Word: zahir
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...most pro-Western and secular of the mujahedin leaders, despite his claim of direct descent from the Prophet Muhammad. Gailani's National Islamic Front is nicknamed the "Gucci Muj" for its leader's taste in well-tailored camouflage uniforms. Though he favors the return of exiled King Zahir Shah, Gailani is also a fervent believer in Western-style elections...
...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...
...major disagreement is the possible return to Afghanistan by the former monarch, King Zahir Shah, to serve as an interim ruler. Jamiat leaders reject the suggestion outright because they regard the King as a feudal holdover as well as accountable for the steady growth of Soviet involvement in the country until his ouster in 1973. "Free elections will have their limits," says Massoud. "Even if one of the other mujahedin parties were to propose it, we would not agree to people who have betrayed this country having a chance to participate...
...case is Afghanistan, which Ridgway calls a "symbol of what is troublesome to the West about Soviet conduct." Gorbachev has proclaimed a desire to withdraw from what he called a "bleeding wound," and the Soviets have even hinted that a national unity government might involve inviting back King Mohammed Zahir Shah, deposed in 1973. Yet their highly publicized pullout of 6,000 troops from Afghanistan last fall was an ill- disguised sham. Other soldiers soon took their place. The crucial test is not whether the Soviets will agree to a cease-fire, which would merely ratify the occupation, but whether...