DUBAI (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Afghanistan's Northern Alliance leader, Burhanuddin Rabbani, said on Tuesday he would return to the Afghan capital Kabul on Wednesday, more than five years after being deposed.Rabbani, driven out of Kabul along with his forces in 1996 by the radical Islamic Taliban movement, ruled out Taliban involvement in any political settlement for Afghanistan.
He said former king Zahir Shah could return, but only as a citizen.
``God willing, tomorrow I will be in Kabul,'' Rabbani told Qatar's al-Jazeera satellite television in his first remarks since the fall of Kabul to Alliance forces on Tuesday morning after the Taliban retreated without a fight.
Since he was ousted, Rabbani has headed a Northern Alliance administration which until last week controlled barely 10 percent of the country.
The situation changed at the weekend with the start of a chain of stunning Alliance victories after a month of U.S.-led bombing of the Taliban.
Although the Taliban once controlled more than 90 percent of the country, Rabbani's representatives continued to hold the Afghan seat at the United Nations.
The ex-king, living in exile in Rome since 1973, is seen by many as a key player in any post-war political settlement.
In Rome, a senior adviser to the former monarch said the Alliance had broken an agreement by entering Kabul.
But Northern Alliance Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said Alliance forces had been forced to enter Kabul to maintain security after the unexpected Taliban retreat.
Ahmad Wali Masood, brother of assassinated Afghan warlord Ahmed Shah Masood and the Alliance's London envoy, told Reuters the Alliance wanted the ex-king to send a delegation to Kabul for talks on the war-torn country's political future