Ahmed Rashid Explains: Regional Plan Needed in Afghanistan
Ahmed Rashid, acclaimed author and Central Asia expert, explained for the Atlantic Community that he believes that NATO should step up military efforts in Afghanistan and the United States will have to start including regional powers like Iran. If not, Rashid warned, the U.S. would lose in Afghanistan and the Taliban would come back to power.
Rashid said that the U.S. needs a “regional,” not a “particular [ed. or national] strategy” in Afghanistan.
He explained that the Taliban has become a regional phenomenon, a regional problem. The Taliban are in Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and other countries. These are also some of the countries that have been active and involved in Afghanistan for years, even decades.
“If the Taliban are becoming a regional problem, we need a regional solution,” Rashid said. “Now that should involve all the countries of the region who have been intervering in Afghanistan: Iran, Pakistan, the five Republics of central Asia, India.”
In order to do something against the insurgency of the Taliban, then, the U.S. will have to involve these countries in the peace process in Afghanistan. This means that it will have to reduce tensions between India and Pakistan, for as long as the two countries remain mortal enemies, they will fight each other in Afghanistan.
Iran too, Rashid explained, will have to get involved. “Iran has been ousted of the process” by America, Rashid said. “I think that the next administration has to talk to Iran about Afghanistan and Iran has to be brought into all the various forums, economic forums, aid forums, that exist on Afghanistan, in which it is not even a member.”
Watch Rashid explain his views on video:
