Anti-Taliban protests spread across Afghanistan led by the Provisional Government

Government forces gathering in Panjshir province… “Hope for US support”
Russia also postpones Taliban regime approval… Prepare to withdraw embassy

[아시아경제 이현우 기자] As anti-Taliban protests spread across Afghanistan and the Taliban are losing public opinion, it is known that the remnants of the Afghan government have gathered and established a provisional government. From the perspective of the Taliban, who urgently need international community approval and establishment of a regime, the provisional government is expected to be a major obstacle. The international isolation of the Taliban is expected to intensify as Russia, which was friendly to the Taliban, said it would withhold official approval of the Taliban regime.

According to foreign media such as the AP on the 19th (local time), anti-Taliban protests took place in major cities including the capital Kabul on the occasion of Afghanistan’s independence day. As demonstrators burned Taliban flags and marched with Afghan flags, Taliban soldiers opened fire on the demonstrators and forcibly suppressed them. Seven people have been killed and hundreds more injured in Afghanistan so far.

Afghan national hero, son of General Massoud joins the Provisional Government of Panjisir

The protests are said to have been led by the Afghan Provisional Government, which continues to resist the Taliban in Panjisir province, which has yet to be occupied by the Taliban. According to CNN, First Vice President Amrula Saleh, head of the provisional government of Afghanistan, said on his Twitter on the same day, “Let’s salute the flag-bearers and build the dignity of our country”, leading anti-Taliban protests.

It is known that Vice President Saleh fled to Panjisir Province just before the fall of Kabul on the 16th and established a provisional government and is gathering the forces of the former government forces. The Panjishir region is a canyon region 125 km northeast of Kabul and is famous as a natural fortress that was not captured in the war with the Soviet Union in 1979. Earlier, CNN reported that the Afghan government had moved some of its forces and weapons to the Panjishir area even before the Taliban invaded.

In the past, the Northern Alliance forces that resisted the Taliban during the first Taliban in power in 1996 are also gathering in the Panjishir area. The leader of the Northern Alliance, Ahmad Massoud Jr., appealed to the Western powers for support through an article he wrote for the Washington Post on the same day. “The Taliban is not just a problem for the Afghan people,” he said. “I call on Joe Biden’s administration and Congress and our Afghan friends in London and Paris to stand up for us,” he said. “The United States and our democratic allies are our only hope.”

According to the New York Times (NYT), Massoud Jr. is known as the son of General Ahmad Shah Massoud, who became a national hero in the war with the Soviet Union, and has a high reputation in Afghanistan. More than 6,000 soldiers have already gathered in Panjysir, the New York Times reported, as he declared that he would fight with the Provisional Government.

Russia’s friendly turn, “I never officially approved the Taliban regime”

It is evaluated that the Taliban, which was speeding up the international community’s recognition and establishment of the regime, met a major obstacle. Russia has changed its attitude and announced that it will withhold approval of the Taliban regime, and it is known that it is considering withdrawing its embassy in Kabul, raising tensions in the Taliban.

“Russian officials have not issued any statements authorizing the change of power in Afghanistan,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a regular briefing on the same day. We are just evaluating it,” he said. “Russia is ready to provide its own civilian aircraft to evacuate Afghans who are about to leave Kabul,” he said.

Reporter Lee Hyun-woo knos84@asiae.co.kr