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Before the U.S.

Posted on 11/10/2009 at 9:17 PM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

UNITED NATIONS - Envoys from Russia, the United States and Afghanistan's six neighbors intend to meet in the Afghan capital Kabul next week as part of the global effort to help rebuild the central Asian nation after the collapse of its Taliban leadership, a U.S. official said on Tuesday.

The meeting, to wholesale pearl jewelry take place at the ambassadorial level, would be the second by the so-called ``Six Plus Two'' group - composed of Afghanistan's neighbors China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan plus Moscow and Washington - since the Sept. 11 hijack attacks on the United States.

The group has been meeting for years in the international search for a political solution to the crisis in Afghanistan. But its members have been speaking with more of a unified voice since the Taliban's collapse following a U.S. military campaign.

Washington began bombing Afghanistan three months ago, accusing the Taliban of shielding Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network, blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Kabul meeting has been approved by Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N. special representative for Afghanistan, the cultured freshwater pearl U.S. official said. There was no word on the meeting from the United Nations and no specific date was given.

Before the U.S. war in Afghanistan, the group was repeatedly criticized by U.N. officials - who helped organize it - including Brahimi, for arming combatants in Afghanistan while professing to talk peace.

But on Nov. 12 as the Afghan Northern Alliance advanced on Kabul, foreign ministers of the eight nations met during the U.N. General Assembly session to tin cup pearl necklace discuss a broad-based government to replace the Taliban and said the United Nations should play a central role in the transition process.

Brahimi has proposed that the group be expanded to 21 nations, by adding India, France, Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Turkey, Britain, Egypt, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. But there has been no word about whether the group would be enlarged.

Moscow supplied an estimated dlrs 34

Posted on 11/10/2009 at 9:12 PM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

MOSCOW - Visiting Afghan Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim on Wednesday toured a Russian airfield where the latest models of combat planes are being developed.

Fahim's delegation visited the Gromov Flight Research Institute in Zhukovsky, outside of Moscow, said Andrei Kuznetsov, spokesman for the Defense Ministry. They were briefed on warplanes being developed by Russia's MiG aircraft corporation, according to pearl wholesale the Interfax-Military News Agency.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, who met with Fahim earlier this week, said Russia was prepared to bolster Afghanistan's military capability by providing technical help and spare parts for its Soviet-built weapons. He said Russia was also ready to supply training aircraft for Afghan military pilots and transport helicopters.

Following the 1979-89 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the Kremlin was a key arms supplier for the anti-Taliban forces in the late 1990s.

Last year, Moscow supplied an estimated dlrs 34 million worth of Soviet-era weapons to the Afghan forces fighting the Taliban.

Fahim, on a seven-day trip to Russia, has said repeatedly that he isn't looking for more weapons. However, he has said he freshwater pearl bracelet would welcome assistance in building a national army that could fairly represent all Afghans and ensure that Afghanistan never again becomes a training ground for terrorists.

An ethnic Tajik, Fahim was a close ally of the late Northern Alliance military leader Ahmed Shah Massood. He was chosen to akoya pearl necklace replace Massood after his assassination in September.

Afghan Interior Minister Younus Qanooni was due to arrive in Moscow on Friday, the 13th anniversary of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. But his visit has been postponed until late February, the Interfax news agency reported. Interfax also said that Afghanistan's foreign minister, Abdullah, would visit Moscow before interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai's visit, which is tentatively scheduled for early March.

Under heavy international pressure

Posted on 11/10/2009 at 9:03 PM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Under heavy international pressure to share power, the alliance's foreign minister, Abdullah, said all Afghan factions - except the Taliban - were invited to Kabul to negotiate a new government. The alliance also asked the United Nations to send teams to help the peace process, he said.

The top U.N. envoy for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, outlined for the Security Council on Tuesday a plan for a two-year transitional government run by Afghans and backed by a multinational security force.

Abdullah said most alliance troops had stayed on the edge of the capital and that a smaller force had entered only to akoya pearl jewelry keep the peace and prevent lawlessness after Taliban fighters slipped out of the city under cover of night.

But there were concerns over reprisals by alliance fighters. Heavily armed troops roamed the city, hunting Taliban stragglers and their Arab allies from Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida movement. At least 11 Pakistanis and Arabs fighting for the Taliban were slain.

The official said an armed force of Pashtuns - the ethnic group that has made up the backbone of the Taliban - were moving against the Taliban near the southern city of Kandahar, the militia's birthplace and headquarters. The official would not elaborate.

At least 200 Taliban fighters mutinied in Kandahar, and fighting broke out by the city's airport, a Taliban official, Mullah Najibullah, said at the Pakistani border at Chaman.

The Taliban supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, made a radio address denouncing deserters and urging his followers to fight, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press reported.

Alliance Interior Minister Yunis Qanoni said 3,000 security troops were deployed in the city to freshwater pearl maintain order and guard the offices of international agencies. Some offices, including those of the Red Cross and the embassy of Pakistan, have been looted.

Abdullah defended the alliance move into Kabul, saying that after the Taliban left, armed ``irresponsible people'' caused disturbances. ``There was no option for us but to send our security forces into Kabul,'' he said.

The opposition alliance is largely made up of ethnic minorities, particularly Tajiks and Uzbeks, and is burdened with a past of factional fighting that killed some 50,000 people in Kabul when they last held the city, from 1992 to 1996.

The alliance's special security troops drove into the capital in cars festooned with pictures of their late commander Ahmed Shah Massood, who was killed in September in a suicide bombing.

Abdullah said the deposed president, Burhanuddin Rabbani, would return to Kabul ``when necessary.''

The U.N. envoy, Brahimi, called for a meeting as soon as possible between the northern alliance and other factions to pearl wholesale agree on the framework for a transition to a new government.

I urge you all to forge a truly historic compromise

Posted on 11/10/2009 at 9:01 PM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer opened the conference at a luxury hotel overlooking the Rhine River with an appeal to deliver peace and stability to pearl necklace the Afghan people.

"I urge you all to forge a truly historic compromise that holds out a better future for your torn country and its people," Fischer said. "The international community is prepared to make this great effort," but only if its expectations are met.

The delegates must agree on binding rules for a future political system and respect for human rights, particularly for women, Fischer said.
"Their active participation in the social and political life of the nation is essential for the country's peaceful future," Fischer said.

The northern alliance, which comes to the talks in a position of strength after ousting the Taliban from much of Afghanistan, said they would not use their battlefield victories to seek advantage.

"It is not our pride to monopolize power. It will be our pride to work for a broad-based government based on the will of the people of Afghanistan," the northern alliance delegation leader Younus Qanooni said.

At the foot of Petersberg hill where delegates met, about 30 Afghan women protested for greater women's rights in their country. About 300 supporters of the exiled former king also demonstrated, many carrying photos of a younger Zaher Shah in a military uniform.

The former king's grandson, Mostapha Zaher, descended from Petersberg to Keishi pearl greet the crowd, speaking privately with some. He told reporters that talks were proceeding in a friendly atmosphere and expressed optimism they would succeed.

"We are going to get peace. That's what we came for," Zaher said. "There will be a result. It will be for the good of the Afghan nation."

Before the conference opened, Ahmad Fawzi, the U.N. spokesman for Afghanistan, said that the Afghan groups must wrap up the talks in less than a week. The United Nations had previously said it would allow the talks to continue as long as necessary.

"Now we see the need for the Afghan groups to agree as soon as possible," Fawzi said by telephone Tuesday.

"We have no illusions that we'll resolve the problems of Afghanistan in three days. We are looking at a timeframe of three to five days for the Afghan groups to decide on an interim authority."

He said the mood before the talks was "workmanlike, serious and committed."

The talks at a secluded luxury hotel across the river from Bonn, Germany, are seen as a historic opportunity to stabilize Afghanistan and avert a repeat of fighting between rival warlords after they drove out Soviet occupiers in 1989.

Germany, which has taken a lead role in organizing aid to cultured pearl Afghanistan, will hold a meeting Dec. 5-6 in Berlin where donor nations will discuss how to deliver additional humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. Another conference on reconstructing the country will be held in Tokyo in January, Fischer said.

The push to provide aid is meant to underscore that the U.S. bombing is not against the Afghan people but at suspected targets linked to Osama bin Laden and his terror network, blamed by Washington for the Sept. 11 attacks.

Russian Foreign Ministry

Posted on 11/10/2009 at 8:49 PM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

MOSCOW - Afghanistan's interim prime minister Hamid Karzai arrived Monday evening in Moscow for talks with President Vladimir Putin and other officials on Russian help rebuilding the Afghan military and infrastructure.

Karzai, leading a large government delegation, was to meet Tuesday with Putin in the Kremlin. Karzai was also expected to potato pearl meet Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and the speaker of the lower house of Russia's parliament, Gennady Seleznyov, the Afghan Embassy said.

Russian aid for rebuilding Afghanistan was expected to dominate talks. They were also likely to address joint efforts in fighting drug trafficking and terrorism.

Russia, which has supported the U.S.-led anti-terror operation, has been eager to build close ties with the new Afghan government, including by helping rebuild the military. Numerous Afghan officials have visited Moscow in recent weeks.

Russia provided military aid to the opposition alliance fighting Afghanistan's Taliban militia for the past few years. Since the U.S.-led military campaign began last fall, Russia has also contributed dlrs 12 million in sterling silver jewelry humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, the Interfax news agency reported.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovlenko called on Karzai to push for full implementation of the agreement on Afghanistan's government reached last year in Germany.

"The interim administration in Afghanistan can make a significant contribution to the creation of conditions allowing all Afghans to exercise their right to the freedom of expression of their will and self-determination," he said, according to ITAR-Tass news agency.

Yakovlenko also called for international peacekeeping troops in Afghanistan to "strictly abide" by their mandate and be careful about talks on revising that mandate.

Karzai's visit came as U.S. fighter jets pounded the mountains of eastern Afghanistan on Monday to try to cultured pearl jewelry wipe out any remnants of al-Qaida holdouts hiding in a warren of caves. Karzai sent up to 1,000 additional troops to the region, which he called the "last main base" of al-Qaida and Taliban in Afghanistan.