Iran welcomes ceasefire in Afghanistan

Sat 18 Apr 98 - 11:55 GMT

TEHRAN, April 18 (AFP) - The Iranian foreign ministry Saturday hailed the Taliban's commitment to a US-brokered ceasefire in Afghanistan as a step toward ending the 18-year-long civil war, Radio Tehran reported.

"If the Taliban agree to a truce and negotiations with the opposition this will be a positive development," ministry spokesman Mahmud Mohammadi said.

Iran "still wanted a truce and inter-Afghan talks to halt the crisis," he was quoted by the radio as saying.

Tehran "is ready to cooperate with the United Nations and the Organization of the Islamic Conference" to help, he added.

The US ambassador to the United Nations, Bill Richardson, the most senior western official to visit Afghanistan in 20 years, announced Friday he had secured a 10-day ceasefire and an agreement from the Afghan opposition forces and the Taliban to hold talks by April 27.

The talks would be held under the auspices of the United Nations and the Organisation of Islamic Conference.

He cobbled together the agreement after meeting separately with the puritanical Moslem Taliban, which controls more than two thirds of Afghanistan, and their northern opponents, former president Burhanuddin Rabbani, ethnic-Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostam and the leader of the Shiite Hezb-i-Wahdat faction, Karim Khalili.

Richardson later went to Pakistan, where his visit included talks on Afghanistan.

Pakistan is considered the chief backer of the Sunni Moslem Taliban while Shiite Moslem Iran supports an anti-Taliban alliance and still recognizes the ousted Rabbani as Afghan president.

The Taliban, or "theology students," drove Rabbani from the capital, Kabul, in September 1996 and are pushing to seize the rest of the country and set up an Islamic state.

UN envoy to Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi said in Tehran Tuesday that a peaceful solution to the conflict in Afghanistan will not be possible without the cooperation of both Pakistan and Iran.

"The problem of peace in Afghanistan is first of all the problem of its neighbors. Since Iran and Pakistan refuse to pull in the same direction, there will be problems," Brahimi told AFP.

He added that a rapid end to the conflict depended on Afghanistan's neighbors halting weapons shipments to the warring parties.

Iran's special envoy for Afghanistan, Allaedin Borudjerdi, said Sunday that it was too optimistic to expect a quick end to the conflict.

Since there is no consensus among the countries in the region against a military solution, and in support of interAfghan negotiations and a coalition government, it would be too optimistic to speak of a quick end to the conflict, he said during talks with Brahimi.