KABUL, Afghanistan, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said Monday there was still "a risk that remaining members of the Taliban could destabilize the situation in Afghanistan," and U.S. forces should remain in his country "as long as al Qaida and the Taliban present a threat."
In an exclusive interview with United Press International, Abdullah said, "Even if most of al Qaida is now out of the country, their scope is international. Just yesterday, a friend brought me a list of hundreds of telephone numbers outside Afghanistan found in the house of an al Qaida leader."
One of the key spokesmen of the Northern Alliance that expelled the Taliban from Kabul in a lightning push from the north in November, Abdullah is one of the three Northern Alliance members who hold leading posts in the interim coalition administration formed at the multi-ethnic conference on Afghanistan's political future held in Bonn, Germany in November.
Interviewed in his office in the Afghan Foreign Ministry in Kabul, the minister acknowledged the interim government headed by Prime Minister Hamid Karzai, which took over on Dec. 22, does not control major parts of the country. He believed it would be "preferable" if the British-led International Security Assistance Force, which is arriving in Kabul under U.N. auspices to secure the capital, "were deployed in other regions as well."
However, observers said such an extension of ISAF's role would first have to be re-negotiated with the ethnic and tribal leaders who had signed the original agreement to accept a multi-national peacekeeping force.
Abdullah said the government's limited reach had resulted in the release of a senior Taliban leader he calls "one of the most well-known criminals of the Taliban regime." He said it was "unfortunate" that a local governor decided to free Ex-Taliban Justice Minister Nuradin Turabi.
Turabi was arrested near Kandahar last week together with six other officials of the ousted fundamentalist Islamic government, and Abdullah admits that Turabi "may have escaped."
Turabi's release was a setback for ongoing efforts to hunt down major al Qaida and Taliban leaders. Human rights and women's groups accuse the fugitive justice minister of responsibility for some of the worst excesses of the former regime, including protecting al Qaida terrorists, massacres and deportations, the public executions and beating of women, and the destruction of massive Buddha statues.
"The freeing of Turabi is a serious matter which the government is investigating," Abdullah said. "There has to be a solution which will provide assurances for the future."
Neither the Karzai government or U.S. Special Forces commanders in Afghanistan were informed when the group of Taliban fugitives, including Turabi, turned themselves over to local tribal leaders who let them go with the consent of the ethnic Pashtun governor, Sherzai.
On Saturday, U.S. Senator Joe Biden, D-Del., and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, told UPI following his meeting with Abdullah in Kabul, "We have expressed our concern to the Karzai government about some of the deal making that's going on at local levels. We can't allow these kind of war criminals to get away."
Explaining the failure of American forces to capture key al Qaida and Taliban leaders hiding out in southern Afghanistan, Abdullah remarked: "The second phase of the war on terrorism has not been as clear cut as the first. The situation in the south is more confusing and more complicated".
Asked to comment on claims by U.S. sources that Taliban officials are being reintegrated into the local government of Paktiar and possibly other provinces bordering Pakistan, Abdullah commented, "I cannot deny that strongmen in different parts of Afghanistan threaten the national integrity. We can only have faith that a general spirit to cooperate and co-exist that is evident now at a grass roots level and among different regional leaders will materialize into something tangible. A lot will depend on support from the international community and from our neighbors."
Those neighbors are taking steps to establish ties with the Karzai government.
"Neighboring countries realize they stand to benefit from Afghanistan's reconstruction," Abdullah said. Though Pakistan had been a strong backer of the Taliban regime, and the last country to sever diplomatic relations with the Taliban, Abdullah said he expects relations with Islamabad will soon improve now that Pakistan has sent a delegation to look into re-opening its embassy in Kabul.
Uzbekistan also is in the process of opening an embassy in Kabul and a consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif, where it has long-standing relations with the ethnic Uzbek forces of northern warlord and newly appointed Deputy Defense Minister Gen. Rashid Dostum.
Aware a current window of opportunity to achieve long-term stability in Afghanistan will not remain open forever, he added, "I cannot emphasize enough the urgency for international assistance. The government needs to function and that cannot be done without assistance from the international community."
The Afghan national treasury was completely looted by the Taliban and salaries for civil servants, teachers, doctors, police and armed forces which are supposed to be reorganized and trained by international peacekeeping troops haven't been paid for six months.
The foreign minister would not comment directly on U.S. reports Iranian intelligence agents are setting up arms trafficking operations to back client militias.
"Iran was the first country to open a new embassy in Kabul and a consulate in Herat," was all he said. Herat, the western most Afghan province, is ruled by Ismail Khan, a mujahedin commander with close ties to Iran.
