‘Do not want war’: What Massoud said on Panjshir Resistance, deal with Taliban | World News

Ahmad Massoud, the face of Resistance in Afghanistan, and the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud gave interviews to Reuters and Dubai-based al-Arabiya television channel on Sunday amid reports of Taliban approaching the Panjshir province. Explaining the vision of the Anti-Taliban force, Massoud said the Panjshir resistance does not want bloodshed and war and believes that negotiation with the Taliban will be the only way out.

‘Panjshir won’t surrender’

As reiterated by other Resistance leaders, Massoud once again said on Sunday that Panjshir, which has never surrendered to anyone, will not give in to the Taliban as well. But if the Taliban do not agree to dialogue, then war will be unavoidable.

‘Not a fight for Panjshir’

Massoud told Reuters that the Resistance force is not only fighting for the Panjshir province. Forces have come from various provinces to Panjshir and they are defending the whole country in one province. Massoud told Reuters that he has a mixture of forces from regular army units and special forces as well as the local militia.

‘No problem with Taliban in government’

Dubai’s Al-Arabiya television channel quoted Massoud as saying that he has no problem with a government in which the Taliban participate. But a Taliban government will be a totalitarian regime, which should not be recognised by the international community. An inclusive, broad-based government in Kabul representing Afghanistan’s different ethnic groups is what he pitched for.

This is the first time after the fall of Kabul that Massoud gave interviews regarding the future plan of the National Resistance Front. On August 18, he wrote an opinion for the Washington Post calling the international help. In his appeal to all countries, including the United States which withdrew its troops from Afghanistan, the United Kingdom, Massoud wrote that the Taliban is not a problem of the Afghans alone as Afghanistan under Taliban will become “ground zero of radical Islamist terrorism”.

32-year-old Massoud had spent years in exile in Iran and Britain. He attended his school in Iran and then studied in the United Kingdom. After spending a year on a military course at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst he pursued a bachelor degree in War Studies at King’s College London and then studied international politics at the University of London. In 2016, he returned to Afghanistan.

(With agency inputs)