Afghanistan Opposition Forces Insist ‘There’s Still Hope’

WASHINGTON / ISLAMABAD - Afghan forces opposed to the Taliban are insisting the fight is not over despite claims by Taliban officials that the last stronghold of the resistance is under their control.

Speaking in Washington, the foreign relations chief for Afghanistan’s National Resistance Front (NRF) acknowledged that the situation “isn't as optimistic as we want it to be” after Taliban incursions into the northern Panjshir Valley, but that “there's still hope.” “Their entrance doesn’t mean defeat,” the NRF’s Ali Nazary said Friday during a brief appearance at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative public policy research group in Washington. "It was a tactical retreat,” he said, claiming that the NRF still controls 60% to 65% of Panjshir province.