The former national security advisor said friendly relations with the region was more important than strategic cooperation with the US. Former national security advisor Rangeen Dadfar Spanta on Thursday said that friendly relations between Afghanistan and neighboring and regional countries was more important than that of strategic cooperation between Kabul and Washington.

Meanwhile, Spanta’s fellow party members dismissed the present government as having no credibility and claimed it has already started manipulating the next elections in the country. 

They said government’s foreign and domestic policies have failed. 

One party member, Jaffar Mahdawi, said that when looking back on Afghanistan’s past, ethnic divisions have never been quite so bad as they are today. 

He said the gap between ethnic groups in the country had widened under the National Unity Government (NUG). 

But former deputy minister of education Sediq Patan said the past needs to be put aside. 

“We should act wisely and say good bye to the past,” he said.  

However, government is adamant that it has worked to fix past mistakes. 

“Over the past three years the National Unity Government has worked hard to fix the bad heritage it inherited from the previous government; we defined our foreign policy to five key circles and the example is our friendly relations with the neighbors and foreign countries except Pakistan,” said deputy presidential spokesman Dawa Khan Menapal. 

Mehwar-e-Mardum-e-Afghanistan was formed in July by a number of leading political figures who have in the past worked for government.

Around 100 individuals - including Rahmatullah Nabil, the former head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) and Rangin Dadfar Spanta, the former adviser to the national security council - are included in the leadership of the new party.

They said that the only solution to the ongoing turmoil in the country is for the people of Afghanistan to play a great role in politics.