Word: zahir
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...currying favor himself, furiously networking, Afghan-style. On Sept. 15, he dispatched an envoy to the newly arrived U.S. ambassador in Pakistan, Wendy Chamberlin, in hopes of gaining American backing. And last month he sent an envoy to Rome to pay respects to the aged, deposed Afghan King, Mohammed Zahir Shah, whom the U.S. has tapped as a symbolic rallying figure for post-Taliban Afghanistan. But if Shirzai is following the age-old Afghan custom of building bridges, he is also following its equally venerable tradition of nursing grudges. His clan is part of the Pashtun ethnic group, which, with...
Supplies are a major problem. Sitting in a shell-pocked command post with a panoramic view of the Kapisa front lines, Mahmad Zahir, a platoon commander with 21 years of combat experience, pulls out three Kalashnikov rifle magazines from the webbing under his jacket and lays them on the floor for inspection. Two of the three are empty. "We're short of ammunition--for tanks, artillery, machine guns, rifles. It's already cold, but we don't have enough blankets, and we have no winter uniforms," says the bearded, sunken-cheeked veteran. "If the Americans hit the Taliban...
...Security Council met late Tuesday to discuss its response to the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan. The focus of that discussion was how to provide urgent aid to the millions of Afghanis who face starvation, but high on agenda was a request from Afghanistan's exiled king, Zahir Shah, to send peacekeeping troops to Kabul in the event of the Taliban's collapse. King Zahir is the lynchpin of Western hopes for a consensus-based government in Kabul that could begin rebuilding the failed state of Afghanistan with international assistance. Maintaining the security of such a government in the face...
...part, remains united by their hatred of the Taliban rather than by any shared vision, and defeat of the common enemy may reopen old wounds among its various tribal factions. Moreover, while many Alliance leaders are inclined to accept the principle of a unity government formed around King Zahir, the Alliance is still nominally loyal to Barhanuddin Rabbani, the president overthrown by the Taliban but who is still recognized by the United Nations. And matters are complicated by Rabbani's opposition to the king and his own desire to resume office...
...exiled king, Zahir Shah, has appealed to the UN to send peacekeeping troops to a post-Taliban Afghanistan. Presumably there will be some pressure on the U.S. to be part of such a force - how will the Pentagon view such a possibility...