshir valley north of Kabul along with former vice-president Amrullah Saleh. “I would prefer to die than to surrender,” Massoud told French philosopher Bernard-henri
Levy in his first interview since the Taliban took over the country. “I’m the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud. Surrender is not a word in my vocabulary.”
Massoud claimed that “thousands” of men were joining his National Resistance Front in Panjshir valley, which was never captured by invading Soviet forces in 1979 or the Taliban during their first period in power from 1996-2001.
He renewed his appeal for support from foreign leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, and expressed bitterness at being refused weapons shortly before the fall of Kabul this month.
“I cannot forget the historic mistake made by those I was asking for weapons just eight days ago in Kabul,” Massoud said. “They refused. And these weapons - artillery, helicopters, American-made tanks - are in the hands of the Taliban.”
Massoud added that he was open to talking to the Taliban and he laid out the outlines of a possible agreement.
“We can talk. In all wars, there are talks. And my father always spoke with his enemies,” he said. “Let’s imagine that the Taliban agreed to respect the rights of women, of minorities, democracy, the principles of an open society.”
Massoud’s father, a francophile with close links to Paris and the west, was nicknamed the “Lion of Panjshir” for his role in fighting the Soviet occupation in the 1980s and the Taliban regime in the 1990s. He was assassinated by Al-qaeda two days before the September 11, 2001 attacks.
UK warns Taliban against sealing Afghanistan off
Britain on Wednesday warned the Taliban against attempts to coercively seal off Afghanistan from the rest of the world and urged the militant group to keep its borders open.
Britain’s foreign secretary Dominic Raab said attempts by the Taliban to shut down the country could trigger a “refugee crisis” once western forces withdraw from Kabul airport on August 31, as migrants make their way to neighbouring countries. He noted that the Afghan border was “rugged and wideranging” and that efforts to isolate the country from the rest of the world would fail.
“If the Taliban leadership, as they were saying overnight, want to avoid brain drain from the country, they’re not going to be able to do that by coercively blocking the border,” he told Times Radio.