October 14, 2001	Sunday	Rajab 26, 1422

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WASHINGTON, Oct 13: The United States continues to refuse publicly to take a stand on the help it is providing or it may provide in a post-Taliban set-up to the Northern Alliance.

Asked directly at his Press briefing on Friday afternoon as to whether the US considered the Northern Alliance as allies “in the war against terror in Afghanistan”, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said: “The President has indicated that he will work in a number of ways with different groups that are interested in securing an Afghanistan that is free from terrorism.”

Despite persistent questioning, Mr Fleischer stuck to this formulation, stressing the Bush administration would like to first see “the military fight and win this war” before considering the implications of how to “work with others to get a peaceful Afghanistan.”

Pakistan has expressed its grave reservations about any dominant role for the Northern Alliance after the Taliban regime is ousted, but it has indicated its willingness to work with ex-king Zahir Shah and in the convening of a Loya Jirga. It should also have welcomed America’s approach to the United Nations this week about a possible UN role in the future. In this connection, President George Bush was reported on Thursday to have talked to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who later declared his preference for a broad-based government in Kabul.

Mr Fleischer said at his Press briefing that a UN role had also been discussed in meetings of the National Security Council.

One report here on Saturday suggested that the US and the UN were pushing for a “Loya Jirga plus”, a mechanism that would include not only the traditional, ethnic-based groups but also Northern Alliance fighters.

The US is known to be making efforts meanwhile to win over Pashtun leaders, those in the Taliban who may be disenchanted with their leadership and may be feeling the pressure of the repeated air strikes on Afghanistan.

A Loya Jirga process has been based in Rome, where Zahir Shah lives, and another in Cyprus, which is led by a Gulbuddin Hekmatyar dissident. Two other initiatives working towards the same objective have been based in Bonn and Pakistan.

It would be premature and perhaps wrong to deduce from what is being said about the Northern Alliance by the White House and the State Department that it is resistant to the idea of the alliance’s participation in a post-Taliban set-up but rather to be indicative of the many political pressures being brought to bear on the Bush administration to work out a mixture that would be acceptable to the various nations with strategic interests in Afghanistan. This is a subject that Secretary of State Colin Powell would be closely investigating during his visit to Islamabad and New Delhi.