Boastful after Bin Laden
The mujahedeen who frown upon unconditional talks and cajoling the Taliban into power should anticipate further marginalization. The suspicious death of General Daud, police chief for Northern Afghanistan and a sworn enemy of Taliban -who was assassinated in a Taliban bomb attack in Taloqan a week ago- should serve them a good lesson. As Abdullah Abdullah and Yunus Qanuni have stated, the death of Gen. Daud –a close aide of the late Ahmad Shah Masoud- is mysterious and should be investigated. The US is actually following a paradoxical policy in Afghanistan by planning to withdraw from Afghanistan and transferring security responsibilities to local forces whilst trying to integrate Taliban into Afghanistan’s political system. This policy will complicate the issues in Afghanistan and jeopardize the security of both Afghans and regional states. American think tanks pursuing these plans are aware of this fact, but most likely they are not worried about the collateral damage of their policies.
* Mohammad-Ebrahim Taherian is Iran’s former ambassador to Afghanistan.