No progress in informal talks between Taliban, opposition

A meeting to discuss reconciliation between the Taliban and the National Resistance Front (NRF), led by Ahmad Massoud, ended without progress, AFP reported on Friday.

The NRF is the only opposition to the Taliban. Its leader is the son of late prominent Mujahideen commander who fought against the occupation of the Soviet Union, Ahmad Shah Massoud. Its stronghold is Panjshir.

Following the Taliban’s control of the country, the NRF refused to surrender, but Taliban forces stormed the area and imposed its sovereignty after a brief fight.

On Monday, the Taliban’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi confirmed that he held talks at the weekend with NRF leader Massoud in Tehran and guaranteed his security if he returned home.

Meanwhile, Foreign Relations Chief for the NRF Ali Maisam Nazary told AFP that the Taliban offered the NRF control of ministries and embassies, but showed that:

They were unwilling to change their mindset.

Nazary also said that the Taliban refused the NRF’s chief demand for the formation of a genuinely inclusive government.

“There were no results during these informal talks,” he relayed. “We were on two separate pages. Our definition of an inclusive government was different to theirs.”

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He said that his movement agreed to sit with the Taliban after recommendations from regional countries.

Nazary, who travelled to Britain and Sweden before arriving in France on a tour to drum up support for the NRF cause, said that Massoud had travelled to several places but did not point to any of these places due to “security reasons”.

AFP reported him saying his group had 4,000 fighters. He appealed to the international community for help for what he described as a “guerrilla” conflict against the Taliban.

“We need any type of support or assistance,” AFP reported Nazary stating. “We are fighting with our own resources.”