Afghan Peace talks resume

Press, 26 February 1987, Page 7

Afghan Peace talks resume

NZPA-Reuter Geneva United Nationssponsored talks on the withdrawal of US,OM Soviet troops from Afghanistan reopen in Geneva today, with Kabul’s envoy saying he has new Initiatives for the meeting. The Afghan Foreign Minister, Abdul Wakil, said on the eve of the talks: “The positions we have adopted make us optimistic. We will do everything to reach a settlement.” A timetable for the removal of Soviet troops is the only issue left to be resolved in a fourpoint United Nations peace plan. Soviet troops moved into Afghanistan in December, 1979, to replace a tottering communist Government — under pressure from Muslim guerrillas — with a more pro-Moscow faction.

The guerrillas have kept up their campaign from bases inside the Pakistani and Iranian borders. They are supplied by the United States, China, Iran and Saudi Arabia. The Geneva talks are held through a U.N. special envoy, Diego Cordovez, who mediates between the Afghan and Pakistani delegations. The talks, which began

in 1982, resume after a flurry .of diplomatic activity to end the conflict Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Sahabzada Yaqub Khan, who heads his country’s delegation to the talks, recently had talks in Moscow. Other recent visitors to the Soviet Union included Mr Cordovez, the Iranian Foreign Minister, All Akbar Velayati, Afghan Prime Minister, Sultan All Kishtmand, and Mr WakiL The Soviet Union has spoken in favour of a complete troop pull-out from Afghanistan, although it has said it will not abandon the Government. Until now, Kabul has advocated a four-year troop withdrawal period, after the flow of outside supplies to the rebels is halted, while Pakistan has pressed for a period of three to four months. The four-point United Nations peace plan calls for: — support for the rebels to stop; the return home of some five million Afghan refugees now in Pakistan and Iran; the United States and Soviet Union to oversee and guarantee the plan; and a timetable for the withdrawal of Soviet troops. Mr Cordovez has said the first three points have been agreed.