Abdullah's foreign policy ploughs independent line

While its domestic policy may be subject to internal pulls and pressures exerted by a deeply divided polity, the Afghan interim administration's biggest success story may be its foreign policy.

It aims at capitalising on the world's continuing interest to keep much needed aid flowing in, to rebuild the nation, while cleverly ploughing a furrow, independent of the US line.

The new thrust to a forward looking Afghanistan is largely due to its Foreign Minister Dr Abdullah Abdullah's pragmatic, energetic offensive to subsume old enmities, and win new friends especially in his war torn country's immediate neighbourhood.

In an indication that Afghanistan would stand firm against any outside interference in its internal affairs, he said : "In the aftermath of the international fight against terror, there was complete agreement that every country in the world must extend the hand of friendship and start a new era of ties that are not just linked to being Asian, or Arab, or Islamic but are ties that must be above all this.

"All have a common interest in helping Afghanistan, but it must be done without compromising the sovereignty of Afghanistan, the independence of Afghanistan."

Tuesday's visit to Kabul by Pakistan President General Musharraf amply demonstrates Afghanistan's bid to bury long simmering animosities with an old adversary, and set an independent agenda.

Abdullah, a bitter critic of the Taliban regime, which was backed by Pakistan, has negotiated the minefields of Afghanistan's fledgling foreign policy with increasing dexterity.

He told Gulf News in an exclusive interview in Kabul with some satisfaction: "We think the policy of Pakistan towards Afghanistan has changed soon after September 11. Fortunately, that is welcome news for Afghanistan."

He also said, pointedly, that "if there were elements within Pakistan that are still in contact with the Al Qaida and the Taliban, Pakistan should be working on it in their own capacity, they should be working in their official capacity to cut off the links. We can only encourage it."

His comments came in the backdrop of reports of an attempt by Hizb-e-Islami leader Gulbuddin Hikmatyar, once backed by neighbouring Pakistan, to sabotage the Hamid Karzai led interim administration. A number of Hikmatyar's associates were arrested, Afghan defence officials said.

Earlier this week, US and Pakistani officials in a series of joint raids arrested several suspected Al Qaida including Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden's deputy Abu Zubaydah in Pakistan's northern areas.

Abdullah, a close associate of slain Tajik commander Ahmed Shah Masood has called for Hikmatyar to be arrested and tried for war crimes. Hikmatyar, who found refuge in Iran during the Taliban years, recently moved back to Afghanistan with some reports placing him in Sarobi where he is reported to have a home.

Asked about US reports of continued interference in Afghan affairs by neighbouring Iran, which according to US officials is arming warlords in the western provinces where Iran has maintained traditional ties forged by common ethnicity, he admitted there were such reports, but refrained from any overt criticism of their powerful neighbour.

"Such reports have come to us, but we were never able to fully substantiate the reports of any direct Iranian involvement. We continue to have fairly good relations with Iran. They support us fully."

Asked if his relations with countries in the Gulf region that once supported the Taliban had also metamorphosised, he was equally diplomatic. "Then as well as now, the official policy of any neighbouring country must be supportive of its neighbours."

"Only a stable and strong Afghanistan that will survive internal instability will be in anybody's interests. Everybody wants a stable Afghanistan, after witnessing the potential destabilisation in the region that can be caused by the presence of a regime like the Taliban, I am certain the international community will ensure that Afghanistan is no longer destabilised, " he said.

"Bonn was a symbol of the commitment of the international community," Abdullah added.

The Foreign Minister indicated that Afghanistan's strategic positioning , at the crossroads of Asia is in large part, the reason for such intense international interest.

"We are a part of a wider region, than either east or west. We are at the crossroads, we have been described by the poet Iqbal as being the core, the very soul of Asia. It is not an exaggerated view, it is indeed a very important place in this part of Asia."

Once peace returns, Afghanistan is expected to become the bridge to resource rich Central Asia, eyed by an energy hungry west looking for cheap sources of oil and gas.

Some 4,800 foreign soldiers, part of the US led 18 nation International Security Assistance Forces are currently deployed in Kabul to keep infighting by powerful warlords at bay. Unlike the unpopular Soviets, who were defeated by the mujahideen, the presence of US and European soldiers have been welcomed in Kabul, although some believe they could wear out their welcome.

Asked when ISAF forces would withdraw, and whether he could put a time table to that withdrawal, Abdullah said "To set a time table for their withdrawal will be difficult. It will not be this month, or the next month. After all, this is the campaign against terror. That terror was unleashed on our people. They suffered under the reign of terror. Now, we are a part of that campaign against ridding our country and the world of that menace. It's not over.

"This affects us as much as it affects the US. We have fully and amply demonstrated that on our part, we back it all the way."

Abdullah betrayed some of the frustration he must have felt, when all their pleas for help fell on deaf ears when he said " We had asked for it, for help, for so many years, but there was no response, no one in the world community heard or was willing to interfere. Sometimes I wonder whether an earlier engagement would have been more effective."

Abdullah, spent years with the legendary Tajik leader Ahmed Shah Masood, fighting the Taliban, who pinned them down in their traditional stronghold of the Panjsher valley. Masood was assassinated days before September 11, and did not live to see his Northern Alliance soldiers storm into Kabul under the umbrella of the US air cover on November 17.

Asked if the threat had lessened in any way from before, he said, "how can one compare, most of the country then was under the Taliban and the Al Qaida."

"Today's situation is like fighting a little bushfire here and there. At that time, all of Afghanistan was aflame."

He also slammed the Taliban for its divisive policy of ethnicity. "Their arcane reinterpretation of Islam, based on ethnicity, and the foreign agenda they imposed on us, fragmented Afghanistan more than any other previous rule. Ethnicity was used to divide us like never before."

He hoped he said that the people of Afghanistan would soon be given the right to self-determination. "I am confident that wisdom and their will is certain to prevail, I have faith that there will be an end to the games of the past."

He said resent