now on bbc news, time for hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk, i m stephen sackur. the taliban now have the afghanistan they fought forfor two decades, a country rid of american and nato troops, theirs to bend to their will. or maybe it s not as simple as that. can the taliban afford to forego international aid and economic assistance? do they need to build alliances both inside and outside the country? well, my guest is 0mar zakhilwal, former afghan finance minister and recent interlocutor with the taliban. does the future belong to the pragmatists or the zealots in afghanistan?
we just saw a statement by the taliban spokesperson that the past three days, there was their leadership meeting in kandahar and they have discussed things. we hope that there has been some positive outcome out of that, that there is agreement on accommodating other political sides in an inclusive set up, because there would be.that would be the only sustainable set up that could, er, that could bring peace and stability to this country. i ve been extremely vocal that the type of the taliban government off the back of the 1990s absolutely will not succeed in this country. and they.and many of those leaders agree, and that s encouraging. well, one of the key factors here may be the state of the afghan economy. in your experience, in your view as a former finance minister of longstanding in your country, how close is afghanistan s economy to collapse
complete collapse right now? i would say very close. we are in an economic crisis. we have an economy that s dependent on foreign aid. we have an economy that s also dependent on trade, in businesses. the businesses are depressed. foreign aid has stopped to, um, trickle in. and the taliban very well know that it depends on international recognition of the next government. and that is, again, a factor of hope for us, that the taliban know the importance of it. the taliban have. with respect, mr zakhilwal, what we see right now is the united states has cut off all of afghanistan s dollar reserves. that s billions and billions of us dollars. we see the imf has also, for the moment, suspended all economic assistance to afghanistan. we see an economy that, until two weeks ago, was 40% reliant on international economic aid and assistance.
on a vast scale. you know it. you were finance minister when billions of dollars were taken away from aid and assistance, and misused. so, frankly, you are intimately involved with all of this, even if the allegations against you personally were not proven. i ve responded to you on your show previously. i ve been extremely sort of open and candid and forthcoming on that. i would be an extremely happy person if one day. and i ve been investigated, i should tell you, the former government thoroughly investigated me. not only investigated me here, investigated me.as well and i m happy that i ve come clean through all this. but i hope that the day comes. but i guess the point really is whether you acknowledge now, sitting here under taliban rule, that the political elite
indicated that they will. but again, the international community, particularly the us active participation in role would be required so that we get there sooner than later. mr zakhilwal, one reason the americans and indeed others feel so burned by the afghan experience is because they poured billions, let us say even a trillion and more dollars into afghanistan over the last 20 years, and they ve seen a vast proportion of that money siphoned off into corruption, fraud, embezzlement, misuse and abuse. you, as a seniorfigure in the government over many years, and many others, stand accused of misusing aid and assistance over many years. why would the americans and others believe that is going to change now? first of all, speaking for myself, accusation is