By Fidel Rahmati in The Khaama Press Online, April 28, 2023
Ahmad Massoud, the National Resistance Front’s (NRF) leader, has pleaded with the international community not to abandon Afghanistan.
Ahmad Massoud warned against engaging with the Taliban in an interview with The National while he was in Vienna for a conference of anti-Taliban figures, human rights activists and academicians. “If you think you can co-opt the Taliban with money and diplomatic ties, then you are gravely mistaken,” he warned.
“Afghanistan has become an epic prison for its people and a safe haven for terrorist groups” and was also a country that could revisit the “catastrophic” events of the past, he added.
Massoud claimed that the NRF is a diverse coalition of Afghans representing a more palatable alternative government. He said the group is committed to democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.
“We want freedom, liberty, democracy, and justice,” he said.
While the NRF “do not have any support from anywhere,” Kabul already receives $40 million per week in help, much of it indirectly from the West, notably the US, he said.
In his opinion, the Taliban must be pressured by the West to respect human rights and allow the Afghan people to determine their future.
“We must not abandon Afghanistan,” Massoud said. “The country is at a crossroads, and it is up to the international community to decide whether it will go down the path of democracy and freedom or be ruled by a brutal and repressive regime.”
https://www.khaama.com/ahmad-massoud-pleads-with-world-not-to-abandon-afghanistan/
