Political scientist and expert on Central Asia Arkady Dubnov revealed interesting details of the Tashkent conference on Afghanistan, which was attended by a representative delegation of the Taliban.
According to him, the main nerve center of the discussion in Tashkent was the clash between the head of the Taliban delegation, the acting foreign minister of the unrecognized government in Kabul, Amirkhan Muttaki, and the US Special Representative for Afghanistan, Tom West, Podrobno .uz correspondent reports.
“The Tashkent conference was conceived by the leadership of Uzbekistan last autumn and became the first post-war meeting of the world level. It became clear that the Taliban would not give up power in the country, they came this time for a long time, and it was necessary to start the economic rehabilitation of Afghanistan. threats from there will not be long in coming.However, there are countries that are ready to fuel these threats by sponsoring and supporting armed resistance to the current Taliban government in Kabul”, he wrote on his Facebook page.
According to him, against the backdrop of the tragedy in Ukraine, the timelines of the Tashkent conference has increased. Uzbekistan acts here as a conscientious mediator, trying to restore, and in some cases even establish mutual understanding between the states that have their own scores with Afghanistan.
“In this case, it is in line with the so-called ‘Mirziyoyev Doctrine’ proclaimed by the President of Uzbekistan after he came to power in 2016 – a policy of rapprochement with neighbors, the search for trust in relations with them, which seems natural in Central Asia, divided by the Bolsheviks.almost a hundred years ago in a “clumsy” way, as stated in one historical study well-known in the region…”, he stressed.
Tashkent has pragmatic relations with Taliban Afghanistan, the political scientist believes. The Taliban’s guarantees to ensure the security of the neighboring country are respected, and the recent incident with home-made rockets being fired at Termez from the other side of the Amu Darya was very promptly investigated by the Taliban and those who were ready to discredit the negotiability of the current Afghan government were exemplarily punished.
“Of course, the main nerve center of the discussion in Tashkent was the fight between the head of the Taliban delegation, it consisted of 18 people, acting. Foreign Minister of the unrecognized government in Kabul, Amirhan Muttaki, and US Special Representative for Afghanistan , Tom West,” Dubnov said.
According to him, the top Taliban diplomat spoke of achievements: there has been “almost zero corruption, in contrast to 100 percent corruption” under the previous regimes in Afghanistan. It is not possible to check this fantastic result for the rest of the world, but knowing how brutal the Taliban’s measures to comply with Sharia rules look, one can think that the Taliban’s boast is not empty words, the political scientists believes.
“A quarter of a century ago, in 1998, I happened to be in Herat during the Taliban rule, and I saw the city’s safe streets for women and heard stories about how, to put it mildly, unconventional methods forced the Taliban to respect their orders. Even their the opponents liked that the bandits and thieves no longer terrorized the city. Well, yes, this is Afghanistan, baby,” Dubnov said.
Muttaki also said that thanks to the policy of tolerance, people are not fired from their jobs because of ideology, on the contrary, the authorities invite specialists who have fled the country to return home, “in all areas, women work where there is an opportunity for this, and where there is no opportunity, they receive a salary while they are at home.” And Muttaki argued that Afghanistan no longer threatens other countries. And it was hard to disagree with that.
“A representative of the European Union listened to him. He listed for a long time all the claims of the civilized West, absolutely fair, to the Taliban regime, the persecution of the Khazarians and ethnic minorities, restrictions on the rights of women to work, and girls to study, the lack of freedom of speech, spoke about the need for macroeconomic stabilization and the rule of law. Sometimes it seemed that we were talking about the conditions for Afghanistan’s admission to the EU,” the political scientist wrote.
Finally, he added, the main antagonist of the Taliban, the American diplomat, took the floor, his solidarity with the Europeans was complete, here the West could not afford to show differences. Emotional intensity reached high notes when an ethnic Afghan from the US delegation took the floor.
“There is no impression that Afghanistan remains a place where one wants to return,” she exclaimed passionately, “because no one wants to be a refugee.”
“It was pure truth, like her other statement: the war in Afghanistan has been put on pause, and we must ensure that this pause is not interrupted. Personally, this seemed to me the main thing for today. However, like all representatives of the Central Asian countries who wished to speak in Tashkent. Except for the Tajik delegate, who seemed to wish that he was not noticed at all. Yes, and how not to understand him: today Dushanbe has actually become the headquarters of the anti-Taliban armed opposition, headed by the son of Ahmadsho Masoud, Masoud Jr. Dubnov.
The Panshir Tajiks, with the support of Dushanbe, still hope to turn the tide of Afghan history again, but without external support they will not achieve this. On the one hand, the Taliban are no longer the ones to give the West a reason to start all over again and warm up the Afghan guerilla again, and the West is already pretty tired of Afghanistan.
Here, according to the political scientist, the script of the conference was unexpectedly hacked, Muttaki asked to speak in return, clearly realizing that he was the central person of the conference. It was impossible to refuse him, otherwise why did they gather, if eye to eye in front of witnesses did not express the main thing.
“We are accused of violating human rights, but when foreigners came into our country, bombed and killed Afghan civilians, wasn’t this a violation of human rights? Our money was stolen from us and we are required to show the results of our rule. Tell me if you turn off water for irrigation in our garden, and then you will demand from us to show the fruits grown in the garden, what will we answer you? We are Afghans – part of the big world, give us our money! “- quoted Muttaki Dubnov.
He also added that the Taliban minister’s rhetoric, though simple, was convincing in a room where most of those present sympathized with him. East and West converged here in such a way that the great Kipling would have been happy to see who wins.
Muttaqi was fiercely supported by Iran, and the Chinese representative recommended that the Americans be more courteous when lecturing countries and peoples with a different mentality and national traditions, otherwise they should not wait for understanding.
“The day after the end of the conference, it became known about the meeting of the delegations of the United States and Afghanistan: the unfreezing of Afghanistan’s financial assets for the sake of its economic stabilization was discussed. But first, the United States will demand that the unfrozen funds be used to compensate the families of the victims of the al-Qaeda attack on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001. The caravan seems to have set off,” concluded Arkady Dubnov.
Pordobno.uz,
01 August, 2022