Kofi Anan sees hope in Afghan peace efforts

The News: Jang 12 Jan)

CAIRO: A UN official was quoted on Sunday as saying new contacts between Iran and each of Pakistan and the United States were brightening the Afghan peace prospects.

Lakhdar Brahimi, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Envoy for Afghanistan, told the London-based Arabic-language daily al-Hayat he had brought together the US and Iranian officials in New York recently to discuss Afghanistan. He said it was the first such meeting since the two countries severed diplomatic ties in 1980, but did not say exactly when it took place or identify the participants.

Brahimi said the US-Iranian talks and contacts between Iranian and Pakistani leaders on the sidelines of last month's Islamic summit in Tehran were positive developments. "If we achieve serious cooperation between Iran and Pakistan, it will be a very big step towards a real solution," he said.

The UN envoy said he believed that thanks to the US-Iranian meeting "the Iranians see that the Americans do not support the Taleban or any other faction, but are seeking with us solutions to end the crisis and this war." The opposition alliance on Saturday accepted a Taleban proposal for a commission of Ulema to hold peace talks, but said other people should also be consulted. An alliance spokesman said the ousted president Burhanuddin Rabbani had consulted all alliance leaders on the proposal, on his return from a recent tour of Pakistan, Iran and Tajikistan.

The Taleban proposed the formation of the commission of Islamic scholars from both warring sides in talks with the Pakistani mediators last month in the southern Afghan town of Kandahar. Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign minister, briefed the Security Council on Thursday on his mission for Annan. He said his report to Annan proposed an embargo to cut off arms supplies to Afghan factions, although this would be hard to implement due to long and mountainous Afghan borders. He suggested talks between all of Afghanistan's neighbours as well as Russia and the United States to discuss how to stop the flow of weapons into the country.

Brahimi was quoted as saying the United States and Europe were showing greater concern about Afghanistan, a source of narcotics, a base for religious militants and a possible route for oil and gas pipelines from Central Asia to Pakistan. This renewed US and European interest "translates into an awareness of the Afghan issue among neighbouring countries which had been pouring fuel on the fire", he said. Brahimi said Saudi Arabia backed the idea of peace talks between Islamic scholars. The Saudis, he said, had also discussed Afghanistan with Iranian leaders at the Islamic summit in Tehran. Russia's position was similar to that of Iran, he added.