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| Image: Flickr User - NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan |
By Catherine Putz
Nabil says Ghani is surrendering “Afghanistan’s 5,000 year history to Pakistan’s 60-year history.”
Afghanistan’s spy chief, Rahmatullah Nabil, resigned just as President Ashraf Ghani was returning from a brief trip to Pakistan to attend the Heart of Asia conference. The conference was widely seen as an opportunity for Ghani to start rebuilding relations with Pakistan and work toward restarting peace talks with the Taliban. But, it seems Ghani’s diplomatic maneuvers in Islamabad were not appreciated by all back home.
Nabil, who has led the National Directorate of Security (NDS) since 2013 (and previously from 2010 to 2012) warned in an angry Facebook post against trusting Pakistan and accused Islamabad of “clear interference” in Afghanistan’s internal affairs. He also said that Ghani was surrendering “Afghanistan’s 5,000 year history to Pakistan’s 60-year history.”
In his official resignation, as reported by TOLOnews, Nabil said he was grateful for the opportunity to lead the NDS for five years but points to a divergence of opinion on policy matters. “Unfortunately over recent months,” he wrote, “the working environment became a little bit difficult for me as I did not share views on a number of policies, this also undermined the environment of trust in my working area.”
Interestingly, Amrullah Saleh, who ran the NDS under former President Hamid Karzai from 2004 to 2010, resigned for the same reason. According to an interview with Reuters, Saleh called plans to negotiate with the Taliban a “disgrace.”
Read the full story at The Diplomat