Word: shah
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Meeting in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi, Muslim delegates to a shura, or consultative assembly, appeared set to nominate as Prime Minister of their "interim" government Ahmat Shah, 44, a U.S.-trained engineer and hard- line fundamentalist. Muhammad Nabi Muhammadi, 68, a former member of Afghanistan's parliament, was named to fill the largely ceremonial office of President. The shura thus managed to bridge, for the moment, the principal issue dividing the rebel side: whether post-Soviet Afghanistan should be governed as an Islamic revolutionary state, on the Iranian model, or as one that is moderate and secular. Shah strongly...
While choosing one exemplar of each approach for the interim government's two top posts would be an obvious attempt at compromise, it would not guarantee that Shah and Muhammadi will be able to work together smoothly. Shah, moreover, owes his position at least in part to strong backing from the Pakistani intelligence service, a source of support that is resented by many Afghans, who view it as meddling...
...factions disagreed over everything, from the role that ex-King Zahir Shah should play in the rebuilding of war-torn Afghanistan to the composition of the shura itself, some spectators had the eerie feeling of watching a car accident taking place in slow motion. "This is the last chance for Kabul," says a Western diplomat based in Islamabad. "If it collapses, Afghanistan will collapse into fratricidal bloodshed...
Najib also said he had sent emissaries to Rome to talk with former Afghan King Zahir Shah, and that his government had been in contact with the Moslem guerrilla resistance. He did not elaborate...
...government's most immediate military concern focuses on the Salang. The Soviets have been able to keep the route open by combining military muscle with diplomacy. Outposts dot the way. Soviet officers had an informal understanding with Ahmad Shah Massoud, the powerful mujahedin commander in the Panjshir Valley, north of Kabul: safe passage for Soviet vehicles as long as Moscow keeps up the withdrawal. After last week's offensive by Soviet and Afghan troops, that arrangement may be finished...