Word: najib
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Pakistan and Iran. But Gorbachev's unstated goal -- strikingly similar to the Nixon Administration's declared policy in Viet Nam -- seems to be two-pronged: not merely to pull out Soviet troops but also to prolong the life of the Soviet-installed government of Najibullah, also known as Najib, the former secret police chief who took power...
Nonetheless, the Kremlin's willingness to deal at all reflects deep frustration with its eight-year misadventure in Afghanistan. In a recent poll of Muscovites by the Soviet Academy of Sciences and the French polling organization IPSOS, 53% of respondents favored total withdrawal. Even worse, Najib has failed to gain significant support despite launching a "national reconciliation" effort in which the burly leader disavowed Communism and offered bribes to win supporters. The war, meanwhile, is going disastrously for the Soviets. Says Alex Alexiev, a senior analyst at the Rand Corp. "They are at their wits...
However that sounded, Gorbachev was by no means washing his hands of Najib. Said a Pentagon analyst: "It is somewhat naive to think that the Soviets will withdraw and leave a Communist regime to collapse." Sure enough, Moscow last week pressed Islamabad to drop its objection to dealing with Najib. To drive home that point, Yuli Vorontsov, First Deputy Foreign Minister, visited Islamabad to deliver a vague threat. Said he: "Any delays in the signing of the accords from now on will not be of the Soviet Union's making. We don't know who will take that responsibility." Continued...
...Minister of State for Foreign Affairs: "We don't just want an agreement, we want an agreement that can be implemented." Specifically, Pakistan needs the cooperation of the seven-party mujahedin alliance to proceed with the peace agreement. Yet the guerrilla leadership will not accept an agreement with Najib. If Pakistan deals with him anyway, the results will probably be chaotic. The rebels would lose their arms pipeline -- including the Stingers -- and face a potent Soviet force for at least several months. Continued fighting would deter the more than 2 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan from returning home. Skeptics like...
...resistance leadership, based mostly in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, is not much help to its hosts. Islamabad is leaning heavily on the seven resistance leaders to propose, as an alternative to Najib's regime, a transitional government acceptable to Moscow and Kabul. "Zia is telling us not to be so stubborn," said one of the seven. Last week they agreed that a new government would be open to "good Muslims," but the proposal appeared too vague to have any practical value for Islamabad...