Hekmatyar to surface once peace deal is enforced: HIA

KABUL (Pajhwok): Gulbadin Hekmatyar will return to public life even before the removal of his name from the UN blacklist if the government implements more clauses of the peace deal, his party said on Wednesday.

The Hekmatyar-led Hezb-i-Islami Afghanistan (HIA) and the Ashraf Ghani administration, after months of peace negotiations, finally reached a peace accord in September last year.

Under the agreement, the government would try for the lifting of international sanctions against the party and removing names of HIA members from UN and US blacklists.

In an exclusive interview with Pajhwok Afghan News, Hezb-i-Islami (HIA) spokesman Hameed Azizi said the Afghans had misinterpreted a Wall Street Journal report that Russia had sought more time to consider the Kabul’s request.

According to UN rules, Russia has up to six months to provide reasons for its opposition to the Afghan government’s plea. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow had put the delisting on hold but had not blocked it.

In an exclusive interview with Pajhwok Afghan News, HIA spokesman Hameed Azizi said the Afghan media had misinterpreted the Wall Street Journal report that Russia was averse to the lifting of curbs on the party and its leadership.

He said the UN Security Council was yet to take a decision on Afghanistan’s request. Bo member of the powerful UN body had expressed opposition to the move, the HIA spokesman insisted.

However, he acknowledged reservations from France and Russia. But later, President Ashraf Ghani wrote a letter to his French counterpart, assuaging concerns in Paris regarding the peace agreement, Azizi said.

Some years back, the HIA had claimed responsibility for the killing of French soldiers in the Sarobi district of Kabul. Although some French circles opposed the delisting request, talks between the two governments and Hekmatyar’s letter to the French parliament resolved the issue, he explained.

“In the letter, Hekmatyar has told French people that HIA members had not come to their areas. But the French came to the area called Uzbin, which has been a stronghold of the party for 40 years, and entered people’s houses.

“In self-defence, the locals killed French soldiers. Moreover, war and peacetime conditions are different. In war, people are killed on both sides, but the situation changes once peace is reached. If the French want peace in Afghanistan, they should not oppose such moves.”

Azizi added Ghani had assured the French in his letter to President Francois Hollande that he would seek the removal of Hekmatyar’s name from the sanctions list and Paris would agree with the decision.

The HIA spokesman recalled Russia’s expression of support for the peace accord when it was signed. Since the lifting of sanctions was a key part of the agreement, Russians should back it, he argued.

He continued ties with the US and the war in Syria and such other issues were among Russia’s foreign policy priorities. As a result, he explained, Moscow had sought time to answer Kabul’s delisting request.

Afghanistan’s stability is central to peace in Asia and the world at large, according to the HIA spokesman, who urged Moscow to avoid hampering reconciliation in the war-devastated country and cooperate with efforts at warding off threats to the region, particularly from Daesh.

The Russians needed Stability in Afghanistan to eliminate the Daesh threat, he reasoned, saying Moscow and Kabul had been in contact on the removal of Hekmatyar’s name from the blacklist.

Demands from the govt

Azizi said they had already made clear during negotiations that the delisting question would in no way impede an agreement between the two sides. However, the HIA wants the government to implement the deal in toto.

Hekmatyar would return to public life once Afghan refugees were repatriated and HIA prisoners freed, the spokesman promised. The ex-prime minister would definitely surface if his dignity and security were guaranteed, he said.

“We have genuine complaint: Three months on, the Afghan government has been slow in implementing the peace agreement. Not a single HIA prisoner has been freed yet. There has been little progress in bringing home Afghan refugees…”

Views of analysts

Political commentator Intezar Khadim says Russia is one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. If Russia vetoes the removal of Hekmatyar’s name from the blacklist, sanctions against him will remain.

In case, the four other nations supported Kabul’s plea, the HIA chief would be dealt with leniently. According to Khadim, Hekmatyar can return to politics in Afghanistan and travel abroad even if Russia vetoes the sanction-lifting request.

“However, he will not be safe from Russian threats and Moscow will try to create problems from him,” he belied, saying the former superpower could not impede the enforcement of the peace pact on ethical grounds.

But another political observer, Abdul Shakoor Salangi, thinks Hekmatyar will remain on the blacklist in case of opposition from Russia. As a result, the HIA leader would not be able to participate freely in political activities.

Given its rivalry with the US, which supports the HIA-Kabul peace pact, Russia may delay its response to the request for lifting of sanctions against Hekmatyar, Salangi believes.

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Accused of having close ties with the Taliban leader was placed on US and UN blacklists.

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