BY BRIAN WILLIAMS

Mazar-e-Sharif, Aug. 11: The leader of Afghan Opposition forces besieging Kabul said on Monday he was ready for peace talks any time and anywhere, except in Pakistan.

Northern alliance leader Ahmed Shah Masood also made an impassioned plea in an interview for the United States and other major western nations to get involved in peace talks to repay what he said was a moral debt owed to Afghanistan.  

In written answers to a series of questions, Gen. Masood, a hero of the fight against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, said he can take the capital whenever he wanted and oust Kabul’s Islamic extremist Taliban government.  

Fighting has been in progress between the two sides for the past three weeks about 20 km from the northern outskirts of the capital.  

“We are ready for talks with the Taliban without conditions under the United Nations’ auspices at any place, except Pakistan, and at any time,” Gen. Masood said. “We are ready to do this even though we are nearly at the gates of Kabul and have no reason to negotiate with them.”  

Opposition leaders say neighbouring Pakistan is directly helping the Taliban and wants to make Afghanistan a buffer state under its influence.  

Gen. Masood said alliance’s plans to take over the capital had been temporarily put on hold while details were worked out for a civilian administration to run the capital and in hopes the Taliban would come to the negotiating table.  

“There will also be a nationwide uprising against the Taliban in parts of the country they control in the next few days,” Gen. Masood said. “We are coordinating our military actions in Kabul with this.”

Gen. Masood proposed that if the Taliban agreed to talks, there should be a “temporary government formed for a very short time” that would set the framework and details of an elected government.  

The temporary government would be formed out of a council of prominent Afghans, both at home and abroad, that could include Taliban representatives.  

Gen. Masood said the United States, a strong backer of his rebels during their fight against the then-Soviet Union’s occupation of Afghanistan, should put pressure on Pakistan to stop supporting the Taliban.  

“Our fight against the Soviets played a big part in breaking the Iron Curtain and ending the Cold War,” Gen. Masood said. (Reuter)