The Royal Solution

As

king of Afghanistan, Mohammed Zahir Shah used to golf, ski, shoot partridge and fish for trout in the Hindu Kush. Today the 86-year-old Shah lives in quiet exile in Rome, confining himself to the odd game of chess, rarely venturing outside his villa. He seems an unlikely candidate to unify Afghanistan and cleanse it of terrorist camps. But as America and its allies seek a political alternative to the fanatical Taliban, the aging former monarch has suddenly found himself in the world spotlight. Diplomats and Afghan opposition leaders are flocking to Rome to meet him, while inside Afghanistan hope is spreading rapidly that the King might come home.

Reliance on an elderly man who has not been in his native country for almost three decades is full of uncertainties. But precisely because he has been away so long, the King is seen to be the only Afghan leader who stands above the feuding parties and could function as a rallying point for the diverse and ravaged country. "The King has always maintained he would return to Afghanistan if the people wanted him," says Yusuf Nuristani, an aide to the monarch in Rome.

A scion of the Pashtun clan that had governed Afghanistan since 1747, the French-educated King ascended to the throne in 1933, ruling for 40 years of relative peace and prosperity. He was largely a figurehead monarch, with much of the decision making carried out by two of his uncles. In 1973 he was deposed in a coup by his cousin, Mohammad Daoud, and since then has lived in exile north of Rome. Although his restoration has been floated in the past as a way of uniting the feuding Afghans, Shah had shown little enthusiasm for reinserting himself into the country's affairs. As one of his advisers complained to a foreign diplomat: "We wanted to feed the King with a silver spoon, but he wouldn't even open his mouth."

Since the attacks on New York City and Washington, however, and the prospect of retaliation against terrorists in Afghanistan, the King has taken a more active role. The week after the Sept. 11 assault he issued a call for an emergency loya jirga, a traditional meeting of tribal and political leaders from all parts of Afghanistan, to set up an alternative to the radical Taliban. His proclamation, which was broadcast into Afghanistan by the Voice of America and BBC, appears to have galvanized many of the Afghans who have become disaffected with the extremes of the Taliban. "The King is not affiliated to one party; the people are looking forward to Zahir Shah's coming back," says Ismael Yoon, a professor of Pashtu literature at Kabul University who fled to Pakistan last week. Yoon was at home in Kabul when the King's words were broadcast. "People didn't know whom to look to," he says, "but once they heard Zahir Shah they saw there was a way."

Nobody expects the frail King to assume executive power. Rather the role many envisage for him would be "like a maraschino cherry on top of the cake," in the words of one Western diplomat, who says even a few statements from the King could make all the difference as Afghans seek a neutral symbol of unity. "The King is a kind of dream," says Francesc Vendrell, the U.N. special representative for Afghanistan. "He is a dream of a peaceful and stable past. He is the only leader who did not harm the Afghans." Vendrell, who returned to Pakistan last Wednesday after a visit to the King, adds, "I think the King senses this is an important moment. He has prepared himself mentally to return." The U.N. representative can foresee the King presiding over the emergency loya jirga, which would be supervised by the U.N. and lead to a broad-based interim government. Says Vendrell: "They need a government in which all ethnic and religious groups feel represented."

In recent weeks, the King has also been visited by a delegation from the European Parliament, a British M.P. and the U.S. chargé d'affaires in Rome. At week's end, representatives from Afghanistan's Northern Alliance, the Taliban's opposition, met with him in Rome and reportedly reached an agreement to establish two new councils to combat the Taliban. "Let's just say that over the past years there wasn't much serious attention paid to him," says Enrico de Maio, an Italian diplomat who is in close contact with the King. "Now it is different. There are Afghans coming from all over the world. They know which way the wind is blowing."