Veteran Afghan Warlords Form New Front To Talk With Taliban

A band of veteran Afghan leaders, including two regional strongmen, are angling for talks with the Taliban and plan to meet within weeks to form a new front for holding negotiations on the country's next government, a member of a group told Devjyot Ghoshal of Reuters.

Photo Insert: Khalid Noor meets with Dr. Afzal Hadid, the elected chairman of the Balkh Provincial Council.

Khalid Noor, son of Atta Mohammad Noor, the once-powerful governor of northern Afghanistan's Balkh province, said the group comprised of veteran ethnic Uzbek leader Abdul Rashid Dostum and others opposed to the Taliban's takeover.

"We prefer to negotiate collectively, because it is not that the problem of Afghanistan will be solved just by one of us," Noor, 27, told Reuters in an interview from an undisclosed location.

"So, it is important for the entire political community of the country to be involved, especially the traditional leaders, those with power, with public support."

Atta Noor and Dostum, veterans of four decades of conflict in Afghanistan, both fled the country when the northern city of Mazar-i Sharif fell to the Taliban, the hardline Islamist group, without a fight. The US-backed government and military folded elsewhere as the Taliban swept into Kabul on Aug. 15.

However, the backroom discussions are a sign of the country's traditional strongmen coming back to life after the Taliban's stunning military campaign. It will be a challenge for any entity to rule Afghanistan for long without consensus between the country's patchwork of ethnicities, most analysts say.

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