Ahmad Wali Masoud, brother of Afghan leader Ahmad Shah Masoud

Ahmad Wali Masoud, brother of the late prominent anti-Taliban leader Ahmad Shah Masoud, said on Wednesday that the resistance is "spreading extensively" across Afghanistan against the Movement isolated from the rest of the people because of its hardline conservative ideology.

“The beliefs of the people of Afghanistan have changed in the past 20 years. There has been a big jump,” Wali Masoud told AFP during his visit to Paris, adding that "Afghan women want to live and work."

He added that the Afghan youth and the Taliban belong to two different, distant worlds, and he considered that the “Taliban” is the most isolated group in Afghanistan.

Wali Masoud said people think that the Afghans are backward and so they will accept the Taliban's version of Sharia law, but this is no longer the situation. He noted that "the resistance is spreading extensively across Afghanistan, highlighting that it is not limited to one military organization.

Recently, the National Resistance Front, the main anti-Taliban group, was formed in the Panjshir Valley, the stronghold of late Commander Ahmad Shah Masoud and his men, near the Afghan capital, Kabul, which the "Taliban" and the Soviet forces earlier failed to seize control of.

The new resistance front is headed by Ahmad Masoud, the son of Commander Ahmad Shah Masoud and nephew of Ahmad Wali, who asked Western countries to arm his forces.

Ahmad Wali Masoud considered that "the international community has got a moral obligation to help us”, adding that it has to protect itself from the expansion of terrorist forces stationed in Afghanistan under the auspices of the Taliban and prevent them from affecting the region.

"Our guys have a lot of experience... If it comes to resistance, we are pretty sure that across Afghanistan, there will be warfare everywhere to exhaust the Taliban," Ahmad Wali said.

He also stressed that if dialogue with the Taliban fails, there will be all forms of resistance, at any time, and forever.

"Taliban" Spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said that it was probable that the Movement will reach an agreement with local leaders in Panjshir Province, northeast of Kabul, to enter the region without combat.

Mujahid stated during an interview for Afghan Shamshad TV that they are in contact with the people of Panjshir and in talks with dignitaries that will soon end the "problem" without need for war.