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Afghan leaders` meeting likely at weekend: Pak
A planned UN-supervised meeting of Afghan leaders to discuss the future of their war-torn country could be held this weekend at a still undecided venue, Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar said on Monday.
A planned UN-supervised meeting of Afghan leaders to discuss the future of their war-torn country could be held this weekend at a still undecided venue, Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar said on Monday.
He told a news conference that the meeting was due to be held "some time later this week", and said it could be held "around the 24th of this month".
Sattar said the United Nations would select the Afghans to be invited to the meeting, which he said would be the first of a five-step process planned by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special representative on Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, leading to the formation of a post-Taliban Afghan government.
The process would include a subsequent larger meeting of a "provisional council" to discuss the formation of a transitional administration that would govern Afghanistan for up to two years and culminate with a grand assembly to form the future government.
In a related development, U.N. special envoy Francesc Vendrell pressed on with a round of meetings with Afghan leaders in Kabul on Monday but his spokesman said there had been no breakthrough in organising the planned political gathering.
U.N. spokesman Eric Falt said in Kabul that Vendrell had yet to reach an agreement with the Northern Alliance, now in control of the capital, on a meeting of all Afghan political groups that the United Nations hopes to arrange outside Afghanistan.
"We would like to convene this meeting as fast as is humanly possible," Falt told reporters in Kabul. "When we get an agreement with the Northern Alliance it could happen in a matter of days."
Vendrell met Northern Alliance Defence Minister Muhammed Fahim on Monday. Since his arrival on Saturday he has also held talks with Alliance leader Buhanuddin Rabbani, Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and leaders of the majority Pashtun community.
The Northern Alliance has said it would prefer round-table talks on a framework for a future broad-based government to take place in its Kabul stronghold.
But Abdullah said in Uzbekistan on Sunday the meeting could take place abroad, as demanded by the U.N. to allay the concerns of some Afghan ethnic and political factions deeply suspicious of the Alliance. Possible neutral venues in Europe include Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Falt said Vendrell would meet diplomats from Russia, Iran and Britain in Kabul later on Monday.
Bureau Report
He told a news conference that the meeting was due to be held "some time later this week", and said it could be held "around the 24th of this month".
Sattar said the United Nations would select the Afghans to be invited to the meeting, which he said would be the first of a five-step process planned by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special representative on Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, leading to the formation of a post-Taliban Afghan government.
The process would include a subsequent larger meeting of a "provisional council" to discuss the formation of a transitional administration that would govern Afghanistan for up to two years and culminate with a grand assembly to form the future government.
In a related development, U.N. special envoy Francesc Vendrell pressed on with a round of meetings with Afghan leaders in Kabul on Monday but his spokesman said there had been no breakthrough in organising the planned political gathering.
U.N. spokesman Eric Falt said in Kabul that Vendrell had yet to reach an agreement with the Northern Alliance, now in control of the capital, on a meeting of all Afghan political groups that the United Nations hopes to arrange outside Afghanistan.
"We would like to convene this meeting as fast as is humanly possible," Falt told reporters in Kabul. "When we get an agreement with the Northern Alliance it could happen in a matter of days."
Vendrell met Northern Alliance Defence Minister Muhammed Fahim on Monday. Since his arrival on Saturday he has also held talks with Alliance leader Buhanuddin Rabbani, Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and leaders of the majority Pashtun community.
The Northern Alliance has said it would prefer round-table talks on a framework for a future broad-based government to take place in its Kabul stronghold.
But Abdullah said in Uzbekistan on Sunday the meeting could take place abroad, as demanded by the U.N. to allay the concerns of some Afghan ethnic and political factions deeply suspicious of the Alliance. Possible neutral venues in Europe include Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Falt said Vendrell would meet diplomats from Russia, Iran and Britain in Kabul later on Monday.
Bureau Report