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Afghan Conflict Parties Agree to U.N.-Brokered Dialogue
The warring parties of the Afghan conflict have agreed to enter into a process of dialogue under U.N. auspices to bring about an end to the armed conflict in Afghanistan through political means, a high-ranking U.N. official said Friday.
The two sides, the Taliban and the opposition Northern Alliance, agreed that "this process will be conducted, either by means of direct meetings between their respective negotiating commissions with the active participation of the (U.N.) secretary-general or his personal representative, or indirectly through the intermediary of the secretary-general or his personal representative," said the official.
"Each side undertakes to be represented in the dialogue by a high level, duly authorized commission," Secretary-General Kofi Annan's personal representative and head of the U.N. special mission to Afghanistan Fancesc Vendrell told a press conference.
"The two sides undertake to participate in the dialogue with serious intent and in good faith and not to abandon the process unilaterally but rather to pursue it without interruption until the negotiating agenda, to be agreed by the two sides, is exhausted," Vendrell quoted the written agreement as saying.
He said the agreement was reached after a series of his meetings with the two parties and regional governments recently.
Vendrell, who briefed the U.N. Security Council on the latest developments in Afghanistan, will attend a "Six Plus Two" meeting on Afghanistan Friday afternoon.
Afghanistan has been plagued by a bloody civil war since the Islamic factions toppled the former pro-Soviet government in 1992.
The government headed by President Burhanuddin Rabbani was ousted in 1996 by the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban militia, which has gained control over 90 percent of the country.
The "Six Plus Two" group, comprising Afghanistan's six neighbors of China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan plus Russia and the United States, has been calling for a settlement of the Afghan conflict through talks.
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