Word: shahs
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Hamid Karzai is a lot tougher on Western donors than on his querulous countrymen. Afghanistan's interim leader Thursday escorted former king Zahir Shah back to Kabul after three decades in exile, last week upbraided international donors gathered in Kabul to discuss the country's budget. "So far we've only given hope to the Afghan people and not real activity," he said, slamming the international community's sluggish pace in delivering promised aid. "And don't expect us to give you a report every month," he said. "We'll give you a report when we want to give...
...Fires are expected to spread in the run-up to the loya jirga. "The next few months will be an especially fragile period," CIA director George Tenet recently told the U.S. Senate. Pashtun royalists hope people will rally around former King Mohammed Zahir Shah, even though he has returned with the constitutional rights of an ordinary citizen rather than those of a monarch. But Afghanistan's volatile ethnic divisions are just as likely to turn the frail 87-year-old king into a symbol of division than one of peace...
...have nothing against Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, Interior Minister Younis Qanooni or Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim. These three young disciples of deceased Afghan hero Ahmed Shah Massood impressed Western diplomats at the Bonn Conference and are probably among the most reliable warlords. The problem is that the Tajiks’ preponderance in the government makes other warlords very unhappy. And an unhappy warlord is often an unfriendly warlord...
...real trick will be to effectively discriminate between the good warlords and the bad ones, and provide assistance to leaders like Hamid Karzai, as well as the Tajik disciples of the late Ahmed Shah Massood. The U.S. must work with the new Afghan government to bring dependable chieftains, tribal elders and warlords under the umbrella of the state. It must then ensure that countries like Iran, Tajikistan and Pakistan cut off all aid to belligerent warlords like Dostum and Hekmatyar...
Pahlavi's reputation would be sullied if he shared the Shah's famously imperious manner and tastes. (At a 1971 celebration of 2,500 years of the Persian Empire, an entire ton of Iranian caviar was consumed.) So far, the Crown Prince has avoided being tainted with the family reputation. He drives a Jeep, wears a black plastic watch and says he plans to give up caviar. He can come across as a sort of Al Gore--earnest, consciously cerebral, techie. If the prospect of an Iranian Gore sounds grim, consider the alternatives--either before 1979 or after...