The US and Pakistani media reported that the Taliban reached out to former Afghan president Hamid Karzai and Russia this week in an attempt to fulfil their pledge to form an "inclusive" government and defeat holdouts against their rule in Afghanistan. However, many local, regional and international parties involved in Afghanistan have little confidence in such pledges, noting that little in the Taliban's history suggests a readiness to compromise on their extremist Islamist principles or to share power. Karzai, 63, has stepped into the void left by the flight a week ago of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. He has met with Taliban leaders, including Khalil Hakkani, designated as a terrorist by the United States, and is working closely with Abdullah Abdullah, head of the former Afghan's government's peace delegation, and Galbueddine Hekmatyar, a former Afghan warlord with close ties to Pakistan who served as prime minister in the 1990s. Karzai, Abdullah and Hekmatyar have announced the formation of a "transition council" whose mandate remains ambiguous. A Taliban leader described as the acting governor of Kabul, Mullah Abdul-Rahman Mansour, talked over the weekend with Karzai and Abdullah. A growing number of senior Taliban have also been seen in Kabul in recent days to discuss the shape of the next government, among them Mullah Abdul-Ghani Baradar, the Taliban's chief diplomat and a senior official in the group's government in the 1990s. Baradar languished for eight years in a Pakistani jail and led Taliban talks with US Special Envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad in Doha, Qatar, following his release in 2018. He brokered the withdrawal of US troops agreement with former US president Donald Trump in late 2020 and received a hero's welcome upon his arrival in Kabul early this week. Many are watching him closely to see how the Taliban will rule the country in its current iteration, compared to the systemic oppression that defined Afghan society under their past reign between 1996 and 2001. When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, it was a highly secretive regime, and the country was governed by strict laws. During the talks in the capital on Saturday, Baradar had meetings with militant commanders and individuals who were part of the ousted government under former president Ghani. According to a Taliban official, the government talks will continue for several weeks, and then different groups will tackle the country's security and financial issues. When the Taliban took control of Kabul earlier this week, they touted themselves as "moderate" and said that they would build an "inclusive, Islamic government." However, the group's first week of power has been marked by intimidation and reprisals, as reports have come out revealing that Taliban fighters have gone door-to-door in search of those who worked with the US and that they killed the relative of a Deutsche Welle journalist in the country. The chilling images of despair at Kabul Airport that have emerged from the country show thousands of Afghans seeking to leave the country for good, as they fear for their lives under the Taliban regime. Many said they could not trust the sudden professed moderation of the Taliban, whose oppression of women and brutality have been hallmarks of their rule. A deputy within the Taliban's cultural affairs committee, Ahmadullah Wasek, said on Saturday that although Taliban officials were mostly talking among themselves to prepare for more formal negotiations, "we will talk with other parties to form an inclusive government acceptable to all Afghans." A week after the Taliban overran the country and the two-decade American attempt to shape a democratic Afghanistan collapsed, there was no sign of any cabinet taking form. Chaos still engulfed the nation's capital in a fiasco whose political fallout US President Joe Biden is struggling to contain. Still, resistance remains among Afghan leaders who have taken refuge in the Panjshir Valley, a rugged gorge where Afghan fighters resisted the Taliban for years during Afghanistan's Civil War in the 1990s. Former Afghan officials put the number of fighters holed up today in the Panjshir at 2,000 to 2,500 men, but they are isolated and lack logistical support. The Panjshiris, led by Ahmed, the son of historic Afghan Tajik leader Shah Massoud, have said they intend to resist a takeover of the valley unless the Taliban agree to an inclusive government. Pakistani political analyst Tarek Farhadi told the Pakistani news Website Tolo News that the Taliban were likely to take around 10 days to form a new government, as there are issues concerning the inclusion of women and representatives of all Afghan ethnicities. "If they continue with their monopolisation of power like Ashraf Ghani and distribute it to certain provinces only without respecting other provinces and to their people alone, there could be a possibility of a civil war," warned another political analyst, Farhad Akbari. Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Qureshi, also visited Kabul this week and met with Taliban leaders. Qureshi's visit assumes significance at a time when Pakistan is willing to "play its part" in forming a new government in Afghanistan with the Taliban and local politicians. A senior Taliban leader said last week, however, that there would be "no democratic system" in Afghanistan because it "does not have any base" in the country, while highlighting that the new regime would impose Islamic Sharia Law. James Schwemlein, a non-resident scholar in the South Asia Programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the Taliban appear to be implementing a deliberate plan in these early days to renovate their international reputation and offer reassurance to Afghan groups. Images of Taliban officials encouraging female doctors and nurses to continue working in hospitals, meeting with Kabul's small Sikh community, and attending Muharram services with Kabul's Hazara Shia minority are all part of these efforts, he said. "There is too much history to take these measures at face value, but assuming they are all deception will effectively guarantee a bad result. If policy makers treat the Taliban as a pariah, they will almost certainly become a pariah; if policy makers engage with the Taliban and encourage them to be a more responsible government this time, they might well still turn into a pariah, but there is a chance for a better outcome for US interests and for the Afghan people," Schwemlein suggested. "The key fear for many Afghanis right now is whether the deceivingly non-violent entry of the Taliban into Kabul indicated that they would be able to maintain the peace, or will civil war break out as soon as US, British and other troops leave the country over the next three to four days," Schwemlein asked. Rudra Chaudhuri, director of Carnegie India, wrote that "the Taliban in Doha want legitimacy. That is clear. At this time, it might be the only effective card left for US and other negotiators, as their governments focus on the evacuation from Kabul. After this evacuation happens over the next few weeks, and after Baradar claims the government, the desire for legitimacy is less likely to matter." The promise of financial assistance, another card that can be traded, is not held by the United States alone. China and Russia are well placed to support Baradar's group. They have kept their embassies open in Kabul and are unlikely to support any opposition to the Taliban, at least for the time being. Chaudhuri noted that "troops and diplomats from the United States, the UK and other countries will leave Afghanistan. Meanwhile, over-zealous Taliban political leaders (who have long waited in Doha, Quetta and elsewhere) and military commanders are taking over the country. There is little to suggest that the inclusive government that Taliban leaders emphasise is anything more than rhetoric, carefully designed to present an exclusive, perhaps ever-so-slightly more modern, Islamic Emirate." *A version of this article appears in print in the 26 August, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
