Italy Contemplates Opening Embassy in Kabul

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, November 30, 2001

Italy Contemplates Opening Embassy in Kabul

Italy is stepping up plans to open an embassy in Kabul and will send diplomats to Afghanistan in the coming days on an exploratory mission, Foreign Minister Renato Ruggiero said Thursday.

Italy is stepping up plans to open an embassy in Kabul and will send diplomats to Afghanistan in the coming days on an exploratory mission, Foreign Minister Renato Ruggiero said Thursday.

"The objective of the mission is to explore, and doesn't represent recognition for or the legitimacy of the situation in Kabul," Ruggiero told a parliamentary foreign affairs commission.

The diplomats are attached to Italy's embassy in Tehran in neighbouring Iran and will leave either Sunday or Tuesday, he said.

Ruggiero's deputy, Margherita Boniver, will also visit Kabul shortly, he added.

The Northern Alliance militia took control of the capital from the ousted Taliban regime earlier this month with the help of US air strikes.

The alliance and other Afghan factions are currently locked in talks in Bonn to forge an interim government.

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