In a webinar on the situation in Afghanistan held by IRNA, Abdol-Mohammad Taheri pointed to the fact that the Taliban has yet to take over Panjshir Province in northeast Afghanistan where some Mujahidin fighters and senior officials of former Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani’s administration have chosen to resist against the Taliban.
Former Iranian Chargé d'affaires and Cultural Attaché in Afghanistan also said that Charikar city, the capital of Parwan Province, near Kabul, too, has not surrendered to the Taliban or taken over by the paramilitary group yet.
There are still forces that are reportedly trying to reorganize and equip Mujahidin groups to stand against the Taliban, according to Taheri. However, he added, it was still soon to talk about how the movement could be operational.
Developments in Afghanistan were so exceptionally rapid that the power transition cannot happen in the same way it is done in other countries and the Coordination Council formed by Hamed Karzai, Abdullah Abdullah and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar can do nothing but prevent chaos in Kabul, the former diplomat said.
Taheri named three reasons for the collapse of the government in Afghanistan, saying that the officials who had accepted the governance of foreign forces would see that as the ultimate savior until the last second.
Another reason, according to Taheri, is that those who were responsible for the mobilization of popular forces were so soaked up in aristocracy that they couldn’t reorganize forces.
The former diplomat pointed to the belated and misdirected commencement of popular mobilization which happened when the Taliban had already occupied over two-thirds of the country.
He said that no country can play a role in Afghanistan like what Iran is capable to do, because of lingual, cultural, ideological and economic reasons. He believed Iran can pressure the Taliban from several dimensions in order to keep its borders safe.
Iran has the necessary authority and theoretical support and good familiarity with Afghanistan and different movements, including the Taliban, in the country, according to Taheri.
He went on to explain that Iran can put pressure on the Taliban in different arenas to prevent more damage to Afghan people and keep Iran safe.
Terming the US hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan as betrayal, Taheri said that it had the most negative consequence for Iran, as Iran would face at least three million Afghan refugees, possibly including malign forces like ISIS and Al-Qaida.
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