Northern Alliance, Iran to Coordinate Stance on Afghan Future

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, November 22, 2001

Northern Alliance, Iran to Coordinate Stance on Afghan Future

Afghan Northern Alliance Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah is due to arrive in Tehran Wednesday evening to review the latest regional developments with senior Iranian officials, Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi announced.

During his stay, Abdullah is expected to discuss with his Iranian counterpart Kamal Kharazi on the latest situation and prospect of the future developments in Afghanistan, Asefi told the official IRNA news agency.

Iran has welcomed the victory of the Northern Alliance under President Burhanuddin Rabbani in Kabul and other major parts of the country and recognizes the government of Rabbani, ousted by the Taliban militia in 1996, as the sole legitimate government.

Analysts here predicted that coordination of stance with Iranian senior officials on a planned multi-party conference in Berlin, Germany next week on the future of Afghanistan might be Abdullah's main task in Tehran.

Under the U.N. coordination, rival anti-Taliban factions including the Northern Alliance and representatives of exiled former king Mohammed Zahir Shah, widely seen as the only figure capable of unifying the country, have agreed to attend the U.N.- sponsored meeting scheduled to start next Monday.

U.N. special envoy to Afghanistan Francesc Vendrell, a chief architect of the Berlin conference, said he hoped the meeting would lead to "a peaceful, united Afghanistan, completely independent, self-governing, with a government that represents the genuine views of the people."

However, Rabbani on Wednesday warned against expecting too much from a highly touted multi-party conference, saying that he saw the talks as "insignificant."

"The most vital problems have to be discussed within Afghanistan, and not outside its border" and "We hope that this will be the last conference of its sort to be held outside Afghanistan", he said.

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