New UN envoy on Afghanistan to visit Pakistan on Feb. 3

ISLAMABAD (NNI): United Nations Secretary Generals new envoy for Afghanistan Francesc Vendrell will embark on his first visit to Pakistan and Afghanistan on February 3, UN spokesperson said Friday.

Stephanie Bunker told reporters that Mr. Vendrell will be in the region for a couple of days to familiarize himself of the situation.

UN Secretary General appointed Mr. Vendrell as his Personal Representative and Head of the Special Mission to Afghanistan at the rank of Assistant Secretary General earlier this week.

During his stay in the region the new UN envoy is likely to hold talks with Pakistan and Afghan officials as well as diplomats about the situation in Afghanistan and the UN peace efforts and humanitarian activities in the war-torn country.

Mr. Vendrell of Spain replaced Lakhdar Brahimi, who resigned as Personal Representative of the UN secretary general for Afghanistan in last October. Brahimi had blamed Taliban for their unwillingness to find out a negotiated settlement to the long-standing hostilities in Afghanistan.

The new UN envoy, who is the 8th UN envoy for Afghanistan in last ten years, faces one of the most tough tasks to broker any peace deal to put an end to the 20-year of Afghan conflict.

Mr. Vendrells seven predecessors failed to broker any peace deal between the warring factions despite their hectic efforts. He will take over the job from February 1st and plans to visit Islamabad during March.

The new envoy, who had been the deputy representative of the UN Secretary General for East Timor, will now try to end the deadlock in the peace talks in Afghanistan. The main objective of Frances Vendrell will be to provide help to different Afghan groups to resolve the Afghan conflict through negotiations to establish a broad-based government in Afghanistan. The Taliban government, which controls 90 percent area in Afghanistan, does not want to resume peace talks with opposition. Earlier the efforts of the "six plus two" group were failed to bring peace in Afghanistan.

The relations between the UN and Afghanistan were improved after the UN decided to send its workers back to Kabul in last March. The relations between two sides deteriorated after the UN Security Council imposed US-sponsored economic sanctions against Afghanistan over the Osama issue. Angry mobs attacked UN offices in several Afghan towns in reaction to the sanctions.

Now the new Afghan envoy had to work not only for finding out a solution to the long-standing conflict but to restore confidence of the Afghan nation in the United Nations, as Afghans consider the world bodys as hostile and under the influence of Washington.

Former UN envoys for Afghanistan included Perez de Cuellar (Peru), Digo Cordovez (Ecuador), Benon Sevan (Cyprus), Sotirious Mousouris (Greece), Nobart Hall (German), Mahmood Mestiri (Tunisia) and Lakhdar Brahimi (Algeria).