Afghan First Vice President: "Gathering Anti-Taliban Forces... Will Never Surrender"

Claiming to be 'Interim President' under the Constitution... Iran TV "Vice President Supporters Recapture Northern Charikar"

Amrullah Saleh, First Vice President of Afghanistan [Photo by Reuters]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] Amrullah Saleh, the First Vice President of Afghanistan, has declared himself the interim president and urged the Afghan people to resist the Taliban. This signals the potential outbreak of another civil war in Afghanistan, where the Islamic militant group Taliban has taken control nationwide.

According to major foreign media on the 17th (local time), Vice President Saleh posted on his Twitter that according to the Afghan constitution, in the event of the president's absence, escape, resignation, or incapacitation, the First Vice President becomes the interim president, asserting that he is currently the interim president of Afghanistan. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country on the 16th.

Vice President Saleh stated that he is contacting Afghan leaders to seek support and insisted that he will never surrender to the Taliban. He also said he is rallying leaders to resist the Taliban in Panjshir Province and appealed to the people to join the resistance against the Taliban.

TASS news agency, citing Iran's Al-Alam TV, reported that in Panjshir Province, northeast of Kabul, where Saleh is gathering anti-Taliban forces, armed clashes occurred on the 18th between forces supporting Vice President Saleh and the Taliban. Al-Alam TV added that Saleh's supporting forces had earlier recaptured Charikar, the capital of Parwan Province north of Kabul. Charikar is located on the route connecting Mazar-i-Sharif, the largest city in the north, and Kabul.

Al-Alam TV reported that former Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum, an Uzbek warlord, dispatched a force of 10,000 troops to Panjshir. Dostum was a key leader of the Northern Alliance, which was the main anti-Taliban armed group. He also led efforts when the United States attacked the Taliban government in 2001. However, he is notorious for human rights abuses, including allegations of suffocating hundreds of Taliban fighters by locking them in containers during battles with the Taliban.

During their previous rule over Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, the Taliban failed to fully control about 10% of the country, including northern regions mainly inhabited by non-Pashtun groups.

The Taliban's power base is the Pashtun ethnic group, which accounts for 42% of Afghanistan's population. Afghanistan is composed of various ethnic groups including Tajiks (27%), Hazaras (9%), and Uzbeks (9%), among others.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.