Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum said on Wednesday he could defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan within six months if the international community trusts him.
“I am telling General Miller and NATO: you don’t have to bombard, you don’t have to have ground troops, let us prove that we deserve marshal rank,” Dostum said speaking at a ceremony in northern Jowzjan province to award him marshal rank.
“Our commandos are no less than their special forces… we know our geography well, we fight well, we don’t kill innocent people,” he said.
Dostum said that the Taliban cannot bring Afghanistan back into an Islamic Emirate. “We should compromise and find a name.”
He urged President Ghani to release the remaining Taliban prisoners so that the group stops making excuse for refusing to enter into peace talks.
The ceremony was attended also by chairman of High Council for National Reconciliation, Abdullah Abdullah, who said that he was sure that the process of prisoner exchanges would be competed. “There should be no excuses for refusal to start intra-Afghan negotiations,” he said.
