By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer

 

Never trust the devil, is a famous adage with its equivalent in all languages including Persian and Pashto.

Yet, those whom the Afghan people had elected to office were so infatuated with the devil that they never bothered to see through its temptations until they were unceremoniously kicked out from not just the corridors of power in Kabul but from their homeland itself.

The US is the incarnation of the devil, and the Islamic Republic of Iran had on several occasions warned Afghan officials of trusting the American occupiers.

These advises fell on deaf ears, and now after a year in exile officials of the former elected government are regretting their folly in placing their trusts in the US.

The latest official to rue the collective stupidity of the overthrown government is former president Ashraf Ghani who accepting what he called the “shared” responsibility for the fall of Afghanistan into the hands of the Taliban, is today blaming himself for trusting the US which negotiated a dubious deal with the militia that brought about his ouster.

He said: “One has to take responsibility for trusting a partner that then trampled our sovereignty and imposed the release of 5,000 [Taliban] prisoners, among them, the largest drug dealers in history in the region.” 

Ghani, who used to squabble with his presidential rival Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, said in an interview with the US-based Public Broadcasting Service (PBS):

“I take responsibility for having trusted our key partner (US) that signed our withdrawal agreement – and for one full year – its forces were not attacked by the Taliban, but our forces paid the highest price.”

He was referring to the free hand given by the American occupiers to the Taliban for attacking Afghan government forces and civilians after Kabul was deceived by fellow Pakhtun Zalmay Khalilzad – an Afghan turncoat who slavishly serves US interests and whom Washington had used at the Doha talks as a decoy for lulling Ghani and his cabinet into sleep.

The former Afghan president is right when he says “the US propped up the Taliban. Without the Trump administration’s role, the Taliban would not be here today.”

Regrets will not reinstall Ashraf Ghani as president. Even if his radical Pakhtun cousins, the Taliban militiamen, are ousted from Kabul tomorrow for their own follies, especially the refusal to share power in a democratic manner with the other political, ethnic, and religious groups that make up polyglot Afghanistan, he will not be put back comfortably into the 34-acre Arg.

These expressions of regret, however, should jolt the conscience of governments in our neighbourhood who in order to safeguard their narrow personal interests (not national or Islamic) have more trust in the devilish Yankees than in Almighty Allah, little knowing that their turn might be next and even worse than the fate of Ghani’s cabinet.

As part of its Islamic duties, Iran which is extra cautious in any negotiations where the US is also involved, will continue to warn the governments of the region of the dangers of relying upon Washington, the godfather of the despicable Zionists and the avowed enemy of all Muslim countries and people.