Preliminary talks on setting up a new Afghan government began on a note of urgency in Germany on Tuesday, ahead of a UN-sponsored conference seen as a historic opportunity to end decades of bloodshed in Afghanistan. We need to get a transitional authority in the country as soon as possible. We can't spend a lot of time on this, United Nations spokesman Ahmad Fawzi told a press conference at the talks venue near Bonn.
The people of Afghanistan have been disappointed in the past, we certainly hope they will not be disappointed again.
Outlining the agenda of the inter-Afghan talks, Fawzi said delegates would first tackle the setting up of a transitional administration in Afghanistan, an interim government that would pave the way for a Loya Jirga, or a 'grand assembly' of tribal chieftains, that would in turn convene to hammer out a new Constitution. The Afghan delegates, from four camps including the now-dominant Northern Alliance and the Rome-based former King Mohammed Zahir Shah, would then move on to the thorny point of security in post-Taliban Afghanistan.
The question of security will be the second item and will be of paramount importance, said the spokesman for UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, the Algerian diplomat who convened the talks.
The most viable option is a multinational force with UN mandate, that is to say a mandate from the Security Council, Fawzi said, adding preliminary discussions with delegates already here were underway.
Bureau Report