If Needed, Will Fight Taliban Without US Support & Consent, Says Former Balkh Governor

Former governor of Balkh province, Atta Mohammad Noor, reacted to former US envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad's statements about Jihadi leaders, and call them “disrespectful”.

He stressed that Khalilzad is a US citizen and is not in a position to dictate the Afghan Jihadi leaders on their decisions.

In an interview with Radio Afghanistan International, Noor also spoke about his political mistakes and expressed regrets about them.

In a detailed and frank conversation, the outspoken Afghan politician expressed his opinion about a range of current and past issues and criticised well-known politicians such as Ahmad Massoud, the leader of the National Resistance Front (NRF), and Amrullah Saleh, the former vice-president of Afghanistan.

Noor also admitted that the Supreme Council of National Resistance for Salvation of Afghanistan, of which he is one of the prominent members, has been underestimated by the international community. He said that such a view of the council helps the continuation of the reign of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

After the fall of Kabul in August 2021, Noor and other members of the council sought refuge in neighbouring countries. He admitted that the neighbouring governments hinder their activities against the Taliban.

In a conversation with Afghanistan International, the former US representative for Afghanistan asked Noor and other politicians to return to Afghanistan and work with the Taliban. Khalilzad said that Western countries will not support them.

However, Noor emphasised that the council has the ability to bring political change in Afghanistan in the future. He said, "It's true that we don't have a homeland and we are isolated, the countries don't allow us to operate. However, it is this council which will bring the transformation in Afghanistan. We also have our shortcomings, there are differences of opinion."

Noor also revealed that although Massoud is a member of the council, he has not shown much interest in the council’s activities.

The former governor of Balkh said, "Ahmad Massoud, leading the National Resistance Front, is a member of this council, but unfortunately, he does not participate in the meetings honestly and consistently. He talks about cohesion and the need for unity. But in practice, unfortunately, he ignores those words."

Noor's stinging criticisms were also directed at Amrullah Saleh, who joined Ashraf Ghani and became his first vice-president after breaking away from the former Jihadi political parties in the 2019 presidential elections. Earlier, Saleh had made stinging and sarcastic criticisms of Noor and other political figures opposed to Ashraf Ghani and once had said that their political life is over.

In the interview with Radio Afghanistan International, Noor accused Saleh of many times. He accused Saleh of receiving "packages of money as gifts from the Americans" and involvement in "money laundering".

On the two-year anniversary of the fall of the previous government, Noor criticised the United States’ Afghanistan policies too and said that if the Taliban do not understand the importance of peace and solve the problem politically, they will start a war against the group despite America's opposition.

According to him, "We have the experience, strength, and patience of war and we know how to fight again."

This prominent member of Jamiat-e-Islami Party spoke for the first time about his political mistakes too. Noor called joining the disarmament programme in the first years of Hamid Karzai's government a mistake. He said that he could now use the weapons he gave up during the disarmament programme in the war against the Taliban after the fall of the country to the group.

He described forming an election coalition with former presidential candidate, Hanif Atmar in the 2019 presidential election as his "unforgivable grave mistake". Noor admitted that the move "discredited" him in Afghanistan.

This former jihadi commander also called fighting a civil war between jihadi parties in the 1900s another mistake.