KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers held talks over the weekend with senior leaders of an anti-Taliban alliance, the Taliban mentioned Monday. The assembly, held in Tehran, was the primary of its variety, underscoring Taliban efforts to deliver their former opponents into the fold.
In the course of the assembly, the alliance leaders had been instructed they might return to Afghanistan and had been promised their security could be assured, Taliban-appointed overseas minister Amir Khan Muttaqi mentioned in a brief video launched Monday.
The alliance, generally known as the Nationwide Resistance Entrance, is led by Ahmed Massoud, the son of the anti-Taliban fighter Ahmad Shah Massoud, who was assassinated in 2001. The group coalesced after the Taliban swept into Kabul in mid-August because the Afghan authorities fled and Afghan forces supplied little or no resistance to the Taliban takeover. Ahmed Massoud was joined by former governor of western Herat province, Ismail Khan.
Following the Taliban push into Kabul and seize of the Afghan capital on Aug. 15, within the final weeks of the chaotic U.S. and NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan, a smattering of anti-Taliban fighters fled north to the Panjshir Valley to arrange a base there, vowing to battle the Taliban. Battles raged for a number of weeks earlier than the Taliban overran the world.
Since then, there have been studies of Taliban reprisals towards Panjshiris, who dominate the area and are the spine of the resistance alliance.
Sunday’s assembly in Tehran is without doubt one of the first indicators of rapprochement between the Taliban and their opponents. A number of outstanding leaders of earlier U.S.-backed Afghan governments, together with former President Hamid Karzai and the ex-head of the Nationwide Reconciliation Council, Abdullah Abdullah, remained in Kabul following the Taliban takeover.
“They'll return to Afghanistan with none worries,” Muttaqi mentioned within the video footage distributed to the media. There was no rapid remark from the anti-Taliban alliance.
“The Islamic Emirate is making an attempt to make sure that the way forward for the nation is safe for all and that there could be no cause for opposition,” mentioned Bilal Karimi, deputy Taliban spokesman.