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U.N. Steps Up Afghan Initiative, U.S. Presses Northern Alliance
KABUL, Nov. 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - United Nations envoy Francesc Vendrell, deputy to U.N. special envoy Lakdhar Brahimi, arrived in Kabul on Saturday to promote plans to form a power-sharing council under the aegis of exiled former king Mohammed Zahir Shah, a Pashtun.
Brahimi said Friday he wanted the U.N.- backed conference, bringing together all factions in Afghanistan, to move forward next week.
The Northern Alliance agreed to the conference in principle, but wants it held in Kabul. The United Nations, however, insists that ethnic rivalries would be better served if it were convened at a neutral venue outside Afghanistan, reported BBC's online service.
Vendrell is scheduled to spend the next few days in Kabul seeking agreement from Northern Alliance leaders on an interim broad-based government.
The move comes as efforts to build a future government in Afghanistan are getting under way in earnest, as the Taliban appear to be largely in retreat in areas of the country they still control, reported the BBC.
Vendrell's visit coincides with the arrival of former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani in the city on Saturday; five years after the Taliban threw him out.
Rabbani said he welcomed the establishment of a broad-based government and said the Northern Alliance had not come to Kabul to rule.
Vendrell faces a difficult task identifying the commanders he wants to speak to and persuading them to take part in a U.N. conference on Afghanistan's future.
The U.N. has accused the Northern Alliance of delaying the start of talks on a new administration, BBC reported.
Vendrell on Saturday said that Rabbani would not automatically become leader in a new Afghanistan, where many groups reject his authority. While Rabbani's arrival in Kabul is deeply symbolic, many Afghans are unhappy at his return.
Vendrell's visit comes amid confusion over the position of the Taliban in the third of the country still under its control. A spokesman for the movement said they had no intention of surrendering their southern stronghold of Kandahar, despite reports of negotiations with local tribal leaders about a possible handover of power.
However, Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar is seeking a means to leave the city honorably to avoid it being subjected to further U.S. bombing, reported the
Independent.
Meanwhile, thousands of Taliban and al-Qa'eda fighters remain surrounded in the northern city of Kunduz as a Northern Alliance ultimatum for their surrender runs out. Witnesses said that U.S. B-52 and F-16 bombers were carrying out intensive raids on Taliban positions near the city on Sunday morning, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
In Washington, top U.S. officials are pressing the Northern Alliance (N.A.) to refrain from forming a government and meet their promise to let the United Nations help put together a multi-ethnic coalition to govern Afghanistan, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.
The increased pressure comes as ousted Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani returned to Kabul on Saturday. Rabbani had earlier promised U.S. officials that he would stay out of Kabul for several weeks, according to
The Los Angeles Times.
U.S. officials fear that Rabbani will put together a government that will exclude majority ethnic Pashtuns. Such a move may result in another round of internal warfare similar to the unrest that wracked the country since the expulsion of Soviet forces in 1989.
The United Nations has recognized Rabbani's presidency since 1996, but has warned his Northern Alliance supporters against pushing their case too far.
"The fact is that Kabul fell much more quickly than any of us expected," a senior U.S. official told
The New York Times.
Rabbani spoke to reporters in Kabul on Saturday. "We will try to form a broad-based government as soon as possible," said Rabbani. He added that "the victory does not belong to one ethnic group but all Afghan people."
The former president said publicly that he wants a settlement, but he appears to be trying to limit the role of foreign troops in Afghanistan. His foreign minister, Abdullah, said foreign troops such as the British force which arrived at Bagram airbase north of Kabul on Thursday were welcome in small numbers, so long as their mission was primarily humanitarian.
But he made it clear there was no need to see an extension of their presence or mandate.
The British Foreign Office told the BBC there are no plans to pull British soldiers out of Afghanistan, despite Northern Alliance demands for the withdrawal of troops near Kabul.
Jamiat-e-Islami, Rabbani's faction, complained they were not consulted before British special forces soldiers landed at Bagram airbase. But Foreign Office Minister Ben Bradshaw said they were just one small faction, and insisted the 100 troops - believed to be from the Special Boat Service (SBS) - were welcomed by people "in the loop".
"We're perfectly content that the Northern Alliance spokespeople who matter are content for them to be there," he told the BBC. "They're doing an important job securing the airport for future humanitarian and international diplomatic missions."
Jamiat-e-Islami had demanded that 85 of the troops pull out, leaving just 15 to carry out humanitarian tasks. But Bradshaw said there had been no official request to leave the airbase and there were no plans to pull out British troops.
British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon earlier denied British soldiers were deployed in Afghanistan without the knowledge of the Northern Alliance.
The Alliance faction said the feelings of the Afghan people and neighboring countries had to be taken into consideration before a large military deployment could be sanctioned.
Many ordinary Afghans are understood to want an international peacekeeping force to guarantee security in the capital and elsewhere and prevent a return to civil war.
Engineer Arif, deputy chief of intelligence for the Jamiat, said "There are 85 of them [British troops] who have come without any prior co-ordination in the name of humanitarian aid led by the United Nations. "Our decision is that 15 of them can stay and the others go. If they accept 15 people then they can stay, otherwise all of them need to go."
Talks between the British Foreign Secretary and a senior member of the Northern Alliance, due to take place on Saturday, have been postponed over "logistical" difficulties.
Jack Straw and the Alliance's Foreign Minister, Abdullah Abdullah, were due to discuss the make-up of a future Afghan government. The Foreign Office said the telephone conversation would now take place within the next few days, BBC reported.
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