They established a "Salvation Front." Will the Taliban's opponents succeed in bringing peace to Afghanistan?

KABUL

- A number of personalities, leaders of political parties and former government officials in the former Afghan government announced - for the first time since the rise of the Taliban movement to power in mid-August - the formation of what they called the "Afghan Salvation Front".

About 40 Afghan political figures - who had left Afghanistan before the Taliban militants arrived in the capital, Kabul - gathered in the Turkish capital, Ankara, at the home of Abdul Rashid Dostum, the former vice president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani.

During talks that lasted more than 9 hours, the participants demanded the Taliban movement to resume negotiations to achieve peace and stability in Afghanistan.

A source participating in the meeting told Al Jazeera Net, "Everyone agreed on a peaceful solution to the Afghan issue and emphasized the intra-Afghan negotiations, and if the Taliban did not accept this offer, the Afghanistan Salvation Front might go to military action throughout Afghanistan."

The front consists of 10 committees, the most important of which is the Committee on International Relations and Negotiations, in addition to the official spokesman. The leadership of the front will be periodically, and the presidency is limited to one session only.

It is noteworthy that most of the participants in the front are jihadist leaders and warlords such as Abd al-Rab Rasoul Sayyaf, Abd al-Rashid Dostum, Muhammad Muhaqiq, Salah al-Din Rabbani, Atta Muhammad Nur, Muhammad Yunus Qanooni, Ahmad Zia Masoud, Mir Rahman Rahmani, Ahmad Wali Masoud, Muhammad Alam Izd Yar and Hazrat Ali.

The front also includes a number of other political figures who fought the Taliban movement in the nineties of the last century and ruled Afghanistan after the fall of the first movement government in 2001. Controversies persist between them.

Don't have a good reputation

In this regard, former Afghan Defense Minister Shah Mahmud Mayakhel tells Al Jazeera Net, "The new front can be a title, and the way should open towards resuming intra-Afghan negotiations. Most of the front's participants are personalities who do not enjoy a good reputation in Afghan society because of their role in the civil war nor I think they will have a prominent role in managing the political scene in Afghanistan."

Experts in the Afghan affairs believe that the formation of a political front against the Taliban outside Afghanistan and the absence of important figures such as former Afghan President Muhammad Ashraf Ghani, Head of the Reconciliation Committee Abdullah Abdullah and former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, cannot affect the Taliban’s position on forming an inclusive government and the basic issues other.

In this context, former government official Najib Nangial says that "most of the members of the Front were waiting for an agreement with the Taliban individually so that they could preserve their wealth and the money they obtained during the past 20 years."

Abdul Rashid Dostum (left) and Ataa Muhammad Nour in Mazar-i-Sharif before it fell to Taliban militants (websites)

Nankyal added to Al-Jazeera Net that they did not get a green light from the Taliban, so they resorted to forming a political front to pressure the new Afghan government, so it will be very difficult for these youths to gain the trust of the young people who view them as part of the problem and the reason for the collapse of the previous regime.

In a final statement issued at the end of the meeting, the Front announced its position on the current situation in Afghanistan and presented 7 main demands for the new Afghan government led by the Taliban.

The most important thing in the statement was to restore sovereignty to the people through the establishment of a system based on elections, the establishment of lasting peace and political stability, and the formation of a parliamentary political system that allows for the election of representatives and local officials in the states.

Proof of class unit

Commenting on this, Muhammad Muhaqiq, leader of the Islamic Unity Party and a member of the Afghanistan Salvation Front, tells Al Jazeera Net that the formation of the front after 9 months of Taliban rule is evidence of the unity of the class, and that the members of the front represent all parts of Afghanistan, "and we initiated the formation of the front after disappointment in the formation of the front." A government that represents the entire Afghan people, not a single group in Afghanistan."

The Taliban believes that it has formed a government that represents all the ethnicities in Afghanistan, and that the absence of certain personalities in the government does not mean that it is not comprehensive.

The Taliban has not responded to the front's demands so far, but it has already formed a committee tasked with talking with political figures and prominent personalities who left Afghanistan before the Taliban came to power.

For his part, Acting Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaki told Al Jazeera Net, "We want all those who left the country to return to Afghanistan, the movement has been able to provide security and we will preserve the rights and lives of politicians. There is no need to open other fronts, the days of war and conflict are over. They will not find Who supports them with money and weapons.