VThe Western armed forces left Afghanistan in haste about a year ago, and the radical Islamic Taliban have ruled the country ever since. The needy population faces the second winter of hardship. Now Ahmad Massoud, the son of the legendary volunteer Ahmad Shah Massoud, who is revered as a national hero in Afghanistan, is calling on the countries of the western world to increase political pressure on the Taliban regime in order to establish a new government in Kabul, legitimized by elections be able.
Massoud was among the last Afghan leaders to continue to resist the Taliban in the weeks following the international alliance’s withdrawal last September. But he too had to give up the fight in his native Panjir valley in September last year and has lived in exile ever since. “After the collapse” of Western support, there was no other option, says 33-year-old Massoud, who studied political science in Great Britain and completed a year at the Sandhurst Officers’ Academy, in an interview with the FAZ Now that Taliban rule is in entering her second year, Massoud is calling for a new political initiative to pave the way for a better future in Afghanistan. Humanitarian aid from Europe and many other countries is needed, even if, as he says, perhaps only a third of it reaches those in need. The rest will be used and distributed at the discretion of the Taliban. But: “How many more winters will we have?” he asks, adding with reference to the energy crisis caused by Russia: “And this year winter is also coming to Europe.” Massoud says that the suffering of the Afghans is not only owed to their deep economic need, but “because there is no future for them”.
