NEWSMAKER INTERVIEW:
A country that has long fiercely resisted foreign occupiers is ready to accept a long-term U.S. military presence to ensure stability and security, Afghanistan’s ambassador to Washington said in an interview, adding that Kabul is also ready to forge stronger ties with regional powers such as Iran and India to defeat terrorism and serve as a check to neighboring Pakistan.
The Afghanistan plan recently endorsed by President Trump, forgoing Obama-era withdrawal timelines while pumping more than 3,000 additional U.S. troops into the country, is finally the right formula to capitalize on gains made over 16 years of war, said Afghan Ambassador Hamdullah Mohib.
“This is the option that is the most efficient and the [only] option that everyone agreed upon,” Mr. Mohib said during an exclusive interview with The Washington Times at the Afghan Embassy. “Right now, seeing what the conditions are on the ground, this is the right way forward.”
The Trump plan for Afghanistan, announced during a prime-time televised address in August, was well received by the embattled government of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
Afghan leaders praised Washington’s renewed commitment to what now is the longest conflict in U.S. history and Mr. Trump’s sharp words on what he said was Pakistan’s support of extremist groups.
The Trump plan will likely open the door to an enduring military presence akin to American military footprints in Japan and Germany, one former U.S. combat commander said.
“I think we will [still] be there for 16 years” — matching the 16 years of the campaign that began shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S., retired Marine Corps Gen. John Allen, who led U.S. forces in Afghanistan from 2011 to 2013, said this month.
“It is not about winning the war; it is about winning the peace,” Mr. Mohib said. Kabul’s primary interest is the country’s security and what more Washington can bring to the table to ensure it. A long-term U.S. military presence in Afghanistan “is not a decision that is taken lightly,” he said.
An enduring partnership with the U.S. has overwhelming support on Afghan streets, said Mr. Mohib, who was born in 1983 and whose family fled the country during the Soviet invasion and occupation. “This is what the Afghan people want, and I would not be representing my country with such confidence if we did not have such a strong mandate from the people.”
U.S. critics see Mr. Trump’s plan as a diluted extension of the basic Obama administration’s 2009 surge, adding a few more troops without changing the dynamic of the stalemate with the Taliban and other insurgent movements.
But Mr. Mohib made clear that he and Mr. Ghani believe the Trump administration is making a decisive turn with its approach to the war. The lack of a hard calendar deadline means the government’s enemies cannot simply wait for the U.S. and its allies to leave before renewing the fight.
“Those who say it is more of the same, I do not know what ’the same’ means to them,” said Mr. Mohib. “It is different because we do not have the timelines, we do not have [withdrawal] details locked in at the highest levels.”
Under the Trump plan, “the details can be worked out at the levels they need to be,” said Mr. Mohib, referring to the local military and government leaders on the ground, closest to the fight against the Taliban and other extremist groups in the country.
“We were on the defensive [against the Taliban] for the last three years,” he said, while the new U.S. commitment will give Kabul the upper hand in the conflict. “We will see the situation turn around very, very quickly,” under the administration’s plan for Afghanistan.
Political capital
Kabul hopes to use the Trump commitment as political capital to strengthen its hand among regional powers jockeying for advantage in South Asia.
Afghan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior officials in New Delhi. The visit was the first since Mr. Trump’s prime-time address, when he publicly accused Pakistan of aiding and abetting extremist groups battling U.S., Afghan and NATO forces.
Days before the visit, members of the BRICS group, an international economic consortium of India, Brazil, South Africa, Russia and China, publicly declared the Pakistani-based Haqqani network and Tehrik-i-Taliban, the group’s Pakistan-based faction, as being on par with Islamic State and al Qaeda.
Washington and Kabul say Islamabad has been the main sponsor of both Pakistani-based terrorist organizations. Pakistani officials have angrily denied the accusation.
Russia and China’s acknowledgment of both terrorist groups “is a key point that needs to be remembered,” Mr. Mohib said.
Coupled with Mr. Trump’s remarks, “I think the world has come to the realization that Pakistan has been harboring terrorists, providing sanctuaries, providing [training] facilities and helping them raise funds,” said Mr. Mohib. The inclusion of the Haqqani network and the Pakistan Taliban by BRICS members “is a clear indication those [Afghan] diplomatic efforts are working,” Mr. Mohib said.
“We are not under any delusions that Pakistan will do anything as a favor to Afghanistan,” he said. “We think the conditions are set now for Pakistan to change, for its own interests.”
The Ghani government is also attempting to shore up diplomatic relations with Iran, despite rising tensions between Washington and Tehran, said the Afghan ambassador. Iranian forces, whose influence in western Afghanistan continues to expand, could lash out against American troops in the country should the Trump administration withdraw from the nuclear pact with Tehran under the Obama administration.
Mr. Trump is weighing whether to withdraw from the deal, which eased international sanctions in exchange for curbs on Iranian nuclear programs.
Such a move could hit Afghanistan if Tehran orders its forces to strike out in retaliation against Afghan, U.S. and NATO troops in the west, Thomas Graham, a senior director on the National Security Council in the George W. Bush administration, said last week.
Mr. Mohib said Kabul is determined not to be drawn into the conflict between its two allies.
“What we have been trying to do in the region is try to assure all of our neighbors that Afghanistan will not be used as a platform for a threat to them,” Mr. Mohib said. “We do have our partnership with the United States, but Afghanistan is a sovereign nation.”
Afghanistan also sees Mr. Trump’s long-term commitment to the country as a way to curb Russia’s efforts to expand influence in the country, Mr. Mohib said.
The ambassador declined to comment on accusations that Russia provided arms and support to Taliban factions battling Islamic State’s cell expanding in Afghanistan’s eastern provinces. But he noted that Russia’s support of the Afghan Taliban being recognized by the BRICS consortium as a terrorist group “is a clear indication that [Russian] position is changing.”
“We, the Afghan government and the Afghan security forces, are the most efficient way to fight any kind of terrorism that exists,” whether it be the Afghan Taliban, Haqqani network or the Islamic State, said Mr. Mohib. “We have proven ourselves and I think you will see a lot more consensus around that now.”
• Carlo Muñoz can be reached at cmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
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