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CNN Live Saturday

Is the World Ready for a New Afghanistan?

Aired December 01, 2001 - 15:20   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, for several decades now, Afghanistan has been plagued by war. But with the Taliban now teetering on the brink of collapse, is the world ready for what's next in Afghanistan?

Joining us now from Washington with some insight is Peter Tomsen. He is a former U.S. envoy to Afghanistan. Thank you very much for your time this afternoon. We sure do appreciate it on a Saturday, ambassador.

PETER TOMSEN, FORMER U.S. ENVOY TO AFGHANISTAN: Thanks, Leon.

HARRIS: What do you make of what you heard about the talks that are underway right now in Afghanistan? And the balancing act that's underway right now with trying to figure out how many people should be on any commission in an interim government and who should have which jobs? What do you make of that process?

TOMSEN: Leon, I think it's all good news. I never expected them to go this far. Rabbani was going to be an obstacle. His tactic is to delay, and he also will try to throw monkey-wrenches into the spokes as things go along. He did that last month when he stopped agreement for a meeting in Turkey, even before the Taliban left Kabul, for a large group of 150, this council, to take over in Kabul after the Taliban leave.

He delayed for 32 days the sending of the names for the Northern Alliance side, although the Rome group was ready. And then Kabul fell, and Rabbani moved into the presidential palace.

You see this same pattern emerging now, where he's attempted to obstruct and delay, but apparently all of this pressure from the international community and from within his own Northern Alliance, has turned things around, and there are people in the Northern Alliance and others at the table there in Bonn who want to move forward, put together this interim council, and move it to Kabul.

I suspect Rabbani will still try to keep his legitimacy as quote, unquote "president of the Northern Alliance," even though he's never been selected by Afghans, and that will be a problem still.

HARRIS: Do you see any others on the horizon right now? Any other figures there who may be posing as potential wrinkle-makers here? TOMSEN: I think the biggest problems will come from outside, Leon. From Moscow, from Tehran and from Pakistan. Like for instance the Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, after meeting his Iranian counterpart in New York a couple of weeks ago, announced that they recognize Rabbani as the sole legitimate authority in Afghanistan. This is not helpful, giving Rabbani extra legitimacy.

What the outside world should be doing is ensuring a level playing field among all the Afghan groups. There's been too much interference from the outside in the last 23 years, first from Moscow to support the Afghan Communist. Then from Pakistan and the Gulf to support the extremists, like the Taliban.

It's time for outside powers not to champion any individual Afghan faction, but instead to assist the U.N. as it brings these factions together and moves along towards an agreement.

HARRIS: All right. We sure do appreciate the insight this afternoon. Peter Tomsen, former U.S. envoy to Afghanistan. Thank you very much. We hope to talk with you again down the road, because this is going to be lots of interesting talk to come in the days, days ahead, I should say.

TOMSEN: Thanks, Leon.

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