Amrullah Saleh Tears into Norway’s Afghanistan Blunders: ‘Kai Eide a Taliban Apologist’
Amrullah Saleh Tears into Norway’s Afghanistan Blunders: ‘Kai Eide a Taliban Apologist’
LONDON, 12 June 2025 – Amrullah Saleh, Afghanistan’s former Vice President and fiery resistance leader, has launched a blistering attack on Norway’s handling of the Afghan crisis, accusing Oslo of a decade of catastrophic missteps. In a scorching post on X, Saleh slammed Norway for “whitewashing” the Taliban since 2015 and passing off the subjugation of Afghan women as mere “cultural code.”
“Dear Norway,” Saleh wrote, “you just took a very small positive step to compensate for a series of indelible and uncorrectable past mistakes.” He gave a rare nod of approval to Norway’s decision to snub the Taliban at this year’s Oslo Forum, the glitzy diplomatic shindig hosted by the Oslo Forum Foundation. But the praise was short-lived.
Saleh didn’t hold back, singling out Kai Eide, Norway’s ex-diplomat and UN Special Representative for Afghanistan (2008-2010), as “the most incompetent SRSG” who later turned “Taliban apologist” in full public view. “He’s quiet now,” Saleh jabbed, suggesting Eide’s silence might be because the Taliban’s stench is too foul to defend or because he’s “emulating Hibatullah [Akhundzada] and covering his face.” Ouch.
The resistance leader, a linchpin of the National Resistance Front (NRF), urged Norway to deploy sharper diplomats for Afghanistan’s tangled mess or “stay away” to avoid tarnishing its shiny global rep. Saleh’s broadside reflects the raw anger of many Afghans who feel betrayed by Western diplomatic fumbles, particularly since the Taliban’s 2021 takeover.
Norway’s kept mum on Saleh’s tirade. The Oslo Forum’s Taliban snub marks a pivot from past years when the group got a seat at the table. For now, Saleh’s words are a stinging wake-up call to the West: get it right on Afghanistan, or don’t bother at all.
