NP Afghanistan coup 'being planned'

[David Morris]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,560872,00.html

Afghanistan coup 'being planned'

Move to replace Taliban leader with moderates

Jonathan Steele in Tehran
Monday October 1, 2001
The Guardian

Pakistan is trying to organise a coup in Afghanistan which will either kill 
or depose the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and allow moderates to 
take control of the movement, according to highly placed sources in Iran.
The moderates would then be expected to join talks with the Northern 
Alliance on forming a coalition government for Afghanistan.

After years of civil war this would return the country to a milder form of 
Islam in place of the Taliban's fierce repression and the exclusion of women 
from work and girls from school.

Iran has been a key player in the Afghan crisis and takes part in the 
regular "Six plus Two" talks which the UN convenes. These include 
Afghanistan's six neighbours, Iran, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, 
Tajikistan, and China, plus the US and Russia.

The talks are aimed at finding a "broad-based" government for Afghanistan 
but they have been rumbling on for four years.

Pakistan represents the views of the Taliban while the Northern Alliance is 
represented by Iran and Russia, its largest arms suppliers.

"The big difference now is that the US is taking the talks seriously and 
that Pakistan has changed its position," the source, who is close to Iran's 
supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said yesterday.

"Pakistan no longer defines 'broad-based' as meaning the Taliban should have 
90% of the cabinet seats, while other groups share the rest. It is 
withdrawing its support from the Taliban and planning a coup to bring 
moderates forward who will take a realistic position."

Pakistan is the only country which still has diplomatic relations with the 
Taliban, but will not cut them so as to maintain a channel of contact, 
according to the source. This has Washington's approval.

In a sign of growing panic among their leaders, the Taliban recently made a 
secret plea to Iran for military aid in the face of a possible US attack, 
the source revealed. Although Iran gives arms to the Northern Alliance, the 
Taliban hoped that as a leading champion of Islam, Iran would not allow a 
fellow Islamic state to be defeated by the US. "We rejected the request out 
of hand", the source said.

Iran believes the Afghan crisis has strengthened its chances of ending the 
isolation which the US and, to a lesser extent, Europe have imposed on it 
for 20 years.

The US call on Iran to join an anti-terrorist coalition and President George 
Bush's statement that any state not with America is against it have 
irritated Iran's policymakers. They see it as unrealistic to expect Iran to 
join non-Islamic countries in making war on another Islamic country.



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