Afghanistan Nominates New Ambassador to the United States
News Central Asia
10/09/2003
It has been learnt from reliable sources that
Said Tayab Jawad, currently chief of staff to President Hamid
Karzai, has been nominated as the new Afghan ambassador to the
United States. Related developments indicate that the USA may
be conducting behind-the-curtain negotiations with some Taliban
factions.
Jawad, a lawyer by profession, is serving as chief
of staff and spokesman for Hamid Karzai since May 2002.
An ethnic Pashtun from Kandahar - the stronghold
of Taliban - Jawad left Afghanistan in 1980 after soviet invasion
and settled down in the United States where he worked as a lawyer.
Besides Pashtu, that is his mother tongue, Jawad
is proficient in English, German, French and Dari/Farsi languages.
His appointment as Afghan ambassador to the United
States coincides with White House decision to send Zalmay Khalilzad
as US ambassador to Afghanistan. Khalilzad is said to be a part
of the policymaking circles in the Bush administration. He is
a close associate of Perle and Wolfowitz.
Is’haq Shahryar, present Afghan envoy to
Washington, is reportedly going back to his business. He runs
a successful engineering firm that markets solar systems and
solutions.
Both countries have decided to replace their present
ambassadors at a time when the law and order situation in Afghanistan
is worsening because of infighting of warlords and clandestine
attacks of dissidents.
In the backdrop of this scenario, another significant
development a few days ago was that Mulla Wakil Ahmed Mutawakkil,
Afghan foreign minister during Taliban regime, was released
after 20 months of captivity at Bagram air base.
Mutawakkil has the reputation of a moderate religious
scholar and it was rumoured that immediately after the start
of US-led war in Afghanistan, he tried to form a breakaway faction
of Taliban to establish a moderate government in Kabul but American
authorities arrested him when he appeared for negotiations.
His release at this stage signals that American
occupying forces, after facing stiff resistance in southern
and eastern Afghanistan, may be contemplating some kind of compromise
with ‘acceptable’ Taliban.
