Powerful ethnic Uzbek warlord Gen Abdul Rashid Dostum said today he would boycott the interim Afghan government to be installed in Kabul.
Gen Dostum, whose forces dominate a swathe of northern territory including the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, said that his mainly Uzbek Junbish-i-Milli faction was not fairly represented under the landmark power-sharing deal signed in Bonn yesterday.
"We are very sad," Gen Dostum said from northern Afghanistan. "We announce our boycott of this government and will not go to Kabul until there is a proper government in place".
Gen Dostum said he had demanded that the foreign ministry be allocated to his faction, which is part of the militarily dominant Northern Alliance. Instead it got the portfolios of agriculture and mining and industry.
"This is a humiliation for us," he said, adding he would deny officials of the new government access to the north, where Afghanistan's oil and gas resources are located.