Word: kabul
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When the last of the Soviet Union's 115,000 troops rumbled out of Afghanistan last February, the common wisdom saw it as a whimpering finale to Moscow's Viet Nam. Surely it would be only a matter of time -- months at most -- before the collapse of the Kabul government led by President Najibullah, the weak puppet left in place by the withdrawing Soviets. Succeeding him would be an interim government composed of seven U.S.- and Pakistan-backed mujahedin factions...
...much for conventional wisdom. This week, when Secretary of State James Baker flies to Moscow for talks with Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, Afghanistan will be high on the agenda: namely, Soviet requests for negotiations to devise a political settlement of the stalemated war between the mujahedin and the Kabul forces. Moscow will complain, moreover, that the ongoing fighting is fueled by arms from the U.S., a violation of the Geneva accord that led to the Soviet troop withdrawal. But Baker is unlikely to respond favorably. The National Security Council has concluded that the rebels need more time to prove their...
...Jalalabad falls, can Kabul be far behind?" say the Afghans. But for the mujahedin forces, capturing Afghanistan's third largest city is proving tougher than expected. Last week the rebels confidently predicted they would take Jalalabad within a week. But after five days of fierce fighting, the Soviet-backed Kabul regime was showing no sign of surrendering. A victory for the rebels would give them an important boost in political credibility. On the other hand, if government forces can hold Jalalabad, they will deal a serious psychological blow to their enemies...
...Friday the rebel leaders, during their first Cabinet meeting inside Afghanistan, once again predicted victory. Said Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, President of the interim government: "We hope to hold further Cabinet meetings nearer and nearer Kabul...
There was a growing consensus in Washington that whatever the short-term twists, the country's eventual government would be Islamic in character, though not as radical as Iran's. According to this view, the new regime would not only be sufficiently decentralized to keep power outside Kabul largely in tribal hands but nonthreatening to the Soviets as well. Even the most anti- Soviet mujahedin, says a State Department official, realize that "the Afghans sleep next to the bear, and so they must act accordingly...