Hans Rustad Avtroppende Kabul-ambassadør Ryan Crocker forteller om samarbeidet mellom USA og Iran i Afghanistan. Crocker vet, for det var han som førte samtalene.
Det gir et interessant innblikk i noe som kunne utviklet seg til noe mer. Iran var svært interessert i å styrte Taliban-regimet som hadde drept mange iranere. Iran kunne blitt en stabiliserende faktor i et nytt Afghanistan.
Men så lot Iran al-Qaida planlegge terror fra iranske territorium. USA advarte Teheran mot hva som holdt på å skje, men iranerne stanset dem ikke. Bomben rystet Riyadh i mai 2003. Flere amerikanere ble drept. Da brøt USA forbindelsen.
And you know, this was back in the day when we had an authorized channel with the Iranians. It started right after 9/11 and I ran it for our side and at that time, this was something my Iranian counterpart and I talked about.
When were the talks? The talks went from September ’01. I was on a flight to Geneva because [the talks] were under the auspices of the U.N., and they ran until the beginning of May ’03 off and on. We broke them off after the Riyadh bombings in that month. We had warned the Iranians [the bombings] were being planned by Al Qaeda figures in Tehran under Iranian protection. They didn’t do anything about it and we lost Americans.
But in the early months, we had a fair meeting of the minds. They were very, very anxious to get on with the war: ”Will you guys please hurry up?” And then subsequently we talked about the problem with the warlords and one of the discussions was, “Well, maybe we Iranians could do something about Ismail Khan and you Americans could do something about Dostum.”
En annen interessant betraktning Crocker kommer med, er at han mener begrepet Taliban er en fiksjon. Taliban finnes ikke som enhetlig organisasjon:
I am increasingly persuaded there is no “the Taliban.” I think it is an increasingly factionalized movement, some of whose members stand totally against any form of reconciliation and others who want to pursue it.
If a reconciliation comes, it’s not going to be a grand bargain, I don’t think. It’s going to be piecemeal: individuals here, individuals there. I consider that a realistic possibility.
I don’t think you’ll ever get the Haqqanis or Mullah Omar and those closest to him. [The Haqqanis are a family-run insurgent and criminal network based in Miran Shah, Pakistan, in the largely ungoverned tribal areas. They are believed to be responsible for some of the more complex terrorist attacks in Kabul and elsewhere in the country. Mullah Mohammed Omar is the leader of the Taliban and is believed to be in hiding in Pakistan.]
