Even if he is in favor of negotiations with the new masters of Kabul, the head of the Afghan resistance in the Panshir valley “will never accept an imposed peace whose only merit would be to bring stability”.
Resistance to the Taliban in the Panshir valley, north-east of Kabul, will “not stop fighting,” said one of its officials, Ahmad Massoud, without excluding however speaking with the new masters of Afghanistan. “There is no question of stopping the fight. Our resistance here, in Panshir, has only just begun, ”affirms the son of Commander Ahmed Shah Massoud, an iconic figure of the Afghan resistance who was assassinated on September 9, 2001 by suicide bombers from Al-Qaeda.
Asked about the rumors of surrender of his fighters against the Taliban who surrounded the Panshir valley , Ahmad Massoud describes them as “propaganda” and “disinformation”, in an interview conducted on August 21 by Paris Match .
This weekend, a spokesperson for the National Resistance Front (FNR), of which Ahmad Massoud is one of the leaders, told AFP that his movement was ready to resist any aggression from the Taliban, but also to negotiate with them on the formation of an inclusive government.
“In all wars, we talk”
“Talking is one thing. We can talk. In all wars, we talk. But surrender is another thing. And I repeat to you that there is no question, for my commanders and I, of surrendering, ”declares Mr. Massoud, who describes himself as a“ man of peace ”at Paris Match. “I will never accept an imposed peace whose only merit would be to bring stability”, he repeats.
“Besides, I cannot forget the historical error of those from whom, just eight days ago, in Kabul, I asked for weapons. They refused them to me. And these weapons, this artillery, these helicopters, these American-made tanks are now in the hands of the Taliban! », He laments.
The Islamists who took Kabul on August 15 control almost the entire country, but a pocket of resistance has formed in the Panshir valley, around the FNR led by Ahmad Massoud and Amrullah Saleh, vice-president of the ousted government.
During the five years that the Taliban held Afghanistan, between 1996 and 2001, the Panshir, a narrow and difficult to access valley, was one of the few territories that “students of religion” never controlled.
