Afghanistan's new leader, Hamid Karzai, has arrived in the capital, Kabul, officials at the presidential palace said early on Thursday.
Karzai, named interim leader at a UN-brokered conference of Afghanistan's factions last month in Germany, had not been in Kabul since his appointment. A tribal leader, he remained with his men during the fight for Kandahar, the southern Afghan city abandoned by the Taliban last Friday. Karzai had stayed in Kandahar for the past several days to negotiate and implement a power-sharing accord among rival factions in the city. By Wednesday, order was beginning to return to the former Taliban stronghold.
The government organised a journalists' convoy to the palace to meet with Karzai early on Thursday. Kabul is under overnight curfew. They said several other members of Karzai's government, including Foreign Minister Abdullah and Defence Minister Mohammed Fahim, were on hand to greet him. Karzai's government is to take power on Dec 22.
Afghanistan's nominal president, Burhanuddin Rabbani, had told journalists on Wednesday that Karzai's arrival was imminent. Rabbani, who was president before the Taliban took power, is the de facto leader now, but agreed to hand over power to the interim government in exchange for his party being granted key ministries. Rabbani said he supported the appointment of Karzai himself but objected to the allocation of other posts in the government. Other factions, including several key warlords, have also complained about the division of power.
Bureau Report