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Durrani accused the US of bribing the Taliban by secretly paying them $500 million annually
AT Monitoring Desk
KABUL: Former chief of Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Asad Durrani said that President Ashraf Ghani has no role in Afghanistan in the future.
In an interview with Pakistan Today, Durrani said that Pakistan had understood 10 years ago that the US troops would have to be ousted from Afghanistan in the Afghan end-game.
“Now they [US troops] are going out, Pakistan as a country has little role and Taliban, already have a dominant role in war-ravaged Afghanistan, have a major role to play. Besides the Afghan Taliban, other players like Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, Dr Mohaqiq and other local [ethnic] leaders have a future role too,” he said.
“But Dr. Ashraf Ghani has no role in Afghanistan in the future as he has been imposed [as a foreign puppet]. There would be tough negotiations between local players and then future dispensation would be decided.”
He also said that Pakistan had formed a regional cooperation bloc which would play a key role in the Afghan end-game and along with Pakistan, China, Russia, Iran and Turkey would have a role to play.
“This bloc will also help resolve issues in the Middle East and India too. In Afghanistan, our main objective has already been met and we have facilitated the peace process in Afghanistan between the US and Afghan Taliban. We have to ensure that intra-Afghan talks also succeed and future dispensation is decided by Afghans themselves,” he added.
“We are not worried for Afghanistan future. Taliban have a dominant position and they have won a war against the US forces. Pakistan does not have a major role to play and this is in our interest not to get involved in Afghanistan’s future role,” he further said.
Durrani accused the US of bribing the Taliban by secretly paying them $500 million annually. He said that after defeating the world (NATO), the Taliban are now unstoppable.
He also said that Afghan tribes had defeated the Russians and other invaders. Taliban have a role to play in Afghanistan. “President Obama wanted to pull out US troops ten years back but could not do as US military-industrial complex who wanted to sell their weapons to Afghans,” he added.
