Afghanistan's new interim government being created under a power-sharing deal signed in Bonn Wednesday by anti-Taliban groups is nothing more than a "puppet institution," said Taliban's former ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef.
"For us it is a puppet institution which has been created in Bonn," Zaeef told the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP).
"It cannot solve Afghanistan's problems. Under this arrangement, Afghanistan's future appears bleak. This has been created outside Afghanistan under pressure from America, Russia and their allies. This agreement is not acceptable to us.
"We will accept only such a set up which is based on Islamic values and in the welfare of Afghan people."
After nine days of talks, Afghan delegates signed a deal providing for a 30-member interim cabinet headed by royalist Pashtun tribal leader Hamid Karzai. It handed three key ministries -- foreign affairs, defense and the interior -- to the powerful Northern Alliance.
The alliance, backed by US warplanes, has pushed the Taliban from all its power bases in Afghanistan into its southern citadel of Kandahar, which is currently being encircled by US-led coalition troops and powerful anti-Taliban forces -- ISLAMABAD (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
