We want to make the Taliban realize that the only way forward is through negotiation,” he said in a telephone interview. “We do not want a war to break out.”
It has been confirmed that anti-Taliban forces took back three districts in the northern province of Baghlan. The area borders Panjshir where Massoud says the Afghan army is growing in strength.
The operation was reportedly carried out by local militia groups who were reacting to the Taliban’s “brutality.”
Massoud called for an inclusive, broad-based government in Kabul representing all of Afghanistan’s different ethnic groups and said a “totalitarian regime” should not be recognized by the international community.
He says his army is committed. “They want to defend, they want to fight, they want to resist against any totalitarian regime.”
The Taliban moves closer
Meanwhile, on Twitter, the Taliban’s Alemarah claims hundreds of fighters were heading towards Panjshir. And were invading “after local state officials refused to hand it over peacefully”. A video showed a column of captured trucks flying the Taliban flag moving along a highway. But it is uncertain where and when the video was taken.
