Taliban risk losing power without inclusive government in Afghanistan, warns Russia
The Kremlin's envoy to Afghanistan said the Taliban have to ensure inclusiveness in power-sharing but clarified that it wasn’t an ultimatum.
A Russian diplomat on Friday said that the Taliban risk losing power in Afghanistan if they don’t form an inclusive government as promised during intra-Afghan peace talks in Doha before taking over the control of Kabul. Zamir Kabulov, the Kremlin's envoy to Afghanistan, said the Sunni Pashtun group has to ensure inclusiveness in power-sharing but clarified that it wasn’t an ultimatum, reported Russian news agency Sputnik.
"Ethnic political inclusiveness is needed. They might lose power in the near future if they keep acting like that. They will have to ensure inclusiveness. By the way, we say this without ultimatums, calmly - just do it. They will have to do it," Sputnik quoted Kabulov as saying.
The Taliban announced a Cabinet expansion in September insisting that the Sunni Pashtun group has opted for an inclusive government. But a closer look showed that the government remained dominated by Taliban officials, including members of the Haqqani network. The ethnic minorities were not given any significant posts and all induction were unknown faces. They also didn’t include a single woman in the Cabinet.
The international community has repeatedly called on the hardline Islamist group to share a greater fraction of the power pie with the member of ethnic minority communities such as Hazaras and Tajiks. It has not recognised the Taliban as countries around the world continue to monitor the actions of the Islamist fundamentalists on the human rights front as well as inclusiveness.
Kabulov said that the Afghan assets will be unfrozen if the outfit starts making concessions, noting that the assets frozen in Western nations are the resources of the Afghan people and not the funds of the Taliban. As Afghanistan is witnessing a serious humanitarian crisis, the Russian diplomat said Western countries should bear full financial responsibility for the situation.
When asked about the possibility of Russia providing a loan to the war-torn country, Kabulov said, "We can, of course, if (Russian) President (Vladimir Putin) decides. But you understand, have we got some extra money?”
“Let us be careful with this. Our priority is the provision of humanitarian aid, food supplies, the provision of specific products and other essentials. Things due to what the Afghan people can survive this winter," he added, as quoted by Sputnik.
(With agency inputs)