U.N. Envoy Warns No Quick Afghan Solution

08/05/2001| IslamWeb

ISLAMABAD (Islamweb & News Agencies) - United Nations special envoy for Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi (photo-left) said on Tuesday that after two days of talks with Pakistani officials and Afghan exiles he saw little prospect yet of progress on the country's problems.
Brahimi agreed with Pakistan's military ruler General Pervez Musharraf earlier that any future Afghan government must not allow its territory to become a base for hostile groups.
He met Musharraf for an hour for what his spokesman Eric Falt termed an ``in-depth discussion'' on the conflict in Afghanistan.
Musharraf and Brahimi, who has termed the September 11 attacks on the United States a ``wake-up call'' about the danger of allowing states such as Afghanistan to collapse, agreed on the basic principles of a future Afghan government, Falt said.
Brahimi and Musharraf agreed a settlement in Afghanistan would have to guarantee the territorial integrity of the country and any government would have to be devised by Afghans and reflect all groups in the diverse land, he said.
Brahimi faces a tough mission in his talks in Pakistan and then in Iran. Both Afghanistan's eastern and western neighbors are setting forth high demands for representation of the different ethnic groups they back in Afghanistan, analysts say.
Pakistan has insisted on a friendly government on its western border and -- over the objections of some countries -- has called for ``moderate'' Taliban to be included in a future government.
Pakistan was the main supporter of the Taliban until the September 11 attacks led Musharraf to back Washington in its campaign against the Taliban for sheltering bin Laden.