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Musharraf says Taliban's days of power numbered

War on terrorism: Succession

Raymond Whitaker
Tuesday 02 October 2001 00:00 BST
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The Taliban's days are numbered, said the President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, who has been the Afghan regime's only friend in the international community.

His comments came after the US confirmed that President George Bush had ordered financial support for groups opposed to the Taliban.

General Musharraf, whose country is alone in retaining diplomatic relations with the Taliban regime, said Pakistan had done its best to avoid a confrontation over Osama bin Laden, the Afghanistan-based suspect for the 11 September terrorist attacks in the US.

But he added: "It appears that the United States will take action in Afghanistan. We have conveyed this to the Taliban. Because of the stand the Taliban have taken ... confrontation will take place."

Asked if the Taliban's days were numbered, he replied: "It appears so."

The Taliban's leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, continued to spit defiance at the US, saying in a broadcast that Americans "don't have the courage to come here".

The Taliban's defence minister urged the country's soldiers to fight hard against any attacks the US may launch, the Afghan Islamic Press said. "Fight hard against attacks; defend your country," Mullah Obaidullah said during a visit to troops based at Torkham near the Pakistan border. "If your enemy is strong, our God is the strongest".

But the regime, wary of calls for the former king of Afghanistan, Zahir Shah, to convene a grand assembly to decide the country's future, also announced a power-sharing deal in three eastern provinces, which might be tempted to support the ex-monarch.

Pashtun tribal leaders whose traditional authority has been undermined by the Islamic movement, as well as former commanders who fought the Soviet occupation of the 1980s, will be given posts in the provincial governments of Khost, Paktia and Paktika.

Mullah Omar, his voice rising, rebuked the former king in his broadcast, saying: "How dare you think you can return to Afghanistan backed by the United States. How are you going to rule the country?"

Zahir Shah belongs to the Durrani clan of the Pashtun, from which most of Afghanistan's rulers have come for the past three centuries. If he were to call a grand assembly, or loya jirga, non-Pashtuns might fear being sidelined.

But representatives of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, drawn mainly from the Tajik and Uzbek minorities, announced yesterday that they had reached agreement with Zahir Shah in Rome, where the ex-king has lived since 1973.

The Rome deal calls for a loya jirga to elect a head of state and transitional government, but details are sketchy, including whether it was dependent on the Taliban being ousted from power.

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